Militarising our democracy dangerous – Rocky Dawuni

The practice whereby non-state actors such as party militias are allowed to operate with impunity should not be tolerated because it has the tendency to destroy Ghana’s democracy, Ghanaian international Reggae/Afro Roots artiste, Rocky Dawuni, has said.

Rocky Dawuni’s comment comes on the heels of a recent debate on disbanding party militias in the country.

A few weeks ago, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called on the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to meet to devise ways to disband party militias.

The president said he will disband the militias himself through legislation if the two parties fail to willingly disband these groups.

Commenting on the dangers of party militias on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Monday, 11 March 2019, the award-winning musician told show host Benjamin Akakpo that: “Militarisation of the democratic process is really an affront to democracy”.

He said: “Travelling around the world and seeing how places have broken down when they took the path of having non-state actors operating with impunity within the construct of a state apparatus, we need to look at this as something that shouldn’t be tolerated and work on it right away together without anybody pointing hands because it is going to take all of us to solve this issue to make sure that this is a path that we don’t want to go at all.”

Rocky Dawuni lives in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

He currently released his new album titled Beats of Zion.