Comment:Team Rawlingses cum Ras Mubaraks; substitution time

At independence, Nkrumah declared: “our beloved country is free forever”. From the videos, mimic his passion and vision to lead our country to greater heights. Yet nine years following independence, these were reduced to ashes by our ‘strongmen’ of the time, E. K. Kotoka and cronies. Forty five years on since that ‘unfaithful’ day in February 1966, and nineteen years on since Ghanaians chose institutions over strongmen, doses of ‘strongmanship’ over strong institutions and appetite for apparatchiks are been injected back in our body politics, often in the name of the people. Yet as an optimist, I see the present happenings in our body politics and in the NDC in particular as another plus in our efforts at strengthening and deepening our promising democracy. Our country stands tall on the Africa continent where politically bloody conflicts are becoming accepted norms and cultures. In a number of countries, freedom of speech and press are as rare as water is in the desert. There, the Presidents’ commands are the laws and sleeping 24hrs without the bang of an Ak47 is a rare luxury. From this perspective, seeing a Ghana where we can freely exercise our rights to freedom of speech and a lot more represent an unparalleled blessing within the African context. Yet, I have wondered if the happenings epitomize the democracy Abraham Lincoln meant, when he defined it as ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Certainly, I have my doubts.

I have followed for some time, the Rawlingses-cum-Ras Mubaraks’ utterances and crooked statistics on many national issues as well as their call for ‘substitution at halftime’ in the NDC. While they seek to exercise their constitutional rights to hold our government and the President accountable for the developmental challenges confronting our society, their approach raises more doubts than answers, and have left the Ghanaian public less informed and more confused about their actual intentions. Consequently, productive public discourse about important policy issues have been relegated to the background. And I have wondered if insults, hatred, crooked statistics and “both in or both out” mentality will provide jobs, public goods, investable climates, and fix the institutional and poverty gaps that the Mubaraks so wish for Ghanaians. Even a benign farmer, far away from the capital would disagree with a kind of democracy where every member of a ruling party must serve in government or the strongmen want their commands as laws and those in government as their apparatchiks. Yet, the 21st century strongmen in Ghana, the Rawlingses cum the Ras Mubaraks, like their 1966 godfathers, hide under the pretext of the poor to throw governance and public policy astray.

The hard reality is that we need each other so long as we individually have our relative or comparative advantages. Those in Stephen Harper’s, Barrack Obama’s, Nicolas Sarkozy’s, Angela Merkel’s, David Cameron’s, and Naoto Kan’s governments are not necessarily the most intelligent people in their countries, yet the ‘rest’ in Canada, USA, France, Germany, Britain and Japan give them their support, often in a critical but constructive way. This is why they have built strong institutions instead of strongmen and these institutions rather than strongmen’s crooked statistics provide answers to normative and positive questions that the Mubaraks are seeking to provide namely; opinion polls, rate of unemployment, size of government deficit, industrial production, inflation etc. The appetite for strongmanship over strong institutions is the reason why we continue to beg the white man for aid dollars in the name of the poor, but look on while our ‘strongmen’ eat and vomit on their shoes while the rest live on less than a dollar a day. It is the reason why some children sit under trees to learn basic numerals and raining seasons are ‘statutory holidays’ and malaria is a way of life, yet the strongmen fly their children to study in the best schools and seek treatment in the best hospitals.

If these are what have been touted as ‘return to hope and bravery’ by “team Rawlingses-cum Mubaraks” then, I may have to ask further questions. Is it the hope that did so much ill and so little good under the watchful eyes of the Rawlingses during their stewardship or the hope that reminded us of how Adam and Eve planted the seed of corruption such that 100% ( and not zero!)’ tolerance for corruption became an accepted culture and the poor ultimately had to pay high price for their failure to differentiate ‘promisables’ from ‘actionables’, or it is the bravery that saw us in the name of national reconciliation pledged Alas, “never again” and yet continues to sow the seeds of ‘strongmanship’?

