Amidst Abuakwa Trials and Tribulations, Kwaa-Atta is Whirling at Crossroads

By Konongo Fordjour

Decisions are never made in a vacuum. The decision that brought President Mills to power has a divine blessing from God. He is my president and I will support him but, I will not stop giving him critical assessment of his policy implementations. This article is not meant to criticize anybody. I am not going to criticize President Mills’ work until two years later. At a time that he would probably have positioned himself so well that he can honestly take responsibility for his own actions and his administration’s shortfall. For now, there are some developments that warrant comments as basic signals to President Mills for future heavy criticisms, if he does not pay attention to them now. This article uses more of a prognostic approach to inform the audience of the current state of our political direction. It forecasts a possible outcome in 2012 relative to our experiences today on both NDC and NPP. Before going on with our discussion here, please permit me to congratulate His Excellency The President on his election as the commander-in-chief of our beloved nation. You are welcome, sir. Now let’s begin:

The New Patriotic Party (NPP), a liberal democratic party of Ghana, has done extremely well by championing human rights, poverty reduction, the rule of law, strong microeconomic policies, brilliant practical human services delivery, such as national health, education, capitation grant, school feeding, and school-children transportation. NPP has created a vibrant economy to build on. It was interesting to see a party that had been violently denied a role to play for thirty years in opposition could somersault to lead and bring glory to a hopelessly-declared military coup nation with economic mess. With focused determination, the NPP was able to secure a crude oil find that will contribute substantial income for the country in years to come. Roads were built to ease food from the rural areas to reach city markets, places of interest were in abundance, water, electricity, telecommunication, schools, housing, foreign direct investments (FDI) and international recognition were all the blessings brought along by NPP, just to mention a few. The world could literally read “Pride and Nationalism” on the faces of Ghanaians.

Why then should the Ghanaian electorate reject such a progressive political party, extremely different, on continental perspectives? Do we fail because of the choices we make? Akyem Abuakwa is still mourning in “brisi” (a national black mourning cloth) until today because whenever its own revered member is given with absolute confidence of winning, something different is the outcome. Dr. J B Danquah, Prof. Adu-Boahen, and Lawyer Akufo Addo have all contested and failed. This is very, very, sad! Causes are not hard to find. Alan Kyerematen may have figured it out right with his marketability strategy, although the real interpretation of his message was not properly communicated. Instead of pursuing John Kufuor’s tested, winnable, and door-to-door marketable strategy, people decided, complacently, to apply the often failed eighteenth century town halls and come-see-my-popularity mammoth rallies’ campaign strategy. Besides the dissociating “aduru-me-so” (it’s my turn) campaign rhetoric, interestingly, a prime vote-winning narcotic drug (cocaine) allegation charge was brilliantly shrugged off, however a minor temptation from Gun-man Jerry Rawlings swayed critical votes into “yorke-gari” campaign disaster. Statistics show that about 91.2% of the Ghanaian population eats “yorke-gari“ (or has eaten it before, including myself), hence such utterances can cause a perpetual doom.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), a socialist-democratic party, on the other hand had initiated rural electrification, brought women into national development, expanded the policy of minority inclusiveness, and tried to remove crimes from the nation. Today the NDC party proposes to build more hospitals in all the districts including mine in Konongo. I think if President Mills is able to turn his proposals into practice, he will win a lot more sympathy in our future assessments. President Kufuor concentrated on schools in all the districts so President Mills improving our existing hospitals and adding more will add more pride on Ghanaian faces. Other areas of importance that President Mills is seriously considering to attack are national security, the crime rate, narcotic drugs, and protection of the national small farmers that the previous government fared poorly. And finally, one important issue that the president has promised Ghanaians that he will do is the controversial murder cases of Ya-Naa Yakubu Andani and Alhaji Issa Mobila. I support our president to go ahead and find the killers of these great people in our society including the three judges and the retired major as well as those who disappeared and were damped into the Atlantic Ocean. President Mills is right, President Kufuor could not do a good job specifically on this by leaving these killers to roam about freely around the country including Ridge in Accra and Dzorlokokpe in Volta Region. President Mills is absolutely right because justice delayed is not the option, and injustice at Konongo nkwantia is also injustice at Accra-Jubilee-Castle House with ripples hitting all injustices in far away Japan and Korea North. How great could it be by seeing the peoples’ president jail our former presidents for their personal roles in the murders ranging from judges through traditional chiefs to the ordinary people in the streets!

