A Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Alidu Seidu, says Akufo-Addo's government depicts some concerns that led to the June 4 uprising in 1979.

Speaking to Evans Mensah on Top Story, Friday, June 4, he explained that issues regarding corruption, suppression of the media and human rights which resulted in the revolution are still present in recent times.

Referencing the gruesome murder of Ahmed Suale, the death threats received by Manasseh Azure Awuni and the assault against Caleb Kudah, Dr Seidu defended his assertion on the attack on press freedom.

“The June 4 uprising was geared towards cleaning the rots in our political system particularly grand corruption, favoritism and all those things that make our democratic system so stinky.

“If you look at media reportage about issues of corruption in this country, I think they have been at proportional levels compared to what prompted the June 4 revolution. So if you look at issues of corruption, our ranking on the corruption perception index, free press index and all the other indices that measure the fundamental components of democracy, we are not making so much improvement.

“We are either constant or we are retrogressing. When you look at that, the incidents of what happened to Ahmed Suale, Manasseh Azure, Caleb Kodah and all those other issues, you tend to believe that press freedom is seriously going under attack in this particular regime. And a lot of people have spoken about it, Sam Jonah and others,” he stated.

He added that “the recent reportage about the President charting a private plane charging 15000 pounds per hour. All those things, it contributes to some of the issues that prompted the June 4 revolution.”

However, he submitted that the use of the military in 1979 cannot be the appropriate mechanism to be used to call for change in the current dispensation.

According to him, the success the country has chalked in its democratic governance prevents the use of aggressive force to demand accountability.

“Can we use the same strategy to deal with it?  I think it is no because if you look at how far our democracy has become, we have now reached the point of habitualization. It suggests that it is one of the highest democratic consolidation that now the people now play by the rule of the game no matter how corrupt the government is, no matter how bad the governance is, you still have to play by the rules of the game and that is democratically voting the government out of power,” he said.

In addition, Dr Alidu Seidu noted that rankings on democratic states by international bodies can hinder the use of the military.

Should the country employ the military as an alternative, he stated that Ghana could suffer the same fate as Mali which is currently suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) due to the political tension within its jurisdiction.

“There are now a number of international level disapproval of using militaristic means to address some of these governance challenges. You now see what is happening in Mali, you see that ECOWAS came out strongly and condemned Mali, it also suspended Mali's ECOWAS membership.

“It is not just at the ECOWAS level, even at the international level, it cancels the flow of aid, acceptability of international reputed rankings of democratic institutions and all those things,” he added.