First Step in consensus building

read by SSB
January 27,2009

By Kofi Akordor
Our transition in 2001 was quite chaotic. But it could be pardoned. We were just picking our first steps in multiparty democracy after many years of military and civilian dictatorship.
It was also the first time a ruling party lost at the polls and was transferring power to a party coming out of opposition. Considering the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had been in opposition for decades, that is if its roots could be traced to the Progress Party (PP), which was pushed out of government by soldiers on January 13, 1972, it could be understood, the frenzy with which the Kufuor Administration zoomed into power and captured the reins of government, giving little breathing space to the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC), then under President Jerry John Rawlings.
Those days, many things were done wrongly including the invasion of the residence of the then Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills, who contested and lost the presidency against Mr J.A. Kufuor. The scars of those acrimonious days remained with us throughout the administration of former President Kufuor and contributed a great deal to the tension which engulfed this nation, before, during and after the struggle for political supremacy in Election 2008. The transitional hiccups of 2000 drew a wedge between the then former President Rawlings and the then President Kufuor, which several prominent and distinguished personalities tried fruitlessly to remove.
If in 2000 we made mistakes because we were infants in the game of multiparty democracy and because people were overzealous to capture political power, we cannot get the same pardon the way we organised and celebrated our 50 years of nationhood. As if it was an afterthought, this nation made mockery of its Golden Jubilee and reduced it to a feast savoured by a few who made personal fortunes out of what should have been a national historic event.
Malaysia, which shares the same birth year with us but is younger by a few months, announced her 50th anniversary five years in advance, and notified the world about her intention to climax the celebration of its 50 years of excellence in 2007. The different ways the two countries celebrated their golden jubilee were a whole story about how they conducted themselves during the first 50 years of their national life.
Malaysia came out of backwardness and advanced into modernity and industrialisation, while Ghana continued to pride itself as a major exporter of raw cocoa beans. So when it came to celebrating the event, Ghana planned its own haphazardly, imported anniversary cloth and other souvenir items from China, while Malaysia did a meticulous planning and showcased its achievements over the 50 years and gave a hint where it wanted to be in the next 50 years.
Even as we struggled to lift up our celebration that was nothing to write home about, there was evidence to suggest people placed in responsible positions to see to a successful celebration, even though it was planned belatedly, were busy lining their pockets with state funds and acquiring properties in the name of Ghana@50.
Painfully, we could not, as a nation, point at any monument to remind us of Ghana@50 when we celebrate Ghana@100. We did not feel any shame, when we announced that we spent US$4 million to renovate the Independence Square constructed at independence and then known as the Black Star Square. Other projects envisaged including the Jubilee toilets, schools, recreational parks and many other things are nowhere to be found, even though their costs have been captured in the Jubilee Budget. That is the story of Ghana, which at the least opportunity will not fail to remind the world that it was the first country south of the Sahara to gain political independence from colonial rule.
We have come a long way between 2001 and 2009, so when the time came for another transition ritual the people of this nation were expecting something better, at least not the repetition of the mistakes of 2001.
The first glimmer of hope came when the new Parliament went through the motion of electing the Speaker and the two Deputy Speakers without any hitch. We have come of age, many applauded, and the expectation was that as the days rolled by more of such consensus building would emerge to prove us as a maturing democratic people.
Then the cracks started to emerge. Former President Kufuor in his last day in office decided to take credit for increasing the salary of public servants by between 16 and 32 per cent and left the burden of payment on the shoulders of President Mills, who is yet to confer with his economic team to know how much is in the national kitty. Will it appear as if President Mills is insensitive to the plight of workers and has, therefore, refused to pay public servants what the departed Kufuor administration had announced?
Thankfully, many saw the announced salary increase more of treachery than an act of genuine concern and have, therefore, rubbished it. Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, a senior member of the New Patriotic Party and one-time Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the Kufuor Administration, did not find it difficult to condemn the increase as unfair and misplaced.
There were also last-minute appointments in the Foreign Service, which every well-informed person knows is a very strategic unit within the government bureaucracy. In the same last-minute effort, promotions, transfers and appointments were made in the police service and the military. Why should someone exiting from government make appointments in the security apparatus? It would help to recall here, some of the excesses of the new administration including seizure of vehicles suspected to be government vehicles being cladenstinely registered by individuals.
Government must continue to function even as a baton change is effected and things must be done in a way that does not create room for suspicion or where people could be pushed into a corner that would compel them to do things that could be misinterpreted. That is why it should be possible for an outgoing government to incorporate in its handover notes, outstanding issues such as salary increases for public servants and make recommendations where necessary for appointments, promotions and transfers for the new administration to apply its good judgement to take the appropriate decisions.
When outgoing governments leave such doubtful decisions in their trail, they put the incoming administration on the alert and they also begin to take panic measures such as dismissal of officers, who should be at post to brief the incoming ones.
The seeds of bitterness, rancour and suspicion are then planted and the cycle continues. We must be able to come out of our pettiness and do the right thing. We cannot continue to excuse our mistakes and misdeeds with the claim that ours is a young democracy. We do not need to trek 200 years to do what enlightened societies are doing today. We have all to learn from those who have treaded the same path we have chosen for ourselves.
Most of us were privileged to see via the international media what happened on Inauguration Day in Washington DC, on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 when Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States of America. That was the culmination of events that began on November 5, 2008, when he was declared winner of the US presidential elections.
The transition was not at the pleasure of any individual or political party and when the Inauguration Day came, it was a national affair. All previous Presidents and Vice Presidents were present with their spouses. All those who matter in American politics including Senators and Members of the House of Representatives were there.
After Obama’s oath, it was a beauty when he escorted the immediate former President, George W. Bush, to Executive One, the official helicopter of the presidency, to be flown to Andrews Air Force Base and then to his home state of Texas.
From then on, President Obama was in full control. We can do the same here, and it should not take us a whole generation to learn from the American example and put some sanity into our political lives. The first step is for us to learn to be accommodating and to realise that public office is held at the behest of the people and not a personal property that should be guarded and protected even at the expense of human lives.
That is why the spirit which guided Parliament to elect the Speaker and the two deputy Speakers without any confrontation should be the preferred one to lead us to national consensus building on important matters of state.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com