Ignoring our Heroes – a Bane of Africa’s Progress

It is often typical in Africa and in Ghana in particular for victorious political parties to exclude all parties that contested it in the elections – a phenomenon which has been christened ‘the winner-takes-all syndrome’. This sad and debilitating cancer is rife at both the inter-party level and in the individual political parties.

Each party sees contesting candidates as enemies and in case of a win for one, the political enemies are excluded from the entire national development discourse. Friends and cronies are then quickly handpicked and ‘planted’ at strategic positions – personal and political partisan interests are now primary, everything else is secondary and would be considered only when elections are a few months away!

Yes, you have the mandate of the people and you want to assemble people you are comfortable working with – persons who can help you deliver on the manifesto promises. There is really no issue with picking your friends and even family members (the latter is preponderant in contemporary Ghanaian politics).

There is also nothing wrong with appointing your friends and family members to positions of trust. The problem comes when the performance of those appointees becomes so lacklustre, to the extent that some or many of those appointees end up bungling almost everything official that comes their way.

One may wonder why President Mills could not appoint Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa as minister in his government. Should one’s political party preclude you from serving in a strategic national position?

Furthermore, I believe that Mr Kofi Annan could also have been President of Nkrumah’s Republic of Ghana after his UN days – but he may have been chased away from politics by the ruthlessness and mudslinging. Readers might remember some of the terrible things that were said on certain local radio stations about him in the heat of the December 2008 polls.

What about Dr Ibn Chambas, who could have a good political future in Ghana but would certainly not be accepted back into the NDC because he is seen as a traitor who hobnobbed with the NPP and actually made it lose the Bimbilla seat.

Dr K.Y. Amoako, former Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa has been appointed as a member of the 10-man Economic Advisory Council to the President. However, one wonders whether Dr Amoako would be able to stomach the hard-hitting African politics.

The NDC’s primaries caused a lot of rift – but Professor Mills emerged the eventual winner. In fact, the margins disappointed many who had high hopes that the contest was going to be a cliffhanger type. The losing contestants displayed a lot of maturity, congratulated the winner (now President Mills) and even promised to work to ensure his victory at the December 2008 polls.

One particular contestant whose demeanour and campaign style caught the favourable attention of many people was Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, incumbent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). When Dr Spio-Garbrah lost to the President, many would have thought that he would become so embittered that he would not want to have anything to do with his ‘opponent’s’ campaign.

Dr Spio-Garbrah put the pre-election mudslinging with all its undercurrents aside and kept faith with the party. He kept his promise of supporting the party with huge personal donations monthly – at a time when many of the personalities in charge today had run into political hibernation.

I once asked why somebody who earns a six-digit pound sterling quoted salary would want to forego that and become a minister in his homeland and my wife reminded me of her shop floor experience when she was a salesgirl at a certain London supermarket – home is home, no matter how much you earn out there. I was also reminded that Spio-Garbrah had done it before, when he left his African Development Bank job in 1994 to join the government for five percent of what he was earning at the ADB.

There is no gain saying the fact that the last election was so closely fought, to the extent that it went to three rounds – Tain decided it all.

In those trying times when people were afraid to speak on any issue, for fear of being mulled by the virile pro-government media, Dr Spio-Garbrah who was obviously motivated by a passion spoke out strongly against the NPP.

Revelations since NDC took over of how various NPP appointees have acquired various state lands, official cars, and left their official houses having taken away most of the furnishings like fridges, stoves, carpets, furniture and curtains, actually vindicates Spio-Garbrah.

Spio seemed to be convinced that the NPP needed to be replaced, and with hard work the NDC was certainly going to form the next government. He therefore granted many media interviews, and his voice could be heard on radio stations from Bolga to Nkawkaw and from Tain to Sekondi. He defended the antecedents of the NDC and justified why Ghanaians should give it the mandate to govern. He went on the campaign trail and on various platforms, sometimes at the side of Prof Mills or Jerry Rawlings, he pleaded with the voters to vote for Professor Atta Mills.

When the appointments started, Dr Spio-Garbrah’s name was visibly missing from the list of all the 74 ministerial nominees. Printed news reports (or rather speculations) that he was going to be made Foreign Minister fizzled out later as the position went to Mohammed Mumuni.

It seems that the example of President Obama inviting Mrs Clinton to be Secretary of State did not impress the presidential advisers. Or even the appointments by Mr Kufuor of all those who competed with him for the NPP flag bearership in 1999—J.H. Mensah, Akufo-Addo, Osafo-Marfo, Apraku and co.

Vetting of the various ministerial materials then started. Then it became evidently clear that some of the nominees could not even tell which primary schools they attended. Others were so bad that they could not even do an average resume for themselves.

Other nominees came across as so terrible that I would suggest here and now that any agreement entered into on behalf of the people of Ghana by that category of ministers should be looked at again. How can you excuse a deputy Trade Minister who was unable to say what EPA means? Moreover, that person was the most capable candidate for the Ministry of Trade.

Forget about those drab arguments being put across by party apologists that it wasn’t important for the deputy minister to know the acronym of every international organisation or treaty.

But, seriously, how would that chap fair well at a WTO conference when you have persons in the calibre of the US Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke or Lord Davies, UK’s Minister for Trade and Investment present at the other end of the table?

Worse still, should we go along with the pedestrian argument that there is a substantive minister? If the deputy must not do any work, why the need to appoint one in the first place?

It is early days yet for the Mills administration, but one hallmark of a successful government can be measured in its appointment of competent persons to various roles.

In the heat of the many round of the last polls and just before the Tain decider, Dr Tony Aidoo was heard loudly proclaiming to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) goons at the strong room of Ghana’s Electoral Commission that ‘a manipulated’ electoral verdict could only be declared unless he was shot! But Dr Aidoo has also been dribbled by the kingmakers so far.

Dr Kwame Ampofo, former MP for the South Dayi Constituency and a long time member of the Energy Committee was one of the few voices that stood up to the previous regime’s management of the national energy needs. He was completely swerved by the kingmakers – Dr Ampofo holds a PhD in Energy Management!

Another good example of how we often sideline our heroes is Papa Kwesi Nduom. He impressed many Ghanaians during the last polls and was widely tipped to have won the debates against other candidates, but only managed a little over one percent of the popular votes.

Events in the NDC tend to paint a picture that there a faction for Dr Spio-Garbrah, another for President Mills and yet another NDC for the Rawlingses! Well, I don’t believe so – if the NDC was so fragmented in that triangular fashion, it would not have won the mandate of the people at the December 2008 polls.

There is no doubt that Dr Spio-Garbrah is not only qualified. He has the international exposure and carries the necessary diplomatic influence that would make anybody respect our nation Ghana should he represent us on any platform. He is humble enough and respected by foes and friends alike. I think what might be causing the exclusion of great minds like Dr Spio-Garbrah from mainstream national politics is the ‘fear’ by certain camps within the NDC that he could become popular and therefore a threat to some other people’s presidential ambitions!

African politics is full of loads of intrigues and it’s only the insiders who really know what runs through the mind of the average person who wins political power. God bless Ghana!

Source: Nana Amoonoo Egyir Email: [email protected]