Ghanaians enhance their democratic credentials in turbulent Africa

… as the ruling party gets Tain-ed

There weren’t enough macho men to hijack ballot boxes or smear itchy substances on agents of the defeated incumbent party in government; with that, Ghanaian voters have extended their country’s credential as a beacon of hope when the country successfully crossed the crocodile-infested red river of elections in Africa which claimed several countries in the region.

Ghanaians must be rewarded by the global development finance and private capital communities even amidst the current global financial crunch for making their black star shine for all Africans as they peacefully decided the nation’s president in a very close contest and look forward to the next barrier in democratic evolution of nations – delivering “development”. What many outside Ghana do not yet appreciate is that Ghanaians have proven to the major political parties that they can vote either out of power. Dividends for African countries that cross this critical step peacefully must be a political equivalent of HIPC (heavily-indebted poor countries initiative) which brought candy to the economies that completed crucial steps in macro-economic adjustments. So now “world, pay up”. Ghana’s was to prove it can remain that beacon of hope in Africa’s governance. Ghana won the bet. This, combined with an African, Barack Obama, assuming the world’s highest office as President of the United States, should bode well for the image of Ghanaians and Africans everywhere. For the world, in this period of global financial L crunch, Ghanaians have prevented the bloating of healthcare costs that donors would have picked up as additional burden, and saved the international community millions of euros, pound sterling, United States dollars, Japanese yen or Chinese yuan that “peacekeeping” in Ghana would have cost. Give Ghanaians a fraction of that.

That an unknown constituency, Tain, a remote rural constituency becomes Ghana’s so-called ‘Florida’ in deciding the nation’s presidency has added to Ghana’s democratic credential as Africa’s beacon of hope, and must never look back. It wasn’t perfect, but there weren’t enough macho men to hijack ballot boxes or smear itchy substances on NPP (the ruling National Patriotic Party) agents in the Volta Region, Ghana’s juju belt, which also probably provided NPP the juju to make numbers appear on the big board in the Electoral Commission strong room; it wasn’t like those days when they would beat the gong-gong to tell villagers to come and have another go at voting before the polls closed, as there were left-over ballot papers. Ghana has made a major transition to democratic statehood by averting a national bloodbath and is still credible as an example of Africa’s democratic potential.

But we must not loose guard; Ghana was nearly at the flash point. And who has measured that flash point on the Lord Kelvin, Fahrenheit or Celsius scale? That the outgoing president, John Agyekum Kufour, could not issue a New Year’s Greeting until January 2, 2009, apparently after an abortive campaign rally in Tain on behalf of his ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) begs the question – what did the president know, and when did he know that his ruling party was an ostrich? So, does the out-going president deserve a golden parachute as a World Bank or other reputable international trust emissary on the grounds of Africa’s true democrat, after bringing Ghana to a near state of anarchy? But like a lame-duck president, he had lost control of his party; he finally asked that (by implication) his party accept the EC figures and defeat. It was apparent that the party’s older generation, including B. J. da Rocha, Kufour and others know defeat, could taste one but bold and democratic enough to concede. We nearly dropped the ball, folks. For Ghanaians, actually thinking widely there had been or would be a state of emergency so that it was necessary for government (National Security Secretariat) to reassure Ghanaians and the world two days after the run-off elections “thatthe government [had] not considered declaring a state of emergency”; machetes and police bullets at the headquarters of the Electoral Commission: we must never approach that state of heightened alert in exercising our democratic franchise again. For now we have crossed the Volta, Subin, Ankobra, Tano, Densu, Dayi of elections, avoided national mayhem and must never return to that flash point again.

That means we have to know what brought us to the brinks and how to avoid it next time around; experts abound to decipher that moment of near flash point, and who caused it. Transparency afforded by technology enabled informal and independent media sectors to trump government inefficiency (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation) in communicating elections results. Read the full article and Web links at Ananseblog http://blog.draftkofiannan2008.com Ordinary voters were heard because Ghana’s independent media employed a combination of humans at polling stations and collation centers and cell phones to communicate results announced by Electoral Commission representatives to their broadcast centers, which were streamed live on the Internet in some cases, and promptly updated their Web sites. Ghana Broadcasting was reported to have betrayed the voter at a point? Who at GBC knew what, how, and when? If only the independent media could extend that to generate more scientific and more accurate pre-elections polling data.

Pure arrogance brought us to that point. Refusing to know and address the needs of the many young people whose means income is peddling items in the middle of the road in front of his residence while bill boards and public transit were painted in the praise of Kufour and his party – Ayeeko AU President, etc.; some in Osu said he was not a good neighbor (referring to the Offices of the Presidency); the Accra people, citing nepotism in Kufour’s appointments, noticed that after relying on them to win the 2000 elections, Kufour shipped the Accra big men away from the center of power as ambassadors and that they were good only for the ministry of tourism; the fishers said he didn’t listen to them as Kufour built fisheries cold storage facilities in Kumasi, in the middle of the country, but not for the coastal zones where fishers abound; he could not communicate the global fuel crisis to tro-tro operators or outboard motor canoe operators while the courts jailed tro-tro drivers apparently on wrong grounds? Voters were concerned about high costs of petroleum products and foodstuffs, and livelihoods challenges amidst the glitter of new edifices along the main boulevards and exclusive residential areas; shopping malls and hotels in the capital while the people bought their foodstuffs from the scorched open piles near garbage dumps in Nima, and affordable housing is unknown even as people moved to the city in larger numbers, unlike when Nkrumah built an industrial city, Tema with housing for even laborers (like Tema Site One), now a slum interior core and middle-class suburbs. That so many university and JSS graduates are unemployed, some of whom peddle the goods along the boulevard that took the President from his residence to the office.

