The Director of Research of the Institute of Democratic Governance Democratic, Professor Kwame Ninsin, says democratic governments must use the constitution as their guide in the performance of their duties and work to ensure the well-being of the people who they govern. "The opposite of this would result in what is happening in Kenya presently where the people will use cutlasses, guns and sticks to make their point, as they have lost faith in the electoral or democratic process." Speaking at the 59th New Year School on the topic; "Deepening Democratic Culture in Ghana," Professor Ninsin said governments throughout the world had the tendency to be autocratic and abuse the rights of the citizens if not checked. Democratic culture is a body of beliefs and customs about the dos and don'ts of democracy or how to behave in democratic manner. He said since independence, Ghana has experienced various versions of democratic and undemocratic state and that the 1992 Constitution re-established the basis for democratic governance so that Ghanaians would enjoy their natural and other rights and expand the scope of available rights from time to time. Professor Ninsin said a democratic state is one that was governed by a constitution and which ensured that the citizens enjoyed the rights that were needed to make them live happily as human beings. He said the Universities have a role to play since they trained the country's future leaders in politics, administration, commerce, industry and the arts and culture. He said university graduates should be at the forefront of the struggle for democracy in the country and it was important that they cultivated the highest virtues of democracy, act independent of the state and defend the rights and freedoms of the citizen. Professor Ninsin said the students could acquire such virtues by building independent associations to practice democratic virtues and learn to defend them. He said recent developments where students associations became extensions of national political parties were not healthy adding, "such campus based political party branches have become a platform for propagating the undemocratic and corrupting practices that occur in national political parties." He said by so doing, they lost their autonomy and freedom to defend the rights of the citizen and were sucked into machinations of national political leaders whose primary agenda was to capture power and acquire wealth. "We must move away from forming such associations and form civic associations to fight for our rights otherwise we will be recycling the rot in our society" he added. Professor Ninsin said to ensure democratic governance, the Constitution established a number of institutions like the Electoral Commission to undertake elections, Political Parties, Parliament, the Judiciary, Presidency, the Media Commission and Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). He said since the state provided the most viable framework for citizens to exercise their rights, such structures must be effectively and genuinely decentralized. "We must return to the original decentralization policy, which sought to make the districts assemblies the bedrock of self-government and strengthen them through to the town, village and community levels." He said if the District Assemblies and the sub-units were strengthened and motivated they would encourage the people to participate in the decision making process as well as serve as monitors to make the officers responsible and accountable. He said democracy worked where the citizens resolved to make it work and that when democratic institutions delivered results the citizenry learn to cherish and defend democratic culture and will at all times fight to defend them against violation, encroachment or curtailment. Dr. Kumi Ansah-Koi, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, said democracy required tolerance for diversity but "our culture had done us much disservice in that regard." He said culture was not sacrosanct and must change when the need arose adding, "wholesale adoption would not do. There is the need for critical examination to ensure we do the right thing." Mrs Augustina Akosua Akumanyi, Deputy Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education called on the government to support the Commission with enough funds to enable it to perform its role optimally in raising citizen's awareness of constitutional and Civic issues. She said this would bring about attitudinal change, which was crucial for rapid national development and the deepening of democratic culture. Source: GNA