No shortcut to democratic consolidation and economic prosperity – Mahama

There is no shortcut to democratic consolidation and economic prosperity, John Dramani Mahama, the former President of Ghana has said.

Speaking at the MindSpeak event hosted by Aly Khan in Nairobi, Kenya over the weekend, he said democratic consolidation and economic prosperity can be achieved by working hard at it and also working on a structural reform.

He said, each country has to find the type of democracy that best fits the needs of its citizenry and each democracy has to be shaped by the will of the people and their collective voices.

“The more we allow that to happen on this continent, the more our businesses will flourish and our people will prosper,” he said.

“I recognize we have an increasingly youthful population that is impatient to see change and experience prosperity in their lives. But the reality is that, nobody possesses a magic wand to create change and progress with a wish of “abracadabra,” he added.

“In these critical times, as the nations in the so-called Western world allow fear, religious intolerance, xenophobia, ethnic and racial prejudice to move them into isolation, into closing borders and building walls, what is at stake for us here in Africa is our very survival,” he pointed out.

Mahama observed that political stability and the rule of law are not merely a foundation for prosperity but also a protection against the looming threat of terrorism, the violence that has already claimed too many African lives.

By Pamela Ofori-Boateng