Ghana has a weak system of checks and balances, according to a former foreign minister

Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the John Agyekum Kufuor administration, has expressed concern about Ghana’s lack of checks and balances.

He blamed the lack of institutions for the ruling class’s lack of control.

He said at a forum hosted by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) on Friday, April 22, that most advanced democracies have strong checks and balances in place, making it impossible for their leaders to abuse their positions.

Ghana, he said, should follow their lead and develop the necessary institutions in order to increase oversight.

“There are no checks and balances, especially when it comes to institutions.” In America, for example, where there are so many democracies, a president can do some things but cannot do others. The check will help to promote democracy. “Obviously, our democracy will be in shambles if we don’t have strong institutions checking,” he said.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called for the protection of all state institutions against the potential capture of elected autocrats.

Most of the time, he says, these leaders see institutions as limiting their power, so they want complete control over them.

The Electoral Commission (EC), the courts, the tax authorities, and the media are among the institutions that the leaders would like to control, according to him.

“The institutions we’re talking about, the courts are very important, the media are very important, other civil society organizations, the Electoral Commission, the tax authorities, Parliament,” he said in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the event.

“These are institutions that are calibrated in a democracy to regulate the use of power and check abuse of power, but when they fall into the hands of autocrats, they begin capturing, compromising, and weakening them because autocrats want to see those institutions as limitations on their power, or incumbrances that need to be removed.”