In the meantime, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo must do whatever he wants, but Ghanaians have moved on from this near state of anarchy; the bottom nearly fell out as the center couldn’t hold. He has squandered his party’s credentials, which now even seems more illusionary to those who never saw the JB/Danquah era but held on to some phantom of UP/NPP fame or tradition of the democratic group in Ghana. And Arthur Kennedy was its propaganda mouthpiece, talking about the Volta Region and “itchy substances, locally known as ‘Apia’ ”; trying to prevent the people of Tain from voting on some deluded grounds of a lack of security. This is the ostrich: it buries its head in a familiar place wishing away all dangers and warning signs – it’s not happening; it’s never happened. The director of communication, NPP, does not deal with evidence but operates in the realm of voodoo. He should have known that people in the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and Volta Regions have not voted for NPP in the majority in the 1996, 2000, 2000 run-off, 2004, 2008 or 2008 run-off presidential elections. NPP’s Akuffo-Addo obtained 14.99 per cent of the Volta Region votes on December 7, 2008 presidential elections and slightly less (13.94 per cent) during the December 28, 2008 run-off. These were still higher for the NPP in the region compared to the party’s performance between 1996 and now: 4.70; 6.94; 11.53; and 13.70 per cent, respectively for 1996, 2000, 2000 run-off and 2004.If the NPP director of communication had looked carefully, he would have noted the increasing grounds the party was making in the Volta Region and offered ideas on building on that trajectory; instead, with his itchy substance allegation, he has created another hump for the party to cross, and they’ll need a lot of cows to pacify the people of the juju belt; one cow will not be enough. The 86.06 per cent of Volta Region votes won by Atta Mills and the NDC (National Democratic Congress) in the run-off also was within the range of that party’s performance in recent times: 94.50; 88.81; 88.47; 83.83; and 82.46 per cent, respectively for 1996, 2000, 2000 run-off, 2004, and 2008 that was on a downward trajectory. Elections deciders in Ghana are Central, Brong-Ahafo, Western, and Eastern Regions. But they, Arthur Kennedy and co., would turn their attention on the independent media, blaming the messenger, without whom figures could have mutated with ease and the public never knowing it.

But it was never about Tain or the Volta Region and its juju belt smearing itchy substances; it’s about the lack of development results and arrogance, stupid. NPP had eight years to show Ghanaians what was possible: did they, and how well? Tain decided by indicating: “not much.” The NPP’s own Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D while washing the party’s dirty linen in the Densu and cheerleading the discharge of explosives that would cause the NPP to implode, labeled Kufour as the culprit in the ruling party’s fall from grace, and for nearly bringing Ghana to the flash point, as follows: “It is quite obvious to Ghanaian citizens who have studiously followed Mr. Kufuor’s un-statesmanlike activities and wrong-headed and outright sophomoric policies, deliberately directed against the political fortunes of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) that put him in the seat of power for two electoral terms, … We also, of course, witnessed the President’s rather jaw-dropping and gross irresponsibility in callously implementing programs and policies that were unmistakably apt to jeopardize the Akufo-Addo campaign, ... Ultimately, attempting to vacuously blame the Ghanaian media for merely detailing and promptly disseminating the looming constitutional crisis that Mr. Kufuor has created would not wash. If, indeed, he were a conscientious Ghanaian citizen, the President would already have embarked on a program and process of genuine penance, by begging his palpably shortchanged countrymen and women for forgiveness, … Still, what the President ought to be worrying about right now, is the possible outbreak of an unprecedented civic mayhem.”

It must be a sweet victory for Atta Mills and the NDC for they shall drink Coca-Cola with Barack Obama. As the NDC ascends the throne once more, it must learn from its past mistakes, put knowledge before arrogance and wealth grab, and measure results from the perspective of Tain and the likes else they be Tain-ed or smeared with a more potent itchy substance by the majority of voters across this country of 25 million. The Volta juju belt is manufacturing this substance for country-wide distribution through the health system Dr. Arthur Kennedy was paid very well to create. Odododiodioo-ee, yeah; Odododiodioo-ee, yeah; Odododiodioo-ee, yeah; get your thumbs ready because yewo adea, woye sokoo – we have something; apia will irritate your skin and the health system Dr. Arthur Kennedy was paid to design could not make the diagnosis and trace it to the normal germs filling the lines of our thumbs as we stamped the ballots. And so it was that Ghanaians enhanced their democratic credentials in turbulent Africa as the ruling party got Tain-ed and thumbed out with itchy substances clouding the thumb prints. Apia!

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