RE: The Role of Democratic Ghana in Authoritative Africa

Is Konongo Fordjour Our Version of Michael Jackson?

Benjamin Tawiah, London

Michael Jackson is always a sorry sight because he is three roads diverged in a yellow wood. He is black, thinks white and behaves blue. Konongo Fordjour is black, thinks very black and dreams white. I have found Mr. Fordjour’s latest exploits on the forum very stimulating, at least intellectually, and quite revealing, too. In the first part of his ‘authoritative’ series, he devoted the preamble to the article to warn readers that he was only interested in scholarship and positive intellectual debate, because the issues discussed therein were provocative and challenging. The title he chose for the article was equally provocative: “The Role of Democratic Ghana in Authoritative Africa.” It sounded like the title of a PhD thesis. The article was very well written. I was the first person to have commented on it. The second part was also brilliant but not as revealing as the first. The third, however, is criminal and shaky in ‘democratic reasoning.’ Is Mr. Fordjour actually suggesting that we should sell Ghana to popular African-Americans?

In fact, if I had the luxury of time and a few pennies to spare, I would have initiated legal action against Mr. Fordjour for trying to make nonsense of everything we have laboured for in the past 51 years. Apart from time and money, I have another restraint: the man himself. He strikes me as a very unusual person. Initially, I thought he was writing under a pseudonym, because he is about the only person I know in Ghana who has been named after a town. If there are people in Ghana called Yaw Berekum, Adwoa Kumasi (folks called Kumasi in the Volta region were not named after the Ashanti regional capital) or Kofi Tema, then I am yet to see them. Apart from his Konongo identity, his surname, Fordjour, has a borrowed letter in the spelling. The Twi Alphabet does not recognize the letter ‘J.’ So, maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that Mr. Fordjour is thinking white, like Mr. Michael Jackson. And I can warn that if he continues on that path, he would end up with a rubber nose, like Mr. Jackson, and maybe ride in a wheelchair to disguise himself.

Mr. Fordjour’s argument was that if we have been ‘nationalistic’ enough to trust the management of important sectors of our economy to foreign nationals, then why shouldn’t we make Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama, Bush apprentice Condi Rice and Massachusetts Governor Deval Washington heads of state of some African countries? Mr. Fordjour calls the initiative human political engineering; a scheme that in his thinking, would be made to appear different from colonialism, at least in style, but which would be tolerated as imperialist in character, if it would benefit us. “This means seeking most influential personalities with the best administrative skills and identifiable with a poor state to assist leadership in that country.” What he fails to say is how they would rule: Would it be indirect rule or a direct rule that would see Secretary Rice pack her belongings, including her pedicure and manicure boxes, and make for the Osu Castle? Mr. Fordjour had called for EPAD–Eminent Personalities for African Development, a congregation of folks with bigger brains who will think out strategies to solve Africa’s numerous problems. His hope is that the political engineering programme would promote ‘intergovernmental networking’, whatever he means by that. Soon, we would have Mr. Fordjour propose Miss Beyonce Knowles or film star Samuel Jackson as possible candidates for a new group of liberators. Sadly, Mr. Fordjour is not alone in this; I recently read a shocking piece of work from Akyereba Ato Kwabena Dadzie, in which the Dispatch columnist had suggested that the presidency of the Republic of Ghana be thrown onto the laps of the Queen of Britain. I call him Akyereba because I was just about developing a relationship with his works when he made the gaffe. I have since then found it difficult to read him. Well, maybe we should start monitoring the thoughts of folks who have foreign letters in the spelling of their names. Ato’s surname, Dadzie, has a ‘Z’ which belongs in the English alphabet. Perhaps, that is what accounts for their taste for foreign governments.

To be fair to Mr. Fordjour, there is no point being nationalistic for the sake of nationalism if we can benefit from quality assistance from people abroad to solve our problems. And, I think governments in Africa are not doing anything different. We have managed to transform a ‘borrowing’ relationship with the West into a pathetic arrangement where we are happy to borrow without the begging bowl. There is also the disturbing issue of weak institutions on which our democratic experiment is planked. Elections just don’t work these days, because the chap with the power decides who wins, as it happened in Zimbabwe and Kenya. At worst, we bow to pressure from regional and international bodies and invite the actual victors to accept consolatory political offices, as Odinga has done. It is likely Morgan Tsvangirai may also be compensated with a power sharing deal, and he has no choice but to accept it to end hostilities. Even in our own backyard, there have recently been reports that some NPP and NDC folks are already up against each other’s throat, signaling that we are not the perfect example of peace in the sub region. So, there isn’t much progress on the continent. Just yesterday, Mauritania made the story worse by removing their president in a bloodless coup. And there are worse stories.

