PREPARATIONS are in top gear for Sunday's transfer of power to a new set of helmsmen who last month, secured the people's mandate to govern Ghana for the next four years.
At the foreseable epochal ceremony, Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor, 63 years, lawyer, businessman, main opposition party candidate and winner of last week's presidential election will take over from Jerry John Rawlings, a flight lieutenant who seized power in a coup d'etat in 1979. He handed over to democratically elected Dr. Hilla Limann but returned in 1981 and has since ruled the West African country. He transformed into a civilian president in 1992.
The 200-member parliament would also be constituted. These would also precipitate changes in the hierarchy of administration in the 10 regions and local districts. The new executive exercises the authority to appoint representatives at these levels to ensure effective implementation of government policies and programmes in the areas.
The elections which started on December 7, ended on Thursday last week. Kufuor, candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) defeated incumbent Vice President and candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John Evans Attah Mills.
The second round was necessitated by the inability of any of the seven presidential candidates that contested the December 7, polls to secure the 50 per cent plus one vote required by the constitution to win the presidential election.
The duo who polled the highest number of votes went into the second round, while the five that trailed behind were dropped. These included Dr. Edward N. Mahama of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), George P. Hagan of the Convention People's Party (CPP) and Mr. Daniel A. Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP). Others were Mr. Charles Weseko-Brobby of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) and Mr. Goosie O. Tanoh of the National Reform Party (NRP).
The five rallied behind Kufuor to ensure Mills' defeat to pave way for a change of the Rawlings era which majority of the population in Ghana clamour for.
In the second round therefore, Kufuor and his running mate Alhaji Aliu Mahama garnered 3,631,263 or 56.9 per cent of the votes as against Mills 2,750,124 or 43.1 per cent.
Kufuor won convincingly in six of the 10 regions and secured over 40 per cent of the total votes in two other regions. The six regions are: Western, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti and Browg Ahago. The two are Northern and Upper East; while the other two where he was thrashed are Volta, Rawlings' home region, and Upper West.
The NPP also secured 99 seats in parliament, the highest by the parties, followed by the NDC ? 93, PNC ? 3, CPP ? 1 and independent candidates ? 4.
For Ghana, it is the dawn of a new day. For the first time, in its post colonial history, one elected government would complete its tenure, conduct a rancour-free election to hand over to a successor.
The elections that yielded a Kufuor presidency and the new parliament with an NPP majority have been declared as peaceful, free and fair by most people who participated in or observed them.
Already, joyful sentiiments are being expressed in and outside Ghana. United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian says he is elated by the conduct of the elections and the outcome.
Similar sentiments have been expressed by governments of other countries and world leaders.
Analysts have said a Kufuor Presidency more than Rawlings' would bring to the fore the permutations, calculations and intrigues that characterise Ghanaian politics. Also, that his tenure which to many could be said to be the real taste of democracy by Ghanaians in decades will put to test the country's new found cohesiveness and civility.
Kufuor's ascendency to the helm of leadership throws up quite a number of issues which hold the ace to Ghana's future. At issue, for instance, is the place and role of Rawlings, given the circumstances of his coming to power and events that trailed his 20-year tenure.
There are also issues of the economy and peoples' welfare, politics and Ghana's relationship with international financial institutions and foreign financiers of its programmes and projects and how far they can go in influencing policies in the country.
Kufuor was a leading member of the Danquah-Busia Club known to share the ideals of the late Dr. K. A. Busia who, in 1971, pursued the Aliens Complaint Act that saw the repartriation of non-indigenes, and stained relationship between Ghana and some countries including Nigeria. Rightly or wrongly, the NPP, of all the other parties, is easily linked with the old Progress Party (PP) which Busia led.
Again, Kufuor is Ashanti, and many people from the over 50 tribes in Ghana accuse the Ashanti of having a domineering attitude.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges Kufuor would face and which has become an issue of hushed discussions is his relationship with the military. Unlike Rawlings, he was never a soldier. Having tasted power, the Ghanaian military is still fascinated by it.
Understanding Ghana today and predicting the shape of events to come connote x-raying the man Rawlings. If the saying is true that history is kind to those who make it, then Rawlings can be assured that he would receive a compassionate treatment.
He may not have been the most benevolent. In fact, his 20-year rule of Ghana recorded many unsettling interjections, but it is interesting that he is capping it all too well by peacefully relinquishing power. Not necessarily in the style of the fad that the end justifies the means, but more in the manner that he who perseveres to the end shall be justified.
