The Build-up to ’08 Elections

The Build-up to ’08 Elections: The NPP versus The NDC Part I

The road to political and elected offices is traditionally arduous, noisy and nasty. The art of politics has been accordingly termed dirty in a literal perspective. However, holders of political offices are expected to make [good] decisions that could best serve the interests of their constituents. It’s ironic that those engaged in the [[dirty sector]] are the ones expected to make the important decisions that will enhance the lives and aspirations of the mass of the people. Politics may be literally dirty as alleged but, no matter how filthy it may be, it’s about the mandate to steer the crucial collective interests within a given society. Politicians are the ones who have the lion share on making not only crucial but also critical decisions - in political science parlance, about who gets what, when and how. With today’s globalized world, political decisions can be argued to deal with collectivities that cut across state boundaries.

My mind goes straight to Ghana where strategies are being adopted towards grapping the highest Office of the President, come this December 2008. The major question remains – what are the driving issues? This question raises another one, i.e. where driving issues means what? Issues [particularly political ones] can be, in many regards, argued to be in the eye of the beholder. In all political enclaves, what matters to the electorates is hugely diverse and a prerogative. In Ghana, one controversial but prevalent issue is ethnicity or popularly known as tribalism. Those who are concerned about satisfying their egos by seeing one of their own and/or cronies get the top jobs have entrenched loyalties [also known as political patronage] and can be counted on by their parties, no matter what. For these patrons, all other issues have little or no significant impact on their decision about where to invest their votes.

Ghana is probably the only democracy where major parties choose their vice-presidential candidates from a particular region with a well known purpose of satisfying and winning votes and electoral confidence among ethnic groups in the area. In the presidential run-off of election 2000, 9 in 10 eligible voters who went to the polls in the Volta region voted for the National Democratic Congress’ [the NDC] presidential candidate, John Attah-Mills, and 8 in 10 in the Ashanti region voted for the New Patriotic Party’s [the NPP] John Agyekum Kufuor. Again, in 2004, 8 in 10 voters in the Volta region voted for the NDC and 7 in 10 people in Ashanti voted NPP. This voting pattern is believed to be against the backdrop that the two parties are either led or had been led or founded by natives in the two respective regions. The two examples epitomize how prominent ethnicity is in the fabric of our emerging modern democracy. Though this pattern of voting in the two regions above-mentioned is not scientifically proven to be based on ethnicity, it gives room for genuine perception along that line.

In the western democracies, where ethnicity has ceased to be too sharp or non-existent, predominant issues are commonly economy, healthcare, education and culture, food and agriculture, national security and foreign relations. Politics in Ghana, like in any advanced democracies, is also preoccupied with these same issues. The difference though is that the electorates in emerging democracies like Ghana are made up of a huge proportion of poor and vulnerable who are easily hoodwinked to develop interests for other issues than those that should matter most to their own well-being and aspirations. This vulnerability is understandable since in any desperate situation basic survival becomes what matters most.

It is pertinent to ask; what do the motivating issues of the National Democratic Congress [the NDC] want to grab power and/or that of the ruling New Patriotic Party [the NPP] government quest to retain it? Since the height of the proverbial frog is best known after its death, the ruling NPP maintains it would like to continue the on-going positive change. What constitutes this positive change is not as easy to fathom as its proponents want the public to believe. However, it’s worth our acknowledgement that the NPP government has achieved some significant successes in the areas of stabilization of the cedi against major world currencies, taming of the pre-2001 galloping inflation, reduction and stabilization of interest rates, macro-economic and political stability and, last but not least, enhanced democracy. In addition, their NHIS, NYEP and the School Feeding Programme have been popular and catchy political capitals. In spite of all these viable achievements, there is no gainsaying that selling this for mandate renewal to the mass of the people who still remain generally poor and vulnerable is an arduous task.

Furthermore, the ruling NPP government cannot be said to have met all its campaign promises and, consequently, is yet to meet the aspirations of the mass of the people. There are strong arguments in analytical circles that the opposition has a goldfield to explore, energize and build-up to seek to grab the mandate, this December. It’s absolutely a no-brainer for anyone to totally reject as false the intense criticisms against the government over perceived corruption, nepotism, extravagancy, among others. An absolute rejection will be like the proverbial ostrich that chooses the easy way by hiding only its head in the sand as the best way for outsmarting its pursuers. The government’s responses to these rampant accusations are perceived to be unsatisfactory. The pushing of the blame unto the public to substantiate the allegation of perceived corruption and misuse of public office is a lapse on the part of the government. What would matter most and best appease the situation is seeing the government working and making frantic efforts to genuinely cleanse its image of such unsubstantiated but intense criticisms, wherever they may be real. This is where the famous declaration of zero tolerance for corruption should be practically employed, and it may not be too late.

Nevertheless, the question remains whether a campaign based only on perceived wrongdoing by the government will be enough to deliver the mandate to the opposition [particularly the NDC] in 2008. The answer is more likely, a NO one. Unlike the NPP in pre-2000, the NDC [born out of the defunct military regime of the Provisional National Defence Council [PNDC] that ruled the country for over a decade] have been in government before and have their own serious image problem. Under the leadership of these two-in-one regimes from 1981 - 2000, corruption, intimidation, self-aggrandizement, tribalism/nepotism, and other such cankers were visible and pandemic. Without gainsaying, President Rawlings couldn’t see the continuation of his tradition in power after his long term of office, apparently, due largely to the prevalence of graft and other abuses of office, particularly in the dying days of his ruling hegemony.

Looking and weighing the chances, the attempts to be-devilled the NPP government by touching largely on ethical issues [of good and evil] cannot by itself deliver the presidency and government to the NDC or any of the opposition parties. The most probable is and/or will be a clear cut alternative to the current policy direction in the country. On the other hand, the NPP government needs to do more to assure itself of a deserved third mandate. There is too much uncomfortable perception of corruption, nepotism and elitism weighing on the integrity of the Kufuor government. It can therefore be argued that, it will take much more than incumbency for Nana Akufo-Addo’s bid to succeed.

Watch out for Part II – The Campaign Trail: Focus on the NDC & the NPP

Peter Ohemeng

[A Political Commentator]