Lessons from the 2008 Elections in Ghana

Lessons that should be learned from the 2008 Elections in Ghana are multi-fold:

1- NEVER say NEVER, or BY ALL MEANS; for you never know, what seems unimaginable today can become the imaginable tomorrow. Even a dead man named Lazarus was once resurrected, even though he had been buried for 4 days. Similarly, it is unwise to "count your chickens before they are hatched"... A WORD TO THE WISE...

2- 2008, in my personal opinion, was a year of SHOCKS...If you have paid close attention to events in your own life, the life of others and the world around, you would easily agree with me regarding the shocking and loosening effects of things. It was a year of the unraveling of hidden secrets (worldwide economic debacle), and elevation of the humble (Obama, and Mills). Who could have believed that a Black man would be elected President in the United States, of all places? Who could also have believed that Professor Attah Mills, after having lost two previous elections gracefully, being rumored as "dying," and written off by his opponents, would win the presidential election in Ghana? ME SE HUMM.

3- Ghana needs a thriving multi-faceted, viable, and competitive political party system to sustain its fledging democracy; without such, Ghana's developmental goals can never be achieved. After all, such healthy competition; as we all hope to witness in the new more balanced parliament, should ensure that the needs of the people are adequately addressed. Thus, no one should argue that a certain party is, or should be dead forever; that kind of talk is undemocratic and retrogressive to nation building; rather, the opposition parties must perform lessons-learned-analysis, take the education to improve themselves, and forge forward. DIVERSITY OF IDEAS IS CRUCIAL FOR A THRIVING DEMOCRACY.

4- It is the PEOPLE who elect, pay, give assignments and monitor politicians, not vice-versa. The tides are rising and falling; African politicians, beginning with those in Ghana, will surely learn to become accountable stewards of national resources. This, many patriotic Ghanaians continue to preach, is lacking in the governance of Ghana. Going forward, we hope to see a reversal of that destructive phenomenon in Ghana and on the continent of Africa. WAY TO GO GHANAIANS; YOU'VE GOT THE POWER!!!

5- No one tribe can successfully monopolize the presidency in a multi-tribal society, it will breed discontent, resentment, or worse: anarchy. The argument that X and Y regions are the only ones feeding Ghana is equally FALSE.... If I own a farm and someone else does the farming for me, for remuneration, is it not merely a bargain for exchange arrangement? Imagine a factory owner saying that he owns the factory and can do without his workers, so he fires or lays them all off. What will happen? His factory will come to an immediate halt. Employees make business enterprises successful, any other arrangement is like the head trying to survive without the body or vice versa: It is a symbiotic and not a parasitic relationship. Therefore, reasonable people should not continue to make boastful arguments that they are employing, or feeding so and so. It is a selfish and unintelligent argument.

Furthermore, taxes, non-traditional exports, revenue from border towns, and others sources of income, cannot be factored out of the revenue equation of Ghana. THEREIN LIES THE LESSON- we should all remain humble, tolerant, and patriotic; it has taken all Ghanaians to make Ghana what it is today and what it will be capable of tomorrow. A government that invests adequately in educating and enabling its human resources will equally harvest the good fruits of such investments. The world is a technologically competitive global village. The sooner Ghana, and for that matter Africa, can strategize and promulgate policies to become equally competitive, the sooner it will be able to lift its people out of the abject poverty that is evident today.

6- In every election year, Ghanaians must vote out the under-performing incumbent political party, in order to hold its leaders accountable. This is the only way for politicians to learn that corrupt and nation-wrecking practices will not be tolerated by the good people of Ghana. More education is needed by Ghanaian voters to avoid the rejection of ballots, all votes should count; it is democratic to ensure this. Most of the invalid ballots in the recent election were because of smearing from the indelible ink that is used to mark the hands of a person who is voting. EVERY VOTE SHOULD COUNT.

7- Let me borrow the motto of the United States ("E pluribus unum- out of many one") in stating that in Ghana, out of the many tribes, comes all and one GHANAIAN(S). Thus, the Ghanaian TRIBE (Ga, Asante, Ewe, Fanti, Dagomba, Akyem, and on, and on) has spoken. WAY TO GO, MY PEOPLE…MO! MO! MO! AYEKOO!!!

8- The law should be enforced to monitor and ban ethnic political activities, or acts by any political party, which are tantamount to promoting tribal superiority. This is imperative for the unity and the survival of the nation state called the Republic of Ghana. Perhaps this should be one of the goals of the existing Ministry of National Orientation?

9- If political parties want the people's votes, they must PLAY FAIR. They should not play politics with issues that affect the people's livelihood (price of petrol, border closings, insults, etc) with impunity. Why blame the electorate for exercising their votes against you when you play unfair politics? In any democratic society, the people are powerless without their right to vote, so the right to vote in a FREE and FAIR election must be preserved. THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN and their will has prevailed.

10- Ghanaians should reject subversive and retrogressive politicking. What I mean is the politics of the likes of IC Quaye (breaking the 2 count rule and instituting his own rule of "count until I win") and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey's unauthorized movement of ballot boxes. There is the politics of intimidation, fraudulent acts in the forms of stuffing and snatching of ballots boxes, and the politics of switching electoral votes-even in the EC's office (imagine that). Off course, there is also the politics of unleashing macho men on the innocent to incite violence and revenge on opponents. These are UNCIVILVED and UNCOUTH behaviors, and they must be removed out of the politics of Ghana, "the Gateway to Africa".

11- Finally, all good, peace loving and patriotic Ghanaians should support President John Evans Attah Mills and the NDC, in anyway possible, to ensure the continuity and stability that is necessary to meet Ghana's developmental goals. President Attah Mills, God bless you, the TRIBE-Ghanaians, and the country-Ghana. God, please help Ghana and her people to always "RESIST OPPRESSOR'S RULE, WITH ALL THEIR WILL AND MIGHT FOREVER AND EVER".AMEN!!!

The ultimate lesson: Ghana is the only country we have, whether we are at home or in the Diaspora, and beautiful it is indeed…Let us UNITE, and put GHANA FIRST; united Ghana shall stand. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO GHANAIANS EVERYWHERE!

I remain, Ghana, "The Apple of God's Eye".

Ben Tetteh