National cohesion critical

On Monday, January 7, 2013, Ghana went through another inaugural ceremony, when President John Dramani Mahama was installed as the fourth President of the Fourth Republic. The global community watched with appreciation and applauded, heaping tonnes of accolade on us. But we would be wiser to realise that we still have a long way to go. Since the 1992 Constitution came into force on January 7, 1993, the country has held presidential and parliamentary elections in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and the latest in 2012. None of these came off without controversy and acrimony. The most contentious one was that of 1992, when the presidential election was held before the parliamentary one. The New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Professor Albert Adu Boahen, had serious problems with the polls which he claimed were heavily rigged in favour of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, who stood on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). So aggrieved was the New Patriotic Party (NPP), that it boycotted the parliamentary elections. That development did not only undermine our political advancement, it also affected our national psyche and tore the country into two, with one party running the show, while the other looked on passively. The 1993-1996 parliament nearly upturned the constitutional order and made Ghana a one-party state but for a few members who stood on the ticket of the National Convention Party (NCP) and as independent candidates. That might have informed the decision to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day, apart from cost considerations. What could be described as the biggest test for the Fourth Republic and the electoral process came in 2000, when the NDC lost power to the NPP in the December elections of that year. At least, that change gave assurance to Ghanaians that change through the ballot box is possible and reinforced our confidence in the democratic path we chose for ourselves. Incidentally, that was the second election conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC) under the chairmanship of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. A second test came in 2008, when the NPP lost political power to the NDC in the general election. A case was made again emphatically that a political party in government could easily go into opposition if it failed to deliver to the satisfaction of the electorate. That is the strength of our democracy and which has brought us this far. With the nasty experience of the 1992 polls as timely warning, a lot of reforms were introduced into the electoral process to make it more transparent, and reliable to reduce or minimise malpractices associated with general elections. At various stages, transparent ballot boxes were introduced, black and white photo ID cards gave way to colour ID cards. The latest reform was the introduction of the biometric registration of voters and verification of voters on voting day. All these notwithstanding, our EC, under Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, which presided over all the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections except the one held in 1992, has still not been able to erase doubts from the minds of all Ghanaians. The approach of every election puts the country in a war mood. Every interested party has something to complain about the electoral process and the integrity and impartiality of the EC and its officers are always put to question. Violent and foul words always fill the air, causing fear and panic among the larger population The Afari-Gyan, who presided over the 2000 polls which saw power being transferred from the NDC to the NPP and in 2008, when the NPP handed over to the NDC, is still seen with suspicion by both parties. After the latest reforms, we were all expecting that after the polls, both the winners and losers would shake hands and this country would move on with all hands on deck in the pursuit of national development. This was not to be. In fairness to the EC and to ourselves as a people, the 2012 election was without any incident such as ballot box snatching, intimidation or violent attack on political opponents. That was to our credit. While the world was praising us for one of the best elections ever, one party, the NPP, which commands the support of almost 50 per cent of the electorate, is in court challenging the results. The challenge is legitimate, more so when it is being pursued in a court of law as prescribed by the Constitution, so there should be no qualms about that. What is of worry to some of us, and I want to believe that we are in the majority, is the fact that since 1993 when the first government under the Fourth Republic was formed, we Ghanaians have never been able to put our energies together behind our governments. We have never succeeded in pursuing any national development agenda with a common purpose, with collective resolute and with national determination. Many projects on which national resources have been spent are still at the skeleton stages because they were initiated by other governments. Policies have been abandoned midway because there was a change of government. Our educational system has been one of the victims of such lack of national cohesion and national development agenda and our children are the greatest losers. This year for instance, there will be two batches writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. One group did four years of senior secondary education while the other did three years of the same course. So two batches, one examination and the same number of tertiary institutions to admit them. That is the chaos we are creating for this country without knowing because we lack accommodation, tolerance and understanding in our politics. Until President John Mahama decided to relocate to the Jubilee/Flagstaff House, the edifice built at national expense to house the presidency was a wasteland, maybe home to rodents and miscreants. This country has enough resources to turn the place if we would allow patriotism and nationalism to take the better part of us. If elections are the dividing line, then the EC must go a step further by introducing biometric voting in 2016, so that human beings would play very little part in the counting process to reduce any doubts or the possibility of cheating in any form. We have held on through thick and thin. We have proved our determination to make things work no matter the challenges. But we cannot continue to rely on luck. We need to tackle our electoral process with all seriousness if we are to avoid the pitfalls of others and to move this nation forward in unity. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com