Ghana’s Presidential race: Why Akuffo Addo is Ahead. April 8, 2008

Why I fear Nana Akuffo Addo will win the elections.

 

A recent research by an American firm, claims that the MP for Akim Abuakwa South, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) “has been tipped to win the December election.” A similar research by groups fronting for the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) also claims that the CPP will “overtake the NDC.”

In an election year, there will be many of such research and pools. But how can they be trusted? Without venturing, I will dare make many predictions. Recently, when I told a close friend that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will win the Presidential elections and succeed Agyekum Kufour, his response was immediate. “No, they (NPP) cannot win this time.”

“Why”, I asked sounding perplexed. His answer was to the point. “There is too much poverty”. He could have said more, but he did not. No one can argue against the fact that for the past eight years, poverty has been on the increase, while the North-South divide is getting  dangerously wide. Yes, there is too much poverty, but unlike my friend, how much of that can be attributed solely to the NPP and Kufour?

 

For more than 20 years, Rawlings ruled Ghana first under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and later under the NDC (National Democratic Congress) administrations. So if Ghana is poor, and Ghanaians cannot make ends meet – which is a fact, who should be held responsible? The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) will blame the NPP. Indeed, on some occasions, Rawlings has been seen to join CJA rallies, giving credence this antiquated lie.

 

For me, Rawlings, more than Kufour should be held responsible for the current poor state of our infrastructure and welfare services. Water shortages, load shedding, poor primary schools, child poverty, you name it. If it is a matter of apportioning blame, then he (Rawlings) should shoulder a greater proportion of this, after all, he was in charge for over 20 years. Why Ghanaian voters will punish Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for something that is not his making beats my mind? But some people seem to think that this is what will happen. Ghanaian voters are quite sophisticated, and can distinguish political gerrymandering for truth, I think so.

 

 

Incumbency and Diaspora connections are also important factors in this selection. Undoubtedly, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will benefit from his government’s incumbency. While the NPP rules Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will have advantages which the other Presidential aspirants may not have. Other parties in Africa have always benefitted from incumbency, but Sierra Leone and Kenya demonstrates that sometimes, a party needs more than incumbency to win an election. But it is worth exploring.

 

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been to Guinea, Nigeria, and will soon be on his way to other countries with huge Ghanaian Diaspora communities. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that the NPP is still in charge. But to be frank, the NPP has always had a huge Diaspora following in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and so on. The Diaspora has always been a source of funding for the NPP. The party will exploit these connections to raise huge amounts of money for the Akuffo Addo campaign.

 

The NDC has also benefitted from such Diaspora links, although limited to the personality of Rawlings. Rawlings could rely on a few Diaspora Ghanaians and African-Americans in the US because he built connections with the African-American community mainly through the Louis Farrakhan networks while he was in office. Recently, the CPP presidential candidate, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, was in London on fundraising and meet the community tour. His address to party loyalists in north London was impressive, candid and courageous. He demonstrated that the CPP’s revival was not a figment of our imagination, and for party loyalists like me, it was encouraging.

 

The strength of the various parties contending for power is another. The NPP, NDC, CPP and PNC are the main parliamentary parties. Of all these parties, the NPP remains the one with huge potential to raise money – by any means necessary. The NDC has advantages which it has squandered and continues to squander due to huge personal egos and power hungry individuals who behave as though Ghana will sink without their meddling.

 

The continuing attention lavished on Rawlings – who is not a Presidential candidate is disadvantageous to the Professor John Evans Atta-Mills campaign. In my view, and it is one which I will hold with deep religious conviction, the main obstacle between Professor Mills and state power is neither Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom nor Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, but Rawlings.  It also appears that no one in the NDC has the courage and conviction to ask Rawlings to do the decent thing for the sake of the party. For Professor Mills to run a clean and honest campaign, Rawlings and the undemocratic tendency in the NDC must take a back seat and allow the Professor to represent their party (the  NDC).  Until then, the Professor has a huge battle.