Late President Mwanawasa of Zambia slotted former president Chiluba into criminal court to face trial in preparation to go to jail, possibly in July 2009. Former president Bakili Muluzi is also battling for his head in courts over crimes and theft in Malawi. Sudanese president Al Bashir is also getting ready to face trial over Darfur massacres. All these show that Africa can no longer be deceived by treacherous politicians. It is therefore a great feeling to hear President Mills bring respect for human life in Ghana by jailing a former president. The reconciliation process that went on under Kufuor administration lacked the “Truth” flavour so President Mills is absolutely right to review that case and jail Gun-man Jerry Rawlings on crimes against humanity. Jailing Gun-man Jerry Rawlings will also help him focus on his work. Chiluba hand-picked Mwanawasa just as Gun-man Rawlings hand-picked Mills. The fact is that President Mills helped Gun-man Rawlings to become who he is today so if the gun-man also helps Kwaa-Atta to become who he is today, will not be a big deal. President Mills’ message resonates nationalism without tribalism. Go ahead, sir, you have my support.

In less than 100 days in office, however, so many other things have happened. Cars have been snatched, people have been forcefully ejected from state bungalows, state bungalow meant for former president Kufuor has been denied, some people seemed to have taken the law into their own hands to cause mayhem, and the civil society seemed apprehended. Also, the constitutionally-permissible end-of-service-benefit for executives has been suspended by the president pending further investigations. It would be unreasonable to blame the president on these because a similar fate had befallen him in 2001 when the former second lady and now our First Lady was cruelly, unprofessionally, and disgracefully unseated from her husband’s car. It was a shame on democracy on that day; and emotionally disturbing to the then former Vice President’s wife to be subjected to such humiliation, all in the name of politics. Had the husband not gotten himself in politics Lady Naa-Adu would not have met the wrath of political opponents. Juxtaposed with her inability to bear the president a single child rekindled her innermost pain, yet she had to understand and wait for today. So what is the fuss if those in government do same to those in opposition today? Is that wrong?

Nevertheless, President Mills needs to set different standards. Do we really have to go through these every time there is a change of government? In politics, there must always be some sacrifices to make. Once you offer yourself to lead, then maturity, statesmanship, discipline and respect for humanity must be practiced. After President Nkrumah, it is only in the millennium that Ghana has experienced true leadership. From a peaceful, educated, and respected John Kufuor to a peaceful, educated, and respected John Mills. Ghana wants and deserves that kind of civilized practice of peaceful change of government that should be fun not war. A genuine change of baton from a highly educated decent child of the land to equally comparable other is our pride; and not from a buga-buga gun-man through the back door. Today, the distinguished handsome and respected former President Kufuor is joining other world leaders to make decisions at the board of executives in various areas affecting humanity, and we want Prof. Mills to join him in the future, just to count our numbers in international representation. Therefore, Mr. President, please govern from the center and please do lend us your ears. Please do not let history judge you harshly. Peaceful, educated, and respected Kofi Busia and Hilla Limann could not make the cut because of the ignorant, undisciplined, and greedy Ghana Armed forces, shame! In spite of the gains made by the country certain unscrupulous individuals, by virtue of holding guns, think they can manipulate the nation for their own selfish gains. This is a symptom of political retrogression and hopefully it does not descend into anarchy.

Political Arbitrageur Opportunity Exists in Ghana: The word ‘arbitrage’ is a middleman trade opportunity that exists in business transactions, especially in currency exchange rate mechanism. It is used here because of the existence of a huge loophole in our political structure. From the military vandalism through John Kufuor’s time to present day Atta-Mills era, Ghanaians have been asking their leaders to provide jobs for them to do. A peaceful land that yearns for jobs but its leadership has always taken them for granted. A parliament that is supposed to be making job creating laws is more often caught in corrupt practices with copious appetite for attacking sovereign nations, such as Zimbabwe. Today, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (Changirai) is seriously in bed with Robert Gabriel Mugabe and peace is back in Zimbabwe [Thanks to some of us who went back doors to talk the two men down to peace]. Had the Ghana’s parliament option been taken, a senseless war could still be raging on to the amusement of the west and of course Ghana. Political history of Ghana itself regurgitates fundamental problem in the country. The country has a loosely defined liberal democracy from its virulent socialist precipice. These two streams seemed to lack their fundamental requirements. For instance, their recent electioneering manifestoes showed absolutely no significant difference. In most cases the liberals seemed mostly socialistic and made some scientific technological propositions that appeared too superfluous, unimaginable, and unachievable relative to our current statutory plight.

