Turn it in Check

Brandon Aning

POLS 201-02

Dr. Nyiri

26 April 2018

Political Intolerance in Ghana

Political intolerance is the unwillingness to tolerate the ideas and opinions that are different from one’s political ideas and opinions. Political intolerance is a political problem in many countries across the globe. Ghana is one of the countries struggling with this problem. Ghana is a country in the Gulf of Guinea which gained independence in 1957 from the British rule. Various factors in Ghana have contributed to political intolerance prevailing in this country, and various studies have documented this problem which has adverse consequences on the country’s well-being.

Ghana

Ghana, commonly known as the Republic Ghana, is a country in West Africa with a total area of 238, 535 kilometers square (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). This country is situated on the Gulf of Guinea, few degrees north of the equator. Ghana stretches 560 kilometers of its Atlantic coastline to the south in the Atlantic Ocean. The Prime Meridian passes through this country in Tema and more than any other country. Ghana is closer to the Earth’s center given its geographic coordinates. Ghana borders the country of Burkina Faso to the North, Atlantic Ocean to the South, Ivory Coast to the West and Togo to the East (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). Ghana's current population is approximately 25.5 million people with Ashanti Region having the highest population and Upper West Region the lowest population.

The dominant physical features include grasslands, shrublands, and forests. It also consists plains, low hills, waterfalls, and rivers (Berry, 1995). Also, the largest artificial lake is located in Ghana, Lake Volta. Also, On the Atlantic Ocean Ghanaian Coast are the Bobowasi and Dobi Islands. Further, Ghana has the Cape Three Points located to the northern and southernmost parts of Ghana. Additionally, the country has various wildlife present in the national parks and zoos even though the wildlife population is drastically reducing as habitat continues to reduce dues to encroachment by humans. Due to the location of Ghana few degrees to the north Equator, its climate is tropical, and the country has two seasons including the dry and the wet seasons (Berry, 1995).

The present Republic of Ghana‘s territory dates back to the 11th century. Over the centuries, man empires and kingdoms emerged (Ghana Web, n.d.). By the 9th century, Ghana was recognized as a great kingdom in Bilad el-Sudan. In the Middle and Discovery ages, Ghana was predominantly occupied by ancient Akan kingdoms in the central and southern territories including the Mankessim kingdom, Akwamu, Denkyira, Bonoman, and the Ashanti Empire (Ghana Web, n.d.). The Akans in the 13th century emerged from supposedly Bonoman area establishing the several Ghanaian states based on trade on gold. The states established include the Bonoman, Denkyira, Akwamu, Mankessim, and Ashanti. In the 19th century, the Ghanaian Southern part territory got incorporated into the Ashanti kingdom, becoming one of the most inferential states before the beginning of the colonial period in Sub-Saharan Africa. At first, the government in the Ashanti kingdom operated as a loose network and developed to centralized one with a high and advanced specialized bureaucracy (Ghana Web, n.d.).

Beginning in the 15th century, several European powers began venturing into the Ghanaian territory. The early European powers who came into the region were the Portuguese who came into the Gold Coast area for trade, but they eventually established the Portuguese Gold Coast (Ghana Web, n.d.). In the 19th century, the British were the ultimate power establishing control over present Ghana. However, the natives began resisting the British control, and after a long time of struggle, Ghana gained independence of the United Kingdom in 1957 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). The territory became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to break free from the colonial rule. Nkrumah declared the establishment and autonomy of Ghana. In 1960, Ghana held a Ghanaian constitutional referendum and presidential election electing Nkrumah as the first Ghanaian President and declared the country as a Republic. The current Ghanaian borders were created as the British Gold Coast in the 1900s (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018).

Ghana’s political system is a presidential representative democratic republic system in which the Ghanaian President is the head of state and government and the head of the multi-party system (Berry, 1995). Thus, Ghana is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy and has the parliamentary system of multi-party. Since Ghana gained independence from the British control to January 1993, it alternated between military and civilian government, but the military government in January 1993 paved the way for the Fourth Ghanaian Republic following the late 1992 presidential and parliamentary elections (Berry, 1995). The Ghanaian Constitution of 1992 separated powers among the executive branch, the legislature, and the judiciary which is an independent body. The government exercises the executive power, the government and parliament exercise the legislative power, and the judiciary is independent of the other two bodies (Berry, 1995). The universal suffrage elects the Ghanaian government after every four years, and the Akufo-Addo is the current Ghanaian president elected in the 2016 elections (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018).

