Ghana Is Practicing ‘Donkomi’ Politics – K B Quantson

Ghana’s first National Security Coordinator, Kofi Bentum Quantson says he is not surprised by the nation’s fall in the latest global peace index.

The West African country was ranked 50th in the latest ranking released Tuesday, up from the 42nd position it occupied last year.

The research published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global non-profit research organization is, to among other things, create the paradigm that peace is a pre-requisite for the survival of humanity.

According to the 2012 report, the world has experienced relative peace compared to previous years, but the same cannot be said about Ghana.

Ghana’s 50th position in the 2012 edition is said to be the worst after the 2008 edition when the country was ranked 52. The country enjoyed relative peace in the subsequent years and was ranked 42 last year.

Mr Quantson, who is also a former Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service as well as the first head of the Narcotics Control Board, blames the dip on a number of factors, including reckless, lawless talk, inability of the law to work and most worrying, “lies and distortions about the country” perpetrated by politicians.

“We shouldn’t be surprised at our rating. I didn’t expect anything better” he stated on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem Morning Show on Thursday June 21.

Ghana, he says, is practicing “Donkomi politics” where the end justifies the means. This is manifest in the utterances of opinion leaders and politicians based on political associations, which does not augur well for national cohesion. These “lies and distortions” paint a wrong negative picture about the country’s peace, which may not be the reality.

The lawlessness, he added, is manifest in the intolerance leading to the pockets of chieftaincy, religious and communal violence across the country where people take the law into their hands to settle disputes, such as at Bawku, Ekumfi Narkwa and Hohoe.

Pushed further by the host, Adakabre Frimpong Manso, Mr Quantson said the criminal justice system was also part of the problem, failing to guarantee fairness before the law. “The law must be made to work,” he insisted, saying although the criminal activities of Fulani herdsmen and other West African nationals also have an impact on the rankings, an efficient justice system would put paid to their activities.

Contributing to the discussion, NPP Member of Parliament for Okere, Dan Kwaku Botwe challenged the security agencies especially the police to be strong, firm and fair in the discharge of their duties devoid of political interference.

He also called on the media to be professional in the discharge of their duties, citing especially the recording and airing of private conversations without the consent of the interviewee.

National Organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan, called on the media to blacklist persons whose utterances incite or have the possibility of inciting conflicts, especially in the lead up to the December elections.

Citing the Newspaper Review segments on various morning shows, he also urged Producers and hosts of such programmes to exercise some form of censorship against newspapers with inflammatory or potentially libelous headlines. “Please stop reviewing papers which knock heads together” he pleaded.