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African governments must promote inclusive development - Dr Bawumia
'Citizens must be made to feel the dividend of democracy.'
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has underscored the need for governments particularly African governments to involve citizens in the development process.
This he observed is a sure way of guaranteeing and safeguarding the democratic gains of most countries.
He was of the view that neglecting the needs and inputs of citizens in development agenda that affects them has the potential to destroy the gains made by governments.
Dr. Bawumia asserted that "if democracy has to be inclusive then to sustain democracy, we have to make sure that we get people more included as we proceed with the democratic experiment. Anytime people feel excluded, there is a threat to the survival of democracy and this is why we need to pay attention to education, to health, to financial inclusion, even to identity, to right to information, to micro stability to jobs. These are the things that will produce more inclusive democratic development"
The Vice President expressed these thoughts when he endorsed a book co-authored by Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The book, which is a sequel to the earlier published book titled "Making Africa Work", is co-authored by Dr. Greg Mills of the Brenthurst Foundation in South Africa, Jeffrey Herbst, and Tandai Biti, with a foreword by H. E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Former Liberia President.
Speaking at the launch of the book in Ghana at the premises of Center for Democratic Development-Ghana, Dr. Bawumia pointed out that Ghana has had its own fair share of relapses in its democratic development and hoped that the fourth Republic will be sustained forever.
"We in Ghana have had experiences, we are in our 4th Republic. Which means that first, second, third were basically static and this is the experience of many other countries in Africa. We are moving and we hope the fourth Republic has come to stay and will be there forever" the Vice President averred in his address when he launched the book "Democracy Works: Rewiring Politics to Africa’s Advantage."
"Citizens must be made to feel the dividend of democracy." - Olusegun Obasanjo
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on African governments to make citizens the center of all they do.
He said just as the Democracy has been defined by a former US President to mean government of the people, by the people and for the people, African governments must make people feel the results of having sustained democracy.
The Former Nigerian Head of State dispelled the notion that countries that do not practice Western-styled democracy are autocratic and undemocratic despite the levels of development that are witnessed in such countries.
He argued no two-countries practice same kind of democracy but there are some tenets that have to be present to ensure that the benefits and development that comes along with it are experienced by the people.
Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also a co-author, stated in his remarks at the launch that "there are no two countries where the democratic systems is identically the same and you find anomalies in some of these democratic practices and systems... But the point is this, there must always be what I call dividend of democracy for all the citizens of the country. Everybody must feel that they have something in it for them irrespective of their position, political affiliation, their tribes, religious or social base."
This article was originally published on Ghana Web.
