Winner-takes-all politics destroying Ghana – Fritz Baffour

Former Information Minister, Fritz Baffour, says Ghana needs to rethink the current system where the winning party and its members control all public institutions.

The experienced politician and communication expert says that system is fueling political indiscipline and leading the country into a dangerous path.

“The winner-takes-all is not right for us. We have to look at proportional representation. And then there is another aspect: the aspect of the power of the President. I think the President is too powerful. He is too much of an appointing authority, for instances, in places where he could have left it alone,” he said.

His comment on current affairs programme, Good Evening Ghana, rings with similar views expressed by many governance experts and statesmen. Late statesman, Dr K.B. Asante once criticised the systembecause “it is wrong to give all official posts to party members whether competent or not.”

Fritz Baffour was on Good Evening Ghana Tuesday to introduce his book, ‘After Midnight: Musings of a Ghanaian politician’, which touches on a myriad of topics in politics, sports, current affairs among others.

Sense of discipline

Fritz Baffour also lamented what he believes is the continues abuse of Ghana’s multiparty democracy which is characterised by the unnecessary rancour between members of the two main political party – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“We’ve lost our sense of discipline as a people. We need to start rethinking whether we want to go the way we are going now.

“Now we are confident that we are a democratic country so we can get away with a lot of the rubbish that we spew out. That is what worries me,” he said.

NDC and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

He revealed that Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, played a key role in forming the NDC party after Ghana’s become a democracy in 1992.

He said the NDC, “was a lot of work from Nana Rawlings. She did an incredible job to create the NDC, she worked very very hard, she was very much part of the foundation.”

Watch the insightful conversation between Fritz Baffour and host of Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom Otcherre, in the video link below.