Ghana has constantly failed to define democracy on its own African way. Let’s agree to one thing here, please! The current political direction is very much non-indigenous. It is another kind of inheritance bequeathed on us by the colonial masters. Hence, in trying to imitate the western governance our dear NDC and NPP parties mess up big time because it is not our culture when we try to please them. Largess, big government, big budget, overspending our limits, etc. are American and British nature not Ghanaian. Innovative administrative strategies have been neglected from our local governance. A small country like Ghana runs on grants and subsidies with huge deficits. In his recent state-of-the-nation address to parliament, the president mentioned everything except job creation through small business. The colonial era of government creating jobs for the citizenry is gone forever. Please, Mr. President, listen to me: leave jobs to Ghanaians to create them and just sit back and collect taxes, very simple. As a tax expert, I trust that you will be able to understand my analysis here. Please create avenues that will assist you to reach investors easily to collect taxes. Please identify the jobs that can recoup returns quickly and campaign to inform the populace to engage in them. Do not use tax payers money to create jobs, it will not work. Many of your predecessors have tried that and did not work; and therefore there is nothing there to convince yourself that your government job creation will work. The previous NPP government squandered the goodwill reposed in it; did not pay attention to expert advise from us, and the result was chaos and eventual loss of power. Please, Mr. President, tread carefully!

Two scenarios are observable in Ghanaian politics today - “di-bi-ma-me-nndi-bi”; “it’s your turn today, let it be my turn tomorrow” - for the $80,000 lump sum after parliamentary service. No wonder why Asawase Mubarak and Koforidua Agyeman would want to insist on their parliamentary experience. People go to parliament for money; they do not have the country at heart. For instance an NPP guy moved from the USA to go and stand in Ellembele constituency in the Western Region on the NPP ticket and found that NPP had withdrawn its candidacy to enable Hon. Blay of CPP to win. But this ‘aburokyire’ NPP guy quickly jumped for an NDC ticket and won the elections. There are many of these guys in parliament not for ideological stance but purely for money, period. We should not be surprised that many of the MPs do not even know what “Constitution” means to be translated to their constituents, and yet they are all set to make laws to bind us. The two predominant parties - the NDC and the NPP - seem to have lost their way. The current statistics show that NDC has moved from 25% to 29% of the national votes; with NPP dropping from 35% to 28%. The NDC seems to have converted some 2% of the floating independent voters and added onto the remaining less than 2% CPP and NCP combined to reach the 29%. The independent non-partisan Ghanaians currently stand at least 41%. The NPP suffered defeat because a large number of its support base stayed home and did not go out to vote.

It is on this backdrop that I predict a possible political arbitrageur opportunity in exi stence in our Ghanaian leadership quagmire. Ghanaians would definitely need a third formidable party that can make a difference in job creation, stamp-out corruption, diplomacy, decently defined Ghanaian democracy, and a rigorous machinery set up to develop the country. The question is how do we convert the largest 41% who are non-partisan, independent, and floating voters to form our support base? The 7% NPP stay-aways can easily be convinced to get their votes. The ruling NDC is also extremely incoherent. The NDC is made up of predominantly 45% brilliant, politically experienced CPP-elite class and of course a crude, disgruntled, and embittered-for-nothing 55% no-hopers who are parochially aligned to the gun-man. Prof. Mills has a good heart and has excellent exposition to develop the country; but would the no-hopers allow him to proceed with his noble work? The recent hullabaloo within the NDC that ensued over the selection of the president cabinet may have calmed down with a promise. The president definitely needs to buy time to consolidate his position, and then bring in the likes of Tony Aidoos, Tsikatas, Spio Garbrahs, Victor Smiths, and so forth. If he does not do that, he will be told to do so. It is a crossroad, very confusing, a situation that Kwaa-Atta can make it or easily break it. Two alternatives here: one, convince his CPP family on the other side to get in to outnumber the no-hopers and turn the NDC direction for better with constitutional change and the removal of founding father clause. Or fund his own CPP while in power and breakaway with it after service to form a strong CPP much in the same way that Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah did to the old NDC. The third possible alternative is to leave things as they are now and allow our politics to find its own level, which is not a noble option either unless the president considers giving the no-hopers top notch overseas education in their large numbers, of which I strongly agree. Educating the likes of Tony Aidoo will polish them tremendously to the benefit of mother Ghana because we can engage them in fruitful discussions. In spite of all these possible alternatives, Kwaa-Atta can either make it or easily break it.

