The revered man of God sounded the caution while speaking at a public lecture organized by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Akuapem Presbytery Ascension Congregation in Koforidua.
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Judicial bias, dictatorship of the majority are dangerous for democracy – Rev. Opuni warns
A former General Secretary for the Christian Council of Ghana, Reverend Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, has warned that judicial bias and politicization of critical state institutions are a recipe for instability.
Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, General Secretary, Christian Council
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The lecture was under the theme "The Church as an Agent for Consolidating Democracy, Economic Transformation, and Social Equity in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges".
Dr Opuni Frimpong made special mention of the judiciary, the legislature, security agencies, and academic institutions as some of the institutions that are crucial to every country’s survival, hence politicians must take their hands off them.
He referred to other African countries where politicians went on the tangent of manipulating their institutions to favour their parochial interests and how they are suffering from political instability as a result.
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"Our judiciary, the legislature, security agencies, academic institutions we must make sure that our democracy is strong, strong to the point that it serves all but if we give impression that if you belong to this class of people or group of people you will always get what you want but if you don’t belong to this class of people that is what we call dictatorship of the majority it is as dangerous as dictatorship from say military," he said, as quoted by Starfm.com.gh.
Dr Opuni Frimpong added that Ghana might not be in a military regime, but "dictatorship of the majority" must be checked, saying it is tantamount to military dictatorship.
"We must be careful about politicization of state institutions. We are aware recently statement by the Hon. Minister of National Security is causing trouble here and there. But I want to take it as a caution statement that we must be very careful.
"So, we should not only have our eyes on dictatorship coming from the military but dictatorship coming from the majority is equally dangerous and Ghana must avoid dictatorship from the majority and the way to do it is to free state institutions from over politicisation".
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Dr. Opuni Frimpong is not the only person to have warned against the politicization of vital state institutions. In an earlier report, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, advocated for the protection of certain key institutions from control and abuse by politicians.
Asiedu Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, said this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a forum organized by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) on Friday, April 22.
According to him, some politicians, whom he referred to as elected autocrats, who see such vital institutions as limitations on their power if left independent, will do everything possible to compromise them in order to have a field day.
A report by 3news.com said he mentioned the Electoral Commission (EC), the courts, tax authorities, and the media as some of the institutions that power-hungry politicians would always want to capture and silence.
"The institutions we are talking about, the courts are very important, the media are very important, other civil society organizations, the Electoral Commission, the tax authorities, Parliament.
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"These are institutions that are calibrated in very democracy to regulate the use of power and check abuse of power but these are the very institutions when they fall into the hands of autocrats they begin capturing them, sort of compromising them, weakening them because the autocrats want to see those institutions as limitations on their power, or incumbrances that needs to be removed," General Mosquito said, as quoted by the news website.
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