Twice, Rawlings wrestled power from the government of the day in Ghana and by Sunday, January 7, when he hands over power, he would have gone down as having made a statemanly contribution to power transfer in Africa. Rawlings handed over to two democratically elected presidents at different times.
His first appearance on the political turf was in 1979 when he sacked the military regime of the era, but allowed the transition programme which that government enunciated to run its full course and then handed over power to the winner of that election, Dr. Hilla Limann.
At the time he struck on June 4, 1979, it was obvious Ghana was headed for a deep crisis. The military regime of the time, needed a cover to perpetuate itself in office. A referendum was designed to secure what seemed like the people's mandate to run a diarchy. But, things went awry.
In March 1978, a national referendum was held to determine the suitability of the hybrid system of government dubbed "Union Government", that would have created a military-civilian constitutional government. But the concept, which was propagated by the Supreme Military Council (SMC) was surrounded by controversy.
The final result which was declared by the electoral commission was widely disputed by the civil society. It gave the figure of those in support of the union government as 60 per cent while those that opposed it as 40 per cent of the voters.
There was a palace coup d'etat in 1978, and the new government was compelled to organise multi-party elections. Rawlings struck and overthrew that government. He allowed to hold, parliamentary and presidential elections slated for June 18 and second round presidential ballot on Monday, July 9, which Limann won.
He had said on coming to power in 1981 that: "The PNDC is determined not only to punish those who have looted the nation's coffers, but also to make the necessary institutional changes that would prevent a recurrence of these lapses."
And on another platform, he said: "The medicine is bitter, but it is necessary."
He was to add another which appeared to have confirmed his long stay in power and what could be seen today as its benefits: "The revolutionary process in which we are now involved is like planting a tree. Without faith in the future, nobody plants a tree or undertakes a revolution."
He capped it up: "Populist nonsense must give way to scientific sense, whether popular or unpopular."
He lived to his words, arraigned past heads of state including Limann and executed them. Still less than seven months in office, three High Court judges and a retired army officer were abducted and murdered in questionable circumstances.
Kufuor had a feel of Rawlings' high-handedness when he (Rawlings) clamped him in jail after the coup. Kufuor was later released and integrated in his government, but the two could not work together, forcing Kufuor to quit few months later.
Ghana may not have been an isolated case, but the economy has witnessed severe strain. Cedi, the country's currency is not worth more than the paper it is printed on, exchanging for over 6900 Cedi to a dollar. Unemployment and underemployment is high and the purchasing power is ridiculously low. The gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, yet Rawlings remained in power, transforming from a military head of state into a civilian president in 1992.
The constitutional amendment he effected to usher in the constitutional rule in 1992 pegged the President's tenure at a maximum two terms of four years each. It is the observance of this provision that threw-up Kufuor as the new president-elect.
Insinuations have been made on the kind of treatment that would be meted on Rawlings who stepped on many toes, including Kufuor's whom he clamped into jail on coming to power in December 1981. Many are yet to forgive him for killing some former heads of state and few key government officials on coming to power.
This, more than any other act has haunted him to date as many whose kith and kin were involved are still aggrieved.
But Kufuor says he in not prepared to re-open old wounds. For presiding over the historic election, Kufuor gives Rawlings credit.
On if he would heed the calls to probe Rawlings, he said: "I reiterate my intention to accord President Rawlings all the respect and recognition that is due to an ex-head of state. I will ensure that he is treated as I would like to be treated at the end of my term of office."
In an interview with The Guardian, he restated this, saying that his administration would devote so much time on wealth creation matters and would scarcely have time to probe the past administration.
Whether Kufuor will maintain this stand or bow to mounting pressure to bring Rawlings to book remains to be seen.
But Kufuor will be weary of the military, Rawlings' first constituency. Rawlings is believed to have survived for 20 years because he knew the military turf and how to tread it.
Ghana's history has been replete with military incurssions which first occurred on February 24, 1966. A way out of the dilemma of military threat to the new government in Ghana, many inside sources suggest, is that Kufuor may infiltrate their ranks with his kinsmen from Ashanti still in the system.
It is instructive that the build-up to last week's presidential elections took ethnic dimensions, thus wittingly or unwittingly, ethnicity became a contentious issue in the elections.
How Kufuor plays the ethnic card laced with the domineering tendencies would play significant role in the shape of politics in the country henceforth.