Political Intolerance in Ghana

Political intolerance is the unwillingness to endure the disagreeable groups and ideas (Gibson, 2007). The Ghanaian political landscape displays too much political intolerance suggesting that the country is doing little to grow its democracy. The recent explosion of open-ended in-fighting in Ghana in the National Democratic Congress and all manners of comments from the functionaries aligned to the main players against the factions supporting Rawlings indicate the heightened political intolerance level in Ghana (Bokor, 2011b). Political intolerance in Ghana slowly creeps from unheard damaging backbiting and gossips through schemes meant to undercut the political opponents to open physical confrontations, selective sabotage, verbal exchange, and recruitment of thus for molesting political rivals.

According to Bokor (2011c), the ethnic sentiments mischief resulting from frustrations and pure personal hatred nourishes the political intolerance in Ghana. The inability for politicians to win political office in elections, the inability of one’s preferred politician or political party is not in power, lack of self-fulfillment in politics, and pure hatred for those holding political office are the sources of frustration that leads to political intolerance. However, these are not the only factors facilitating the increasing political intolerance in Ghana.

Bokor (2011c) further adds that political intolerance in Ghana is due to various complicated elements much of which can be traced to how Ghana conducts its politics. Politicians in Ghana have constructed politics a do-and-die matter and most of them invest their resources to clip the wings of their opponents. In the contemporary Ghanaian politics, this low-level attitude to politics has become a norm, and it has become evident that having enough resources (being economically self-sufficient) is the way to politics and following the proper system does not count.

Additionally, in Ghana media has contributed to political intolerance. The media indulges in such low-level reportage and thus drives much of the negative political attitudes which support political intolerance. The media in most cases support their favorites and undermine opponents but the manner in which they air the politicians. Their coverage and reports generate hostility among the politicians. Also, the continued coverage of the negative happenings in politics by media encouraged conditions for animosity which feeds up political intolerance (Bokor, 2011c).

According to Rukambe (2009), bigotry and dogmatism are also the contributors of political intolerance in Ghana. In that people hold that their beliefs and views are true and right. The politicians, in particular, the ruling class believe that their values, views, and aspirations are absolute and all people are required to follow such without questioning. In such a situation, anybody expressing different views from those the ruling elite holds are labeled political disgraces and traitors of the country.

Also, another cause of political intolerance in Ghana is the fact that political parties position themselves in a manner that would enable them to gain political favor. According to Rukambe (2009), when the political party members seek to position themselves for political favor, they do everything and anything to achieve their ultimate goal. Thus, politicians backstab and badmouth their opponents using any means necessary ranging from gossip, spreading false information to scheming to remove the opponents from the picture leading to political intolerance.

Moreover, political intolerance in Ghana arises from Ghana’s political environment in which there is the absence of democratic rules and the little rules in existence are not clearly defined and even, so they are not enforced fairly. In Ghana, the electoral processes and systems are always skewed to favor one political party or one group and disadvantage the others, the electoral body lacks impartiality, and the electoral procedures and rules tends to change in favor of a particular group, and this has been the cause of the growth in political intolerance over time (Akindele et al., 2009).

Literature review on political Intolerance

According to Gibson (2007), political intolerance is a result of the misconception of politics, and it entails the unwillingness of individuals to accept the political ideas and ways of behaving which are different from their ideologies and beliefs. According to Zakaria (2007), political intolerance is increasing all over the world and even in countries that political intolerance does not lead to political violence, democratizing regimes failure to embrace political freedom for all people has become an impediment to democratic reform consolidation through the world. However, political intolerance is the greatest impediment to democratization.

According to Rukambe (2009), in Africa in the 1960s, the process of early democratization together with decolonization saw heightened political intolerance in comparison with political intolerance in the 1980s during the second liberation. During decolonization, national-building and national unity was a priority, and political dissent was an abomination to this political goal. As a result, the opposition parties were banned, media was gaggled, and state power was centralized under totalitarian rule. Everything was tied to the ruling parties in the African countries, and the citizens were obligated to follow the footsteps of their leaders. The situation in the African countries was worse, and nobody dared to challenge the opinions and the ideas of the ruling party and those who challenge the ruling party got exiled from their countries (Rukambe, 2009). This resulted in immense conflicts and polarization as people in these countries struggled for resources and power, and more political intolerance level rose. Also, in the past decades, political intolerance in Africa has been on the rise.

The widely investigated questioning is the etiology of political intolerance. According to Gibson (2007), the predictors of political intolerance include individual’s self-esteem and social learning, a threat of perception, psychological insecurity, democratic values, and personality trait authoritarianism. A majority of the studies indicates that closed-mindedness leads to political intolerance. Perception is a strong cause of political intolerance. The politicians that feel threatened by their political opponents and thus they are not likely to tolerate the opponents. The perceived threat that the political opponent is threatening generates political intolerance (Gibson, 2007). According to Gibson and Gouws (2003), the perceived group efficacy, it’s potential for power, influences perception and thus offering a threat to political intolerance. Political intolerance flourishes with the threat of ideas and groups. That is, if politicians perceive that their opponents are threatening their potential for power then political intolerance is likely to heighten.