 

How about the others? The CPP is beginning to show some revival under the leadership of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom.  Since he won the support of the CPP congress, Dr. Ndoum has taken up the challenge with confidence and zeal. Those of us who doubted his commitment to the Nkrumaist agenda will now have to revise our thoughts and support Dr. Ndoum. He appears to be a fighter, a man of unadulterated zeal and convictions. However, the CPP will need more than this for Dr. Ndoum to get the keys to the castle of Flag Staff House.  There are some who think Kwesi Nduom might even lead the CPP to victory. My projection is that the CPP will make serious parliamentary gains. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom might hold the cards if the Presidential race goes for a second run. Nevertheless, Kwesi Ndoum will take the party far beyond what others have done in the last two elections.

 

In assessing the chances of the parties and their candidates, it is becoming clear to me that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo campaign is perhaps the most professional, up to date and formidable machinery.  It is obvious that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is exploiting his skills as a human rights lawyer and campaigner to good use. The NPP is not known for its activism, but Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is. This shows that there is a distinction between President Kufour and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

 

He is pragmatic about regional and pan African politics, so far, he seems to be the only one articulating the ECOWAS agenda. He has already broken his party’s mould by talking about pan Africanism, while he was in Guinea (Conakry), even paying tribute to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Whether this is an opportunities election ploy or not, we wait to see. Basically, he is stealing the clothes of the CPP. That worries me as a CPP member because I have always regarded that terrain as a no go area for the NPP. The CPP will need to catch up. Paa Kwesi Ndoum also articulates a progressive regional and Pan African policy, supported by Kwame Nkrumah’s daughter.

 

On the economic front, I will need to check party manifestoes before passing judgement. My guess at this stage is that there will be little difference between them. The NPP will maintain its liberal economic philosophy, with greater emphasis on the market, and probably continue the NDC policy of selling the nations assets to the highest foreign bidder. It will do what the IMF and World Bank instructs it to do, although with more caution than Rawlings and his PNDC/NDC did with the help of Dr. Kwesi Botchway, and foreign predators.

 

Here, only the CPP has the blueprint for a national economic revival of the ailing neo-colonial economy. It is refreshing to listen to Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum honestly articulating a progressive economic policy based on self reliance. It seems the CPP will have some welfare type policies to appeal to its grassroots but the leadership is certainly not a socialist ideology wielding type. As for the NDC, the way the Rawlings regime handed Ghana’s economy to market forces, selling anything of value, and closing down schools and welfare centres, making civil servants unemployed and so point to the sort of recklessness which Ghanaian can do without. I do not think they are better at managing the neo-colonial economy than the NPP, probably worse. Neither the NDC nor NPP can match the CPP on this score.

 

I am worried at my own conclusions, for, if my predictions are right, Ghana will be ruled for another 4 years by the NPP, but this time with Nana Akuffo Addo as President. It will be crowning moment for the NPP, but sad for Nkrumaists like me since I would like to see the back of the NPP. Of course, I would like to see the CPP ruling Ghana again, but that is a forlorn hope, and might not happen. Something tells me that my wishes will not come through this time. I have to get used to another dose of NPP medicine. If this happens, the only real loser will be Professor Atta Mills, who would have lost his last chance of becoming President. But it is too early for such predictions, there will be several months of campaigning and mudslinging. Even my village bakologo (frafra word for soothsayer) is cautious on this. He is playing a waiting game, so am I?

 

 

Zaya Yeebo

Rawlings: A Threat to Democracy June 12, 2007

Rawlings: A threat to Democracy?   

