I am a Ghanaian-American and have been following developments in both my countries closely. This is because of my love for my two countries and particularly because of the similarities between the political systems of the two countries.

Both countries have Executive Presidents with four-year terms and two terms limit, and ironically the current presidents of both countries are Professors of Law.

Both countries have two strong political traditions manifested in two main parties. In the United States of America, we have the Republican Party popularly called the Grand Old Party or GOP and the Democratic Party. In Ghana, we have the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from the Busia/Danquah tradition and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from the Nkrumah/Rawlings tradition.

The similarities get even more interesting when the NPP of Ghana is compared to the GOP of the United States. Below are a few that comes to mind immediately and I believe readers will find other more interesting similarities that they can share.

1. The GOP has the elephant as their symbol. The NPP copied it straight.

2. The GOP has official colors of Red, Blue and White after the national colors of the United States as the national flag of the U.S shows. The NPP copied the Red, Blue and White of the GOP in spite of the Red, Gold Green colors of Ghana

3. Both parties have property-owning ideology and are extreme capitalists with anti-worker and pro-business mentalities.

4. Both parties at times embark on frivolous programs to find business for their members and to raise campaign money
a. GOP through wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) and war contracts to their members
b. NPP through projects such as 50th Independence Anniversary; building of a Presidential palace that looks like the Ashanti golden stool, etc.

5. GOP has a large following that has racist tendencies; a section of NPP followers sometimes show tribalistic tendencies.

6. GOP is controlled by the typical White man who is always its leader/presidential candidate and the NPP has the typical Asante/Akyem man who is always their presidential candidate

7. GOP hates minorities and other races. NPP despises Ntafo, Ayigbefo and Nfantefo
a. GOP hates any immigration laws that allows immigrants to gain legal status in America
b. NPP is the only party in Ghana to have deported nationals of other African countries

8. Both the GOP and NPP have extreme right wing and at times racist/tribalistic public relations personalities who use the media to spread misinformation and insult about their opponents
a. GOP has the Fox News and all its subsidiaries to spread propaganda; NPP has the Peace Fm and a large number of Fm stations as well as newspapers (Daily Guide, Crusading Guide, Chronicle etc) to do theirs
b. Rush Limbaugh for GOP; Professor Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe for NPP
c. Glen Beck for GOP; Gabby Otchere Darko for NPP
d. Michele Bachmann for GOP; Ursula Owusu for NPP
e. Sara Palin for GOP; Mary Essiam for NPP
f. Bill O’Reilly secretly for GOP; Kwaku Baako secretly for NPP

9. Both the GOP and NPP rely on extreme Christian right to do their indoctrination.
a. Rick Perry the GOP Presidential primary candidate just organized a prayer meeting of conservative religious groups to pray for his candidacy
b. NPP has organized prayer camps to pray for their presidential candidate

10. Both the GOP and NPP have the “All die be die” mentality to win elections.
a. The GOP is opposed to any useful program initiated by the Obama administration just to create a difficult situation in the country to score political points
b. The NPP is opposed to any loans for programs in Ghana to score political points and on a campaign of finding fault with every program initiated by the Mills administration.

11. Both Parties use intimidation as political tools
a. GOP subjected Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and now Barack Obama to political persecution and insult including spreading misinformation that Obama was not born in America
b. NPP subjected Nkrumah to campaign of bombing and Rawlings to insults including spreading misinformation that Nkrumah was not Ghanaian.

12. Both parties use political action committee to raise funds from dubious sources to finance their political campaigns
a. GOP through lobbyists
b. NPP through narcotics

13. Both the GOP and NPP have usurped justice in America by taking control of the Judiciary
a. GOP controls the Supreme court through their members on the bench
b. NPP controls the Supreme court through their members led by the Chief Justice of Ghana

14. Both parties have entitlement mentalities and resort to wars when they don’t get their way. Both parties wanted their base states/regions to secede when they did not win political power
a. GOP supporters in the South started the American Civil war to secede from the federal government
b. NPP supporters in the Ashanti Region started bombings and the Matemeho war to secede from the republic of Ghana

15. Both parties have an army of dubious Christian preachers
a. Pat Roberts for GOP
b. Bishop Obinnim for NPP

How wonderful it is. I rest my case, now let the persecution starts.

Kwame Yeboah
gyeboah@harding.edu