Also, studies have documents the major consequence of political intolerance. According to Gibson and Gouws (2003), political intolerance leads to repressive public policies. Gibson and Gouws give examples of such a consequence in the U.S in which the repressive state policies adopted in the 1950s against the Communist were not the resultant of the mass public opinion. Also, the give another example of the repressive policies during the Vietnam War era in which mass public opinion was not considered in the policies. States in which there was more political intolerance adopted more repressive legislation and political intolerance lead to more protests, and repressive responses generated more protests.

Consequences of Political intolerance

Political intolerance manifests in various ways ranging from animosity to repressive political policies. The political intolerance results in political and social cataclysms which destabilizes society and senseless dissipation of resources and energies. Political intolerance leads to acrimony which leads to various adverse consequences (Bokor, 2011a). They include political opponent murders, property destruction, discrimination in all aspects of life, and other atrocious deeds. For example, the partisan political rivalry between NDC and NPP as a result of political intolerance led to the Yendi massacre and this endangered the lives of many Ghanaian (Bonsu, 2011). Such Conflicts and other atrocious acts that arise from political intolerance are hard to solve.

According to (Bokor, 2011b), political intolerance undermines the development of a country. Political intolerance is the major cause of the abandonment of the government projects began by the predecessors. The political successors fear that by finishing the projects that the political predecessors initiated since such projects would give the political opponents credit and improve their political image. The political office successors always perceive the predecessors as people who must be discredited and take all measures to ensure their discretion (Bokor, 2011b). Therefore, to ensure the previous government is discredited and their influence is undermined, the sitting government adopts a politically obstinate stance against completion of these projects even if the projects have already taken much of the country’s resources. As a result, the new government also starts new development projects only to abandon them when their political opponents take power in a new term (Bokor, 2011b). The many abandoned projects throughout the country end up uncompleted due to the political intolerance and thus leading to sluggish development in the country.

Another consequence of the political intolerance is the adverse effect on the country’s economy. Political intolerance raises the question concerning the country’s stableness, and this influences a country’s economy. Due to the atrocious acts arising from political intolerance, it drags the country’s economy behind. Uncertainties arise and people are unwilling to engage in productive activities that contribute to the growth of the economy. Also, it discourages foreign investment which contributes a considerable percentage to a country’s economy especially in the developing countries like Africa.

Conclusion

Political intolerance is a political issue facing many countries including Ghana. Thus, the Ghanaians have an obligation to ensure political tolerance of the country to ensure the enhanced stability of the country. Various state institutions both public and private ought to use their influence to eliminate political intolerance in Ghana. The fight against political intolerance begins from the leaders of the political parties as their decent actions would set an example to the rest of the people in the country. The politicians should ensure decent politics and use politics for the greater good of the nation and not for the pursuit of inordinate personal whims.

Works Cited

Akindele, S. T., Olaopa, O. R., & Salaam, N. F. (2009). Political intolerance as a clog in the wheel of democratic governance: The way forward. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 3(9), 365-379 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.840.517&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Berry, L. B. (Ed.). (1995). Ghana: A country study (Vol. 550, No. 153). US Government Printing Office.

Bokor, M. (2011a, April 29). Confronting Ghana’s Problems: Political Intolerance Part I. Modern Ghana. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Confronting-Ghana-s-Problems-Political-Intolerance-207769

Bokor, M. (2011b, April 29). Confronting Ghana’s Problems: Political Intolerance Part II. Modern Ghana. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.modernghana.com/news/326777/confronting-ghanas-problems-political-intolerance-part-ii.html

Bokor, M. (2011c, April 29). Confronting Ghana’s Problems: Political Intolerance Part III. Vibe Ghana. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://vibeghana.com/2011/04/29/confronting-ghana’s-problems-political-intolerance-part-iii/

Bonsu, A. (2011). Increasing Political Intolerance Disgrace. Graphic Online. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/increasing-political-intolerance-disgrace-president-mahama.html

Central Intelligence Agency. (2018, April 16). The World Fact Book; Ghana. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Ghana Web. (n.d.). Pre-Colonial Period. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/pre-colonial.php

Gibson, J. L. (2007). Political intolerance in the context of democratic theory. In The Oxford handbook of political science. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199604456.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199604456-e-021

Gibson, J. L., & Gouws, A. (2005). Overcoming intolerance in South Africa: Experiments in democratic persuasion. Cambridge University Press

Rukambe, J. (2009, March). Promoting political tolerance: Experiences from selected countries. In A presentation to the 2009 Namibian Electoral Symposium, NAMPOWER Convention Centre, Windhoek.

Zakaria, F. (2007). The future of freedom: illiberal democracy at home and abroad (Revised Edition). WW Norton & company