Since he was voted out of power, Rawlings has dominated the news, sparking fears and anxiety that the old coup maker has similar plans. Taking swipes at the Kuffour government seems to be his main past time activity since he is unemployed. The question people are asking in secret is this – is he capable of another coup? This writer believes that the issues are far more complex, but no so  destabilising. It is quite unusual for a head of state whose party has lost an election, to continue to hound the incumbent in the way that Jerry Rawlings continues to hound his successor, President John Agyekum Kuffour.  But what is of concern to Ghanaians is the extent to which Rawlings’ constant outbursts posses a real threat to national security. To put it bluntly, does Rawlings constitute a present danger to the NPP government and the country? To answer this question requires a brief detour into the Rawlings record while in office. From the days of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council – AFRC (June – September 1979) to the Provisional National Defence Council (1982 – 2000), Rawlings has always presented himself as an ordinary person seeking to make life better for the ordinary Ghanaian. This is where most people were deceived into thinking that Rawlings differed from other past leaders in Ghanaian history.   In the AFRC/PNDC eras, Rawlings presented himself as champion of the masses, as an ordinary  person, one of the mmoborowa, by associating himself with the ordinary people and with radical political groups, youth leaders, workers, farmers, and anyone with a cause worth exploiting. But his own life style, which is completely out of this earth, speaks differently. He neither likes ordinary people, nor lives like them. Infact, he detests poor people. BUT, he has an aversion to exploiting the plight of poor people for his own inordinate ambitions. Rawlings is like a leech, sticking to the backside of ordinary people, exploiting their anxieties, their fears, their genuine problems, for his own goals.  Let us go back to 1979 – 1981 when Rawlings had been discharged from the armed forces by the Hilla Limann administration. He (Rawlings) made the University of Ghana his main home. Conniving, plotting, scheming, cheating and screaming his way to the minds of unionised Legon workers, the TUC (Trades Union Congress- Ghana), students, and members of the June Four Movement (JFM). Indeed anyone who felt disaffected by the inability of the Hilla Limann administration to deal with mounting social and economic problems and the resulting hardships. The seeds of the December 31^st coup and consequent events in Ghana, should be viewed from this angle. To what extent is Rawlings genuine in his attachment to popular causes?   History will decide whether the  Rawlings record is worth the paper it is written on. But as someone closely associated with Rawlings and the PNDC is the 1980s, I can deliver my own verdict. Contrary to what the foreign and local supporters of Rawlings would have us believe, the Rawlings record in Ghanaian politics is abysmal and indeed negative. As a leader, Rawlings sought to build a country based on brute force in which he brutalised anyone who disagreed with him. As  the Secretary of Youth and Sports in 1982, I was at the receiving end of this brutality when he personally invaded my house and arrested friends and colleagues, no reason was given. Rawlings brutalised his own vice President, and numerous others in government.  Under both the PNDC and NDC regimes, Rawlings spread the poison of dishonesty, deceit, corruption, dishonour and mistrust in government. Under him, the moral fabric of Ghana was destroyed beyond repair. Kuffour and the NPP inherited a country beholden to the IMF and the World Bank, who had for  several years, destabilised Ghana under the deceitful  notion of economic stability. Of course, the NPP is not complaining about that, they are only peeved that Rawlings stole their economic policies.  For a person with such abysmal record, decency would have dictated that Rawlings, having lost the election, should respect the electoral right of Ghanaians and  keep an arms length from intervening on every single issue. He should as  mark of respect and decorum, give President Kuffour the respect he deserves as President. But  never in Ghanaian history has this nation been treated to such a display of spite  and thwarted ambitions cloaked altruistic concern for the poor and mmoborowa.  Is it too much to ask Rawlings to give his successor an opportunity to try his hands at repairing some of the damage, even though we all know how humanly impossible a  task that is. That has not happened. What is Rawlings after?  In the minds of some young Ghanaians, there is a seductive but illusory notion that Rawlings the autocrat is better than Kuffour the liberal democrat. In some academic circles, the African ones included, the erratic, self serving leadership of Rawlings which resulted in several conflicts, and a state rife with patronage, corruption and incompetence and kalabule, is still preferable. To them, I say, you can have him. It is not difficult to imagine that in his own mind, Rawlings has ambitions of  returning to power, with the masses once again hailing the Juniour  Jesus (he refuses to hear the cry of Junior Judas). Rawlings is helped in this day-dreaming by his fellow travellers, those for whom power and affluence would have been a day dream, if they had not turned a revolutionary experiment into one gigantic national fraud and swindle. Another group helping Rawling are the African intellectuals and their cabal of Africa-American opportunists who continue to praise the Rawlings era. These people and their institutions are adept at trying to keep the Rawlings agenda alive, to what purpose, no one knows. However, we can be sure of one thing.  