Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has said Ghana was edging dangerously close to a governance and democratic crisis before the 2024 general elections, warning that a continuation of the previous trajectory could have had dire consequences for the country’s stability.
Speaking on JoyNews, 2025 in Review, Braimah said public trust in governance had significantly declined amid economic hardship and widespread disillusionment, raising fears about Ghana’s democratic future.
“I think in terms of governance, we had, to be frank with you, gotten to a point where the country was on the brink,” he said, adding that many Ghanaians were uncertain about what the future held if the situation had persisted.
He explained that the economic downturn, loss of public confidence, and deteriorating living conditions had combined to weaken faith in state institutions, creating anxiety about whether Ghana could slide down the same path as some unstable democracies on the continent.
According to Sulemana Braimah, concerns about democratic breakdown were so serious that discussions were held with some state actors about the risk of unconstitutional intervention.
He recalled moments when the country’s leadership publicly appealed to the military to remain loyal to constitutional rule.
“At some point when the cedi was so bad, the president himself had to make a public appeal to our military not to think about intervening,” he said, noting that then-opposition candidate John Dramani Mahama also made similar calls.
The MFWA boss said the outcome of the 2024 elections, which returned Mr Mahama to power, helped calm tensions and restore a measure of national stability.
“In the interest of stability and the continuity of our Fourth Republic, what happened by way of the 2024 elections perhaps got us to be stable as a country,” he stated.
Sulemana Braimah added that the election results reflected the mood of the electorate and underscored the importance of democratic processes in resolving national crises.
About the Author
