Akufo-Addo’s Dicey Pursuit of the Ghanaian Presidency!

Nana Akufo-Addo’s recent, but not unexpected, peroration that he would seek the Ghanaian presidency a third time leaves in its trail a smorgasbord of arguments and counterarguments regarding this New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart’s real motivations for relentlessly pursuing the nation’s most coveted and exalted public office. Akufo-Addo has been in politics a very long time, having served on various political platforms since 1977, his crowning achievements being, first, his appointment as Ghana’s Attorney-General and Justice Minister and, second, as Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, both in the John Kufuor-led administrations in the Fourth Republic. Although Nana Akufo-Addo received his party’s nod to represent it in both Election 2008 and Election 2012, he was unable to rally the Ghanaian electorate to send him to Flagstaff House, the nation’s symbol of power and glory, having lost to two formidable opponents – John Atta-Mills and John Mahama, respectively – neither of whom had the advantage of real incumbency.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who will turn 70 on March 29, 2014, is definitely not too old to become president of Ghana, as Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th president, came to office at the old age of 70, but, as is quite obvious to political junkies and aficionados, Ronald Reagan did not land the highest public office in America after multiple attempts. In fact, most politicians in America seek the presidency just once, as the sophisticated American electorate generally is wont to dismiss anyone who attempts to hijack the political process for self-serving purposes. Additionally, whether or not Nana Akufo-Addo, who will be 72 in December 2016, would possess both the mental capacity and physical strength to run a rigorous campaign for the Ghanaian presidency is a matter of contemporary debate, but I am unwilling to be as dismissive as other political and social commentators have been so far. It is also a matter of polarizing debate regarding the three attempts John Atta-Mills made before becoming Ghana’s president in January 2009, circumstances that Nana Akufo-Addo’s supporters are quick to denote. What we tend to forget, however, is that Atta-Mills became president at 64, not at 72.

The recent calls by some NPP stalwarts for Nana Akufo-Addo to be installed as the party’s flag-bearer for Election 2016, which would see the septuagenarian skip the rigorous selection process of a primary, is as undemocratic as it is ludicrous. For a party that lauds itself as the progenitor of democracy in Ghana in the Fourth Republic, jettisoning a primary and appointing a candidate to represent it in Election 2016 would only herald a panoply of vicious, venomous criticisms from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its paid agents. In fact, the NPP will easily lose Election 2016 to the NDC if the former abandons its avowed commitment to the democratic process and appoints Nana Akufo-Addo to represent it instead.

The preceding discussions thus bring me to the core of my argument: the need for the NPP to elect a new presidential candidate for Election 2016. Ghanaians are unlikely to elect Nana Akufo-Addo as president because of the man’s strange beliefs, which have been unmasked by reckless statements such as “All die be die” and “Yen Akan fuo.” These out-of-place statements had exposed Nana Akufo-Addo’s ethnocentric inclinations, which became fodder for the ruling NDC before and after Election 2012. Indeed, returning Akufo-Addo to the frontlines of an acrimonious, abrasive NPP–NDC political battle for Flagstaff House in 2016 would only give the NDC an undeserved advantage, as John Mahama’s minions and adjuvants will, undoubtedly, chip away at Akufo-Addo’s credibility until nothing is left of it. Unless the NPP selects a fresh, untainted candidate for Election 2016, it would be providing the ruling party an easy and stress-free return to power, despite the latter’s horrible performance at the helm of affairs. Ghana’s economy is crumbling before our eyes, and it appears that the ruling NDC does not have the men and women to fix the compendium of problems facing the nation. Despite these cavernous deficiencies, Ghanaians are likely to return John Mahama for a second term, unless the NPP sagaciously selects a winning candidate, which, as I explained earlier, could not be Nana Akufo-Addo.

I will stop short of advocating a particular candidate for the NPP. Instead, party members and leaders ought to push for unequivocal transparency in the looming election to select a flag-bearer, as the jostling and jousting of the past had led to poor decision-making by members of the party. In other words, the leaders of the NPP must guard against all forms of electoral malpractices at the next intra-party primary, if the NPP is to unveil the most likable, credible, and electable candidate for Election 2016. Sadly, the NDC’s abysmal performance so far means that the proletarian ideals associated with a growing democracy will remain an illusion for many Ghanaians, unless the NPP can put up a good fight in Election 2016 to stop the NDC from irreversibly running the economy aground.

As I noted earlier, it is impossible to decipher Akufo-Addo’s true motivations for his continual pursuit of the Ghanaian presidency. However, things can get dicey for the Kyebi native, unless he is willing to embark on a concerted tour of the country to test the pulse of voters. He would need to take this action before taking part in Election 2016, provided he gets his party’s nod – again. This argument is necessitated by the fact that twice Akufo-Addo was selected as flag-bearer by his party, and twice he lost to NDC candidates in the general election. In other words, it is not enough to be popular in one’s own party; it is equally important to be popular in the entire country, as independents and swing voters are likely to determine the winner of Election 2016. The discerning reader ought to be aware of the fact that John Kufuor won 5 out of 10 regions in 2000, and, subsequently, 7 out of 10 regions in 2004. On the contrary, Akufo-Addo won 2 out of 10 regions in 2008 and, again, 2 out of 10 regions in 2012. The figures, dear reader, are not an encouraging sign that Akufo-Addo is a winning candidate, unless members of the NPP are unperturbed by their recurrent defeats in national elections.

No NPP presidential aspirant can win a national election in Ghana unless there is a huge turnout in the Ashanti Region for the candidate. From all indications, Nana Akufo-Addo is not particularly popular with both swing voters and party loyalists in the Ashanti Region. And compared to John Kufuor, Akufo-Addo lacks the charisma to woo undecided voters in a close election. As such, the members of the NPP ought to engage in thoughtful introspection before selecting a candidate for Election 2016, unless, once again, they are comfortable playing second fiddle to an NDC administration that lacks ideas – great and small – to move the nation forward. The sad reality in this narrative is the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo, a sagacious politician who had garnered tremendous respect at home and abroad for his willingness to accept the Ghana Supreme Court’s post-Election 2012 verdict, has refused to leave the stage while the ovation is loudest …

© The writer, Daniel K. Pryce, is a Doctoral Candidate who also serves as an instructor in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at George Mason University. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the same university. He is a member of the National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration in the U.S.A. He may be followed on Twitter: @DanielKPryce. He invites the reader to join the pressure group “Good Governance in Ghana” on Facebook.com, which he superintends. “Good Governance in Ghana” is a group that emphasizes the preservation of democracy, justice, equity, and law and order in Ghana. He can be reached at dpryce@cox.net.