A lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Kodjo Senah, has urged Ghanaians to fashion their own kind of democracy. He said the democracy being practised in Ghana today had elements of western culture, norms and values, which were alien to the country and, therefore, could not address its needs. Prof Senah was speaking on the topic: Urbanisation and Democracy" at the 61st Annual New Year School in Accra. He said the multiparty democracy being practised in the country did not breed development but rather resulted in family and national polarisation. "The democracy we are practicing is problematic. It was imposed on us. We have to evolve our own form of democracy which is sensitive to our values." Prof. Senah also said democracy thrived best in a society where the citizenry were highly literate and added that the country's high illiteracy rate was inimical to democratic development. He said people who were highly literate could hold politicians accountable and ensure that politicians made policies that were in the 'interest of the people. This, he said, was not the case in Ghana because the rate of illiteracy was high. According to him, politicians were content with maintaining the status quo because they knew that a highly literate population would act as an effective check on them and prevent them from engaging in nefarious activities. "There appears to be an officially hatched conspiracy to keep a section of the society totally ignorant of the fundamental laws of the land," he said. Prof. Senah also said the high rate of unemployment among the youth was a threat to national security and democracy, whether it was home-grown or imposed. Unemployment, he said, was a problem to be solved by the government and not non-governmental organisations, adding that NGOs' approach to the issue was piecemeal. On urbanisation, he said the failure to plan the country's cities had led to chaos and lawlessness. He made reference to Sodom and Gomorrah and the lawlessness that abounded in the slum and added that the failure of city authorities to deal with the problem showed a lack of political will. The fear of losing votes in elections, he said, should not cloud the reasoning of politicians and lead them into refusing to do what was in. the interest of the state. Source: Daily Graphic