Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, the Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), has stated that tyrants modelled after Rwandan leader Paul Kagame would be preferable to the current crop of liars and thieves in power who are seen as democratic.
On Tuesday, July 4, 2023, the international relations and security expert said to Korku Lumor on the Class Morning Show that the reason African elections are so contentious is because democracy has turned into a method of obtaining wealth.
“Democracy, generally, is the Westminster type of democracy, the American type of democracy; it’s conflictual, ab initio. It is a contest but a contest may be made where the rules are clear and the participants understand the rules and are ready to obey the rules”, he said.
He observed further that: “If in countries in Africa, because politics is a conduit to riches and fame and will become the distributor of the nation’s wealth, what happens is that people have tried all they can to make their followers subservient to this idea, so, they will fight to the death to make sure that their candidate wins – which is wrong”.
The point, Dr Antwi-Danso noted, is: “If our politicians are ready to serve, they will not, under any circumstances, release their people to death”.
“I am of the opinion that it is because the conflictual nature of politics is being exploited by bad leaders, and that is why we are where we are”, he analyzed.
“I have always said that I would even prefer a dictator who knows where he is taking the country and building up through institutions of state to create a very developed country, to a so-called democrat, who is lying to me, cheating and stealing and the whole world appraises him as a democrat, and we are having it all over the continent”, Dr Antwi-Danso said.
“If you take a country like Rwanda, you might think that there is no democracy there but I beg to differ. See, from 1994, what progress that country has made under the so-called dictator and if this is dictatorship, then I think we need such thing in Africa, the more”.
Kagame, a 65-year-old former military officer, has served as Rwanda’s president four times since 2000.
In the past, he oversaw the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel army that occupied Rwanda in 1990.
