The Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, has strongly advocated a new kind of politics that does away with the "zero-sum, winner-takes-all," system of governance in the country. Explaining the term, he said, the "zero-sum winner-takes-all" political system was when those belonging to a particular political party were totally cut out from contributing in anyway to the governance of the country after losing an election. In a presentation on "Education for Citizenship," on the fourth day of the 61st New Year School organised by the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (ICDE) in Accra, Dr Akwetey showed weaknesses in the state and governance that had a negative impact on citi-zenship and had the potential of undermining democracy. Focusing on the electioneering processes in the country, he pointed out that politicians usually emphasised the differences of Ghanaians in order to mobilise their supporters. In that respect, ethnic, political, religious and gender differences were pointed to create the basis for mobilising supporters. The result was that when elections were over, the differences emphasised and the conflict generated persisted, thus inhibiting the capacity for Ghanaians to unite and decide on issues of national interest. For political parties, the political and governance system resulted in what he called "permanent electioneering mode" or "elections mania". That was the situation when the experiences gained by ex-government officials and politicians of a losing party were channelled into internal party elections and the next national general election, making them fixated on such efforts and rendering them unable to contribute to debates on policy for the country. Dr Akwetey was of the view that citizens do not challenge the system but ceded the right to the media, which also did not make a good job of critically challenging the restricted opportunities of governance reserved only for the party faithful. "Because foot soldiers elect a government, foot soldiers should not become first citizens. Speak out as citizens!" he challenged participants. For him, critical issues that needed to be answered were whether a party that won by slight margin could afford to govern without ensuring as much inclusiveness as possible and whether education for citizenship could solve the post-election challenges that the country was currently confronted with. In his view, education for citizenship was important and a long-term endeavour to sensitise children, the youth and adults. However, a citizen's awareness of civic responsibility, skills and capacities to demand rights and challenge infractions was what was needed in the short term. That would come about when Citizens became personally responsible and sensitised themselves to issues. He added that civil society organisations were also critical in the formation of the character of citizenship, but, like the government, depended on donor support for activities, since there was no governmental framework for supporting them. Dr Akwetey challenged all to continuously share ideas, discuss issues pertaining to governance and critically think for innovative solutions to the challenges. He said another urgent requirement was the need to strengthen the state and national cohesion. 'He said the state at the moment was weak and if its capacity was not built to ensure that all participated in governance regardless of political party affiliation, it would not bode well for the country. The chairperson of the session, Dr Esi Sutherland-Addy, .in her submission, emphasised the challenge for citizens to speak out for better governance. She was not pleased with the situation where Ghanaians identified themselves more with their tribes than the state, and called that the "diminishing of nationhood". She charged religious leaders to sensitise their followers to their civic duties and asked all adults to "live citizenship," for the young to learn from them. Source: Daily Graphic