Ghanaian economist and statesman Kwame Pianim has downplayed suggestions that the country may be better off opting for military rule since democracy has failed to offer the needed development.

The statesman is of the view that despite its excesses democracy has served Ghana well and remains the best option for national development.

According to him, Ghana's democracy has progressed better than several countries on the African continent. He believes that the country has survived by democracy and there is a need to continue to appreciate it.

"We haven't done badly as a country, we haven't had a civil war as the other African countries, our democracy is a work in progress, it is growing, it is not dying so when I hear young people saying that we are tired of democracy, we are tired of the party system, people in South Africa are calling the whites to come back and people are saying when is democracy going to end, we have to make it work," he told Samuel Kojo Brace in a Joy News interview on Tuesday, October 15.

He insisted Ghana’s democracy isn’t dying despite the occasional threats it faces under various regimes.

"No it is not dying, there are individuals who come in, and they may want to distort it, that's why every four years the group people of Ghana are called to say do you want to renew their (politicians) lease, if the answer is no, you go, somebody else comes. So it is us the people who decide who governs us at any given time and that right (to vote) is powerful and we should not let anybody take it away from us".

Speaking on the recent demonstrations in the country, Mr. Pianim said "Demonstrations are an integral part of democracy, we go out and tell the government, maybe you (the government) are not hearing, we're sitting by the fire, we know where it burns and this is what we think we should pay attention to and all of us as Ghanaians should be grateful to those who risk their jobs, their lives to go onto the streets to demonstrate".

He, therefore, advised against the idea of military intervention saying it would only set Ghana back. "Look we've seen military intervention, what does it do? It takes us back".

Mr Pianim, a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) emphasized that there is the need to make democracy work, "our democracy has survived us so let's take it".