On the other hand, the NPP is also absolutely impenitent. The party has only one problem - a problem of anybody taking the field day. There is no regard for leadership, everyone is a boss of their own, hence chaos always result. Most of them are too forward and the leadership does not respect followers. When candidate Kufuor wanted power, we were the best of all people. Once he secured it, we were too noisy and informed us through Kwadwo Mpiani that we must shut up with “yen-nsempoa-nkapre” noise. Today, Akufo Addo simply avoided us during his six-day stay in New York. Although he did not repeat the “nsempoa-nkapre” diatribe, a similar utterance of “their shallow pocketed little contribution” was also made to his confidante. Honestly, if a thank you cannot be given then we do not deserve a snub either. Was it not the hands counting millions of dollars today that counted the little dollars yesterday? Apparently, Ghanaian politicians home do not want to face Ghanaian politicians based in the US basically because we talk too much here. They cannot stand our criticisms but that is what democracy is all about more so during a healing process, the more we talk the more we are able to correct our mistakes. Perhaps they are more comfortable with rubber-stamp UK-based Ghanaian politicians. Still on the NPP front, a whooping $18-million account is rumoured questionable with $4-million of that used for purchasing a London home. Can we talk about that, or are we getting out of our bounds? We will continue to talk, I promise.

Regardless, the NPP is better positioned in our political development, though. It needs to organize itself well. For instance, the one single issue that brings disrespect is that members see foul play after our primaries. Delegates are always easily bribed putting winners in disputes. It had happened in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2004, and worsened in 2008. The only possible way to reduce bickering and squabbles is to stick to one-member-one-vote (OMOV) strategy. Since it is extremely hard to bribe almost all Ghanaians, the best candidate with the best political strategy will win at the end of the day. So folks, let us stick to the OMOV strategy. Let us mobilize and heal mother Ghana from leadership decadence. I may stand accused but I will never stop talking, and writing. In my previous article: “Incumbency theorem, administering a wrong dose for unsettled democracy”, I warned that the only way NPP can lose the elections was if its members do not go out to vote because our members were pissed. People did not pay attention and the party lost. Losing elections is good because it allows one to remain sober and reflect over areas of strategic importance, but in our case it appears as if we are creating enmity with everyone surrounding us. Can we work with our heads, please! Surprisingly, the OMOV strategy appears threatened because the old guards would still want to stick to the failed delegates’ conference strategy so as to steal for their preferred choice. The OMOV could bring young candidates like: Dr. Akoto Osei, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, Dan Botwe, or Alan Kyerematen to govern. From the then 46-year-old President Bill Clinton through the then 44-year-old Prime Minister Blair to the present day 47-year-old President Barack Obama, the world sees energy in young and winnable leaders. Do we? Or why not Busumuru Kofi Annan - can he seriously factor in this time? NPP should be extremely careful because any further errors can easily force the party into opposition for more than 30 years this time. Comparatively the NDC appears to have upper hand regarding candidate choices. President Mills had practical hands-on experience from his Vice-Presidential term and Vice-President John Mahama’s contest will not be different in the future. I am afraid NPP does not have that for its ‘preferred’ candidates. If the electoral commission’s mandatory two-term plan for the incumbent president works this time, then NPP must be well assured for at least 16 years in opposition because John Mahama will go for Betty Mould-Idrissu to widen his scope. They will target the youth employment to win sympathy and break the hard core within their party that is aging anyway. NPP’s best option is to unseat Kwaa-Atta at all cost in the next elections in 2012 and Busumuru Annan must be your most imputrescible option. It’s about winning, please!

Many other issues culminate to expose both parties to thorough scrutiny. The current NDC government might go after corrupt NPP members who were in shady businesses and/or have caused financial loss to the state, just to set the party into pandemonium and attack its credibility to govern. When it happens, it will help bring the young, vibrant and politically clean members in front to pursue more dynamic roles while the old languish in jail. If President Mills is also caught in the old political web and refuses to do as promised by himself and predicted above, then a possible political arbitrageur opportunity for a third party will exist to form because his campaign promises would simply be described as: “another political campaign gimmick“. Honestly, our current political divide is not strong enough because both parties are in minority - about 57% of the adult suffrage and equally divided into 29% is to 28% - but can easily set the entire country into anarchy. A wider gap can be set if one of the main parties can develop a better, clean, simple, and easy to follow leadership selection strategy. Failing which a third force will definitely emerge to wrestle power from the nemesis of our current political protagonists. I might be wrong with my analyses here but, trust me, only time will tell. Just may be! However, on balance, I am extremely happy and proud of my country because democracy is at its best, but will it hold? Meantime, I am hanging my pen until October 10, 2010 (i.e. 10-10-10) when the president would have settled down.

By the way, Summer is coming very fast and I understand that His Excellency The President will be visiting Boston in August 2009. When he does, I promised to meet with him this time because his last visit found me extremely busy and I could not honour his invitation but this time, I will have to make time to meet with him. Until then, Mr. President, So-Far-So-Good, bravo and good day, sir!

Konongo Fordjour, Boston-USA Koafordjour@yahoo.com