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Ghana’s Democratic Culture Will Be Enriched.

By Otchere Darko

Even though I am not a fan of the Rawlingses, the story that some NDC youth want Mrs Agyemang Konadu Rawlings to challenge Professor Mills for the 2012 NDC flag-bearership has intrigued me, because of my desire to see a woman-President in Ghana sooner than later.

I have personally had my eyes on some possible Ghanaian women who, in my opinion, should muster courage one day in the near future to challenge their male counterparts. In my view, women who qualify for top positions in Ghana should be encouraged to go for them because women have fewer “human temptations” than men and, therefore, are more likely to be better leaders, which is what we need and want in Ghana. Further, Dr Aggrey once said that when you educate a woman you educate a nation. This adage can be extended to include the fact that when you put your trust in a woman-leader, you invariably put your trust in the group she leads. As a result of the principle of “leadership by example”, women instil better discipline in members of the groups they lead than men because women tend to have more self-discipline than their male counterparts and are, thus, better “teachers by example”.

While admitting that these good attributes of women that I am talking about do not necessarily apply to all women and may, therefore, not necessarily apply in the case of Mrs Rawlings, the very fact that she is a woman and may be prepared and willing to challenge a sitting President is, in itself, very commendable. If I would not vote for her, it would not be because Mrs Rawlings would not be qualified. In terms of academic qualification, I do think that Mrs Rawlings is even more qualified than her husband who was twice elected through the ballot box to be President of Ghana. In terms of experience too, the former First Lady has got more than enough of [indirect] political training on the job during the eighteen years of her association with Mr Rawlings from the AFRC era in 1979 to the NDC era that ended in January 2001, and should be better prepared than her husband was in 1979 or 1982.

I have written several times for the removal of the Indemnity Clauses that exclude the Rawlingses from public accountability for more than half of the period of Rawlings’ eighteen-year rule of Ghana. I have condemned many of the past political excesses and atrocities of the Rawlingses. I have condemned many of the alleged corruptions during the administration of her husband, just as I have condemned the corruption that took place in Kufuor’s administration. She may not be my ideal leader. But then, who else is my ideal leader? None, besides Dr Nkrumah [who passes my assessment test even up to the time he was overthrown] and excluding Drs Busia and Liman [who both cannot be logically assessed by me because of their premature overthrow]. *After having made all the points above, I have to add that Mrs Rawlings, in my opinion, is as qualified as President Mills was and still is, as long as the former First Lady is not prevented by law to stand for the position of President of Ghana through any court conviction or through insanity or any other constitutional prohibition. *Further, if many people in her party, especially the youth, want her to challenge Mills, is that not a proof that she has leadership qualities that draw people to her?

Sitting Presidents and Prime Ministers everywhere in the world sometimes get challenged by some of their party members while they, the serving leaders, are still in office. Mrs Thatcher is a clear example of a leader who got challenged and ultimately had to give way. The last British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, was unpopular for nearly two out of his nearly three years of Premiership, but chose to hang on. And none of his party’s aspiring members dared to challenge him officially either. How he and his Labour Party ended up as a result of their failure to effect leadership change within their party before the last British general election is already known to most readers of this article. Sometimes, it is even better for a serving leader to encourage a challenge to his leadership. Mr John Major threw up a challenge to his internal critics to face him in a contest or shut up. The critics could not, so they shut up; and that helped Mr John Major to win his first election as Prime Minister. No sitting President or Prime Minister in a democratic country should assume that he has a right to continue to lead his party until his official term ends. Just as a sitting President or Prime Minister thinks he has a right to lead his party and country, so do others think, [and rightly so], that they too, or others too have a right to lead their party and country.

The NDC could have chosen to describe itself simply as a “socialist party”. Instead, it preferred to describe itself as a “social DEMOCRATIC party”. And it also called itself “National DEMOCRATIC Congress”. Why should NDC choose to use the term “democratic” at all times, when it suits it, and yet always wants to discard the tenets of democracy when their application does not suit it, and thus end up being always seen as “undemocratic”? Have the supporters of Mrs Rawlings who want her to put herself forward for the flag-bearership not got a democratic right to support and promote her in advance of the NDC congress? Are those calling on the former First Lady to make her intentions known at this time being realistic? Is it time for all NDC leadership aspirants to declare their intentions? If not, then why should the General Secretary of the party and others call on her now to come public about her intention? Would Mrs Rawlings be acting appropriately if she were to declare her intention ahead of the right time? And should she be blamed for the impatience of the youth who are calling on her to contest when it is not yet time? After all, they are only calling on her to stand for the 2012 flag-bearership contest. They are not calling on her to replace the President now as President of Ghana. So, where is the problem?

In the current NDC situation, Mrs Rawlings has not, [and for that matter the Rawlingses have not], done anything that is wrong. Neither can it be argued that those young people in the party who are agitating for the former First Lady to challenge Mills done anything that is undemocratic. One may ask: would these young men and women who are crying for the leadership of Nana Agyemang Konadu be making these calls if they had faith in President Mills? So, why blame the former First Lady for a problem that is not her making?

Despite not being a fan of the Rawlingses, I stand for democracy and believe that the youth who support her, irrespective of whatever they call themselves.......“foot-soldiers” or “foot-policemen”.......have a right in our democratic dispensation to dream their “Konadu-for-President” dream, and to express their dream publicly. Mrs Rawlings too has a right to be admired and dreamed about by a section of the youth in her party. It is not a criminal offence to be admired and be promoted by people for a lawful cause. Let Mills NDC stop political bullying from all angles!

All women of Ghana, [Agyemang Konadu, Samia Nkrumah, and all others with big political ambitions], stand up and be counted, before the chauvinistic men in our country [of which I am one] think it is only they who can, and should lead Ghana.

Source: Otchere Darko. [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity” and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “Third Parties” in Ghana.]