Kufuor ushers in post-Rawlings era

by GINA DOGGETT

Ghana's resurgent democracy has come into its own as Kufuor assumes the presidency, succeeding longtime ruler Jerry Rawlings in the country's first transfer of power between elected leaders

Multi-party democracy is here to stay in our country," said John Kufuor, who won hard-fought elections last month against Rawlings' National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its flagbearer, the incumbent vice president John Atta Mills.

Kufuor, 62, said he has been given "a mandate to renew our pride and self-esteem," following decades in which democratic governments have been the exception rather than the rule.

Analyst Audrey Gadzekpo of the University of Ghana said: "So many people say this is like having independence all over again," especially for those who recall the heady days of 1957 when Ghana became the first black African country to shed colonial rule.

The new president, a tall, diffident man nicknamed the "gentle giant," took the oath of office outside Parliament House on Sunday morning as Rawlings, wearing a white smock and his trademark sunglasses, looked on.

Rawlings, who seized power in a 1981 coup, legitimised his rule in elections in 1992, and was returned to office in 1996, when he narrowly defeated Kufuor.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was a guest of honor at the gala inauguration, which was also attended by his counterparts from Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo as well as South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

"Ghana will be making a significant contribution to the march of democracy in Africa," said Obasanjo, whose predecessor Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nigeria's last military leader who paved the way for the return of democracy to their country in 1999, was also present.

Kufuor, a lawyer and one-time government minister, said in his inaugural address: "The spontaneous joy and feeling of goodwill that has been in the country since (the December elections) should not be allowed to disappear without translating into tangible improvements in the lives of our people."

Vowing to fight poverty, "our greatest enemy," Kufuor also pledged to wipe out corruption and to guard against forces seeking to "exploit temporary (economic) difficulties" in the west African country of 18 million people.

"We have been down this road before," he said, alluding to the 1981 coup that launched Rawlings on his 19-year reign, as well as a 1972 military takeover by General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

The inauguration followed the swearing in of a new 200-seat parliament, now dominated by Kufuor's New Patriotic Party (NPP) with 100 members, to 92 for Rawlings' National Democratic Congress (NDC), of which the former president will remain chairman for life.

The NDC had a comfortable 133-seat majority in the outgoing parliament.

Its loss in the elections was blamed on a variety of factors including complacency, the ailing economy and accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement as well as a legacy of human rights abuses during Rawlings' rule, especially under his junta from 1981 to 1992.

Despite these associations, Rawlings retained widespread popularity, even cult status, at the grassroots level, and he is credited with assuring stability as well as significantly helping the country develop. Kufuor, magnanimous in victory, has pledged to accord Rawlings the respect due to a former head of state.

On Sunday he sounded a cautious but conciliatory note, telling the nation: "I do not ask that we forget, indeed we dare not forget, but I do plead that we try to forgive."

Meanwhile, outgoing communications minister John Mahama contemplated life for the NDC in the unaccustomed role of opposition party. "It's a very big change for everybody," he said. "Life is never going to be the same again (after) almost 20 years of familiar faces." - AFP