That Rawlings will not rest until he has tried his destabilising tactics to discredit Kuffour as he did to the late President Hilla Limann. I am no sympathiser of the NPP but dare I say that Kuffour is proving, to be better at managing the neo-colonial economy better than Rawlings ever did. I can hear howls of protests at this. But I stand to correction. In terms of economic policy, there is hardly any difference between the two. The difference is only inn terms of personal integrity. Even here, I dare say President Kuffour is miles ahead. But most important of all, Rawlings refusal to accept the inevitable truth – that he no longer runs the show in Ghana is the main problem. Rawlings has not been able to wean himself form  his toxic addiction to power and peoples adoration. But every show must end. So to what extent is Rawlings a threat to democracy and our stability as a nation? Not much. At best, and on his own, Rawlings is only an irritant. Ghana  today is a far cry from 1981 when some of us were willing tools in the soiled and shaky hands of Rawlings and his tribal cabal. The Africa of today is quite different from that of 1979/1981. The global situation is radically different as well. Today, coups are frowned upon, at least by Ghanaians. I do not see a situation in which Ghanaians will hail a coup – they never did in the past, be it 24^th February 1966 or 31^st December 1981. I also do not believe that the “orange” and “velvet” revolutions of Eastern Europe can be so easily replicated in Ghana or Africa overnight. At any rate, most Ghanaians would like to give the NPP and Kuffour a chance to prove their case. However, he (Rawlings) posses a danger in one regard. Being the populist demagogue that he is, Rawlings has the tendency to hijack others peoples causes, exploit them, and rip these causes apart for his own selfish ends. Economic problems, ethnic tensions in the North, a restive youth population, Northern fears about Akan (Ashanti) domination, concerns about the rising cost of the 50^th Anniversary celebrations, you name it. These represent a potent and toxic cocktail  of grievances that Rawlings needs to serve his addiction, and to convince his foreign praise singers. Certainly, Rawlings would exploit all or any of these for his own ends, and in the process, destroy all hopes of the NDC making an electoral come-back.  Without other people and their causes, without people fighting for him, Rawlings would be a naked emperor. He has neither the courage, nor the intellectual acumen to act on his own. He relies on raw passion, and people with grievances (real or imagined), to do his dirty work for him. In the PNDC era,  dedicated soldiers like Major Courage Quarshigah (now Minister of Health), Captain Baba Awuni, and and Sgt Akata-Pore, among others who did his fighting for him. How did Rawlings reward his colleagues and friends who risked life and limb to save him during the AFRC and PNDC periods?  The graveyards are littered with the bones of people who once stood by him,  and thought he had honourable motives. It will take people of extraordinary naivety to do the same today. After all, where are all those young soldiers who fought  to bring him to power in 1979 and 1981? Most of them ended up as victims of gruesome murders and summary executions (without trial). I can name several but this is not the place. How come he has fallen out with almost all those he worked with in the AFRC and the original PNDC eras? What does that say about him? None of this is new since I have detailed them in my book – “the Struggle for Popular Power.” History, it is said, repeats itself, first as a farce, and second as a tragedy. We have had enough tragic moments in Ghana’s history. It is time to jettison the false prophet – Rawlings and his clique of nation wreckers, and begin to enjoy the uninterrupted peace and dawn broadcasts favoured by coup makers. Ghanaians want to live in peace within the Parliamentary democratic system (with all its weaknesses) we have chosen as a people.  Ghanaians want to live enjoy the global respect that Nkrumah acquired for us, and to let our children, women and youth live in peace and harmony with one another. Is that too much to ask? Conflict in the North, and other destabilising factors can only lead to the sort of confusion which demagogues like Rawlings thrive on. Ghana may not be a perfect democracy, but the alternative Rawlings offers could be worse.  But before you despair, and think that all is lost, let me say that these are comic moments. There is a saying that  every market  has a madman. So perhaps, this is Ghana’s moment. Who can begrudge us?    

This article first appeared in the Ghanaian Oracle, May 2007

Zaya Yeebo© theghanaianoracle