Winning Election 2000 Opposition must unite - George Ayittey

Professor George Ayittey of the Department of Economics at the American University in Washington DC says he still believes that it is only a united opposition which can defeat the NDC in the forthcoming elections.

He said this to Mr. Harruna Attah, editor of The Accra Mail who was in Washington earlier this month at the invitation of the US State Department. George Ayittey is known in US diplomatic and intellectual circles as one of the most articulate African spokesmen against the poor quality leadership on the African continent.

Most African countries have been beset with bad Presidents, Chairmen, Emperors and Prime Ministers since they attained colonial independence in the fifties and sixties of the last century. Professor Ayittey has often appeared on CNN and other influential western media to articulate his oftentimes controversial views on his mother continent.

His views are ironically in direct opposition to his sister’s, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, who is very important in the NDC government here in Ghana. Professor Ayittey made his comments when he, together with a number of Ghanaian resident in the Washington DC area met Mr. Harruna Attah for a briefing on political developments back home.

He said Ghana’s opposition was being incompetent in its approach to Election 2000. It was this same incompetence that led to their defeat in Elections ’92 and ’96 and yet they do not seem to have learnt any lessons. The Professor belongs to a new class of African thinkers loosely described as "internalists", who say that a lot of Africa’s problems are caused by Africans themselves, especially through their leaders, the worst culprits of which are the self-imposed military types.

He has been known to describe the leadership of Flt. Lt. Rawlings as Barbarian. It is such strong opinions which have made the professor such a non-conformist in his country’s politics. Attempts by elements of the Ghanaian opposition at home and in the US to get him to "declare" for one of the many political parties to prove his commitment have met with stoical resistance from the professor.

This stance has also not endeared him to the Ghanaian opposition, home and abroad, some of whose members see him as being insincere to their plight in what they see as an unfair political atmosphere reign in Ghana. Professor Ayittey says he is aware of the problems of the opposition but help can find its way only to a united and purposeful opposition.

With less than two months to Election 2000, it is not likely that the six opposition parties lined up against the NDC and its lesser partners can come together to fight the elections under one banner, so if Professor Ayittey’s position has merit, they will lose yet again this December. Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby’s United Ghana Movement (UGM) was born out of frustrations that are not dissimilar to George Ayittey’s anxieties, but even there, the UGM has not been able to put together a united opposition to contest the elections.

The issue of political alliance itself is not a new one in Ghana. The United Party or UP was the coming together of a number of political parties to challenge Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP in the independence era. History repeated itself in the 2nd Republic with the coalition of the opposition parties into one political party called Justice Party.

Again, during the 3rd Republic, the All Peoples Party metamorphosed from the collection of opposition parties to counter the PNP of the late Hilla Liman. It is conceivable that if the 3rd Republic had not been overthrown by the military, Ghana would by now have established the kind of two dominant party political cultures found in many older democracies. After the coup of December 1981, civilian politics was given a deadly body blow and to a large extent, has not yet recovered.

Political traditions were mangled and individual politicians became either victims or compromised on principle. Therein may lie the genesis to Professor Ayittey’s criticism of incompetence against Ghana’s contemporary crop of opposition politicians. In Election ’92, the old men of Ghana’s politics, including the late K.A. Gbedemah, ex-President Hilla Liman, Professor Adu Boahen, and others, came together in an Association of Democratic Forces - ADF, to press home some demands before the elections took off.

The effort ran aground and all the leaders went their separate ways to contest the elections, each intent and sure of wining hands down and in the first round. A "stolen verdict" was the outcome. An alliance of opposition parties in Election ’96 was equally botched up and now as the country prepares for its millennium elections, the question is still being asked, "Can the Ghanaian opposition parties win Election 2000 if they do not come together?" Professor Ayittey says they cannot.

Perhaps, the answer to George Ayittey’s concern can be found in Senegal and Yugoslavia where in recent times, opposition unity has dislodged entrenched ruling parties that have held political power for several decades! Meanwhile, judging by the media pronouncements of the individual opposition political parties, December 7 2000 will see each and every one of them winning!

In separate discussions with different Ghanaian groups, also in the US, it came out that many of them resent the idea of not having the vote. One of them said, "we are being told to contribute money to help back home when we do not even have the right to vote".

The right to vote and the issue of dual citizenship are high on the agenda of many Ghanaians living in the United States and may yet take centre stage in future elections.