|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin says that Ghana’s democracy was best experienced during President Nana Akufo-Addo’s tenure.
Verdict: This is false. A 2023 report by the Economic and Intelligence Unit (EIU) shows that the country’s democracy index sank from a score of 6.75 in 2016 to 6.30 in 2023.
Full Text
Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for the Effutu constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, asserts that democracy in Ghana improved significantly during President Akufo-Addo’s tenure.
He made the remark in Parliament when the President delivered his last State of the Nation Address on January 7, 2025, before his tenure expired.
“Mr President, your country is proud of you. Democracy has experienced its best under your leadership,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said on January 3, 2025.
Accra-based television channel TV3 posted a clip (from minutes 0:22 to 0:40) on social media that captures the lawmaker commenting.
Has democracy improved in Ghana during President Nana Akufo-Addo’s tenure? DUBAWA Ghana decided to investigate this since the assertion will likely influence political commentary.
Verification
In 2023, the Economic and Intelligence Unit (EIU) released its democracy index for the year. EIU’s Democracy Index gives a snapshot of the state of democracy in over 160 countries, including Ghana.
The Democracy Index, rated on a scale from 0 to 10, evaluates five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
Ghana’s overall score for 2023 was 6.30 after scoring 8.33 for Electoral process and pluralism, 5.00 for Functioning of government, 6.67 for Political participation, 5.63 for Political culture, and 5.88 for Civil liberties.
Data from the EIU shows that Ghana’s overall score dropped from 6.75 in 2016 to 6.30 in 2023.
| John Mahama (2013-2016) | |
| 2013 | 6.33 |
| 2014 | 6.33 |
| 2015 | 6.86 |
| 2016 | 6.75 |
| Nana Akufo-Addo (2017 – 2024) | |
| 2017 | 6.69 |
| 2018 | 6.63 |
| 2019 | 6.63 |
| 2020 | 6.50 |
| 2021 | 6.50 |
| 2022 | 6.43 |
| 2023 | 6.30 |
| 2024 | N/A |
Table comparing Ghana’s democracy score during the tenures of John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo | Source: EIU
Other institutions, such as the World Bank and UNESCO, cite the EIU report when reporting on the state of democracy worldwide.
One of the core principles of democracy is the freedom of the press. However, this metric still does not support the assertion that democracy improved during the Nana Akufo-Addo administration.
From a score of 82.05 in 2016, the country dropped to 67.71 in 2024, according to data from the World Press Freedom Index and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Conclusion
Alexander Afenyo-Markin’s claim that democracy in Ghana improved significantly during the tenure of President Akufo-Addo. Relying on the 2023 EIU Democracy Index, Ghana’s best-experienced democracy was in 2015 during the tenure of John Mahama.
