Corruption undermines the institutions that protect security and also creates a violent but often vicious downward spiral, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer has said.
Virginia Palmer said this while identifying factors that can threaten Ghana’s peace, security, and democracy and the entire West African sub-region.
She mentioned discrimination against minority groups as one of the factors.
Madam Pamler explained that discriminating against minority groups will rather expose them to being recruited by violent extremist groups, thereby threatening the peace and security of the country and the region.
The other factor she also identified was corruption.
She was speaking at a Forum organized by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on the decline of democracy in West Africa, on Tuesday, March 26.
Virginia Palmer called for the protection of the ideals of democracy as Ghana and the US head into crucial elections later this year
“Discrimination against minority groups causes grievances which then makes these groups vulnerable to being required by violent extremists for example, and then creates a downward spiral for security.
“Corruption also undermines the institutions that protect security and again creates a violent but often vicious downward spiral. When a democratic government fails to live up to expectations, the solution is more democracy not less,” she said.