So, what do we do in the face of all these? About four months ago, I decided to do less opinion writing and talk to people who have ideas to sell. The first person I interviewed was a successful medical director who practices his trade on Harley Street, London’s medical heartland. Dr Charlie Easmon was full of ideas. He has about ten medical doctors and a dozen assistants in his employ. I could feel in his eyes the burning desire of a man who would want to give it all for his country. I asked: Do you see a way forward for Africa? The travel health expert was so optimistic that he found it difficult to admit that Kenya was in crisis, even though more than 500 people had already died in the electoral disturbances. My second interviewee was a 70 year old Ghanaian immigrant I met on a train from Milton Keynes to London. I found him so controversial that I decided to shelve the script I produced from the encounter. The man had asked: “You people claim to be the Akrakyefoo, tell me, have you noticed that anywhere two or three blacks meet, there is poverty? Even here in London, go to Brixton or anywhere that blacks form the bulk of the local community, and you will see what I am talking about: poverty, knife crime and drugs. There is something wrong with our nature. Don’t you think we would have been better off if the whites had continued ruling us?

The man had made it clear that he wasn’t lettered, so he had nothing much to contribute to discussions on solutions. Even so, he was content that he had been able to whisk three of his nephews from Ghana to attend university in London. But he laments: “My son, nothing good has come out of it.” Mr. Fordjour has done better than this old bloke; at least he has come forth with some bold ideas, but those EPAD and human political engineering theories are the kind that instantly sound great, especially when you hear them on a boozy Sunday evening on Christmas eve, but when you come home and digest them, you wonder whether the fellow who spewed those thoughts had had his share of the cocaine that was going round. It is like the apparition that Michael Jackson represents.

But, you see, I respect Mr. Fordjour for one important reason: he challenges those who find his propositions outrageous to come up with their views on how we can help solve problems on our continent. And he adds: “No insults, please.” Okay, let’s break the issues down for Mr. Fordjour with one question: If his theory on political engineering succeeds, what will be the role of locals with good brains who would not make it to the EPAD board? Or don’t we have individuals who have good brains like his African-American heroes? And if Mr. Fordjour is really serious about intergovernmental cooperation, why is he hiding under the African-American banner? Does he see an introduction of a white person into the equation dangerous? Has he observed how Mr. Barack Obama is conducting his campaign? It is not an all black affair; it is perhaps more of a white affair that it is a black deal. In the end, the candidate represents America, not any race. That is how Mr. Fordjour’s theory should have sounded. In any case, does he think those African-American heroes got to where they are by playing the race card? They may not find the idea of associating with a particular black country that palatable. If Obama had been more of a Kenyan that he is American, he would not have had this glorious privilege. I would not be surprised if Mr. Fordjour is one of those Ghanaians who thought that Mr. Kofi Annan should have used his position as the world’s number one civil servant to transfer all the money in America into the bank accounts of Ghanaians. How would his ‘intergovernmental networking’ plan sit with such a rapacious agenda?

So, how do we get the answers to our problems? Do we have Africans who are gifted with bigger brains like the intellectual giants Mr. Fordjour is campaigning for? We haven’t had a black equivalent of William Shakespeare, Mozart or even Joseph Stiglitz, the great economist who visited Ghana only recently. And frankly, it is sometimes difficult to imagine that the locals that planned the village of Tweapease have half the brain of those who built Los Angeles. Nearly 4million Ghanaians have no access to a toilet of any kind; they do it in the bush. Maybe we shouldn’t blame Mr. Fordjour that much. We appear to be doing great only when we get some international recognition. So, we prepare folks better for the international market and then woo them back to help us with their expertise, so we can pay them international rates to work locally.

So, how good are the brains in America? Are we failing because we simply do not have the intellectual capacity to think ourselves out of our problems, or the forces of a larger design are against us? Is there anything that we are doing better than brothers and sisters in America? It is difficult to tell. Our health system is not healthy; our educational institutions do not place in international rankings; our democracy is often laughable, and our social institutions are moribund. So, do we have any excuse to will our very souls to black Americans, simply because we haven’t made much progress? We can only hope that with time, spring will be (re)born under our bright steps. But until that happens, Mr. Fordjour, I am afraid we have to soldier on, even if it means going solo.

Benjamin Tawiah, a freelance journalist; he lives in London.

Email: btawiah@hotmail.com, quesiquesi@hotmail.co.uk.