The Rawlingses-cum-Mubaraks must remember that because Ghanaians chose institutional solutions over strongmanship that is why they ended their stewardship as ‘democrats’ and unharmed, culminating in even a ‘PhD’ for them. The Rawlingses came to power in the name of ‘Kalabule’, accountability and justice and certainly. Therefore, others rather than them should be asking them why these are still common characteristics of our society 30 years on after their so-called ‘clean revolution’. Despite periods such as 1983, 1990, 1998-2000 during which the country faced severe economic, social and political challenges including the famous 123 inflation rate, famine, thriving black markets, and ‘identification hair cuts’, the Rawlingses were still supported and unharmed in the solemn believe in institutions. When the Rawlingses’ short-lived Structural Adjustment Program disappointed them and became a fiasco, their numbers ideologues from the IMF/World Bank deserted them under the pretext of aid fatigue but many Ghanaians across partisan lines joined hands to support them. When President Kufuor came to power in 2000 and 2004, members from other political parties joined hands to support him in the name of democracy and inclusiveness. These forms of support have all aided us as a country in our quest to realize our full potentials.

The important question then is why the Rawlingses and Mubaraks can’t also support others in the same way they were supported? My guess would be that their appetite for strongmanship requires an apparatchik namely, Nana Konadu Agyeman- Rawlings who could not “be brave and bold enough, lift the weak and build the peace, secure[d] the base of the party, be the last chance to get it right, usher[ed] in a new sense of possibility, [be a source of] positive difference, [and] invest more in research and development” over the 19 years of the Rawlingses stewardship. Yet these are what a certain Ras Mubarak wants NDC delegates to suddenly forget and re-introduce Nana KAR because his false prophecy tells him “if she loses, Ghana loses”. Indeed, the saying that the ‘more you don’t know, the more you think you know’ mimics this kind of the Mubaraks’ persona.

Unfortunately for Ras Mubaraks too, there are wise men and women in the NDC and Ghana who know that when strongmen are allowed to win the battle over strong institutions and apparatchiks are imposed on them, a fatal reverse gear is been ignited. They also know that a political landscape characterized by strongmen and ‘our enemies instead of our opponents’ will deprive our country of productive politics.

The Ras Mubaraks and cronies have chosen to see sometimes and be blind in other times. They see it has not been good as Ghanaians would have imagined. That is true but they fail to see that our economy is relatively resilient than many of our peers. They see Ghanaians are being let down by the President and yet fail to also see that over 2008-2009, the global economy as a whole was let down by a financial meltdown. They don’t also see that today, many countries are still been hunted by the ghost of the world financial crisis, reflected in the fragilities in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and many others. They don’t as well see that unemployment figures are at levels not witnessed in recent decades in many developed countries and yet these are the countries that due to our begging mentality have traditionally helped us with aid dollars. They have refused to see our fragile fiscal house due to many years of debt overhang. While their refusal to see these may not represent excuses to let Ghanaians down, certainly, these difficult times require that we as a people provide constructive criticisms like CEPA does, like Joy FM does on its Hotline documentary, like Akuffo Addo has done in recent weeks, like the CPP is doing, and many other well meaning Ghanaians are doing. But unlike the rest, the Mubaraks are employing pseudo and crooked statistics and falsehood as their weapons to hold back government business in the name of their desire to push through their apparatchik.

While I believe that all qualified NDC members may contest the President for the flagbearership, it does not warrant contestants and their supporters to ‘bullshit’ the embodiment of the presidency. Ghana is for all of us so let’s guide it with love, caution and jealousy. Let’s resist all attempts to impose any apparatchik on the NDC or the country in the name of the people. This cannot be the deal to reclaiming our development or the dreams of our forefathers. God bless Ghana, God bless strong institutions.

Credit: Luke A. Atazona, Department of Economics, UoS, Canada.
Email: atazona@yahoo.com