December 7 is a great day, and a great day it is for Ghana - The north and the nation-building project

December 7th, is a great day, and a great day it is for Ghana, with apologies to D.C. Kwame Kwakye, of cherished memories. The greatness of this said day, 7th December is because nation-building as a fundamental post-independence national project has already won, for the singular reason that we have three presidential candidates from the northern part of the country.

Kindly permit me to make my case for this already declared victory.

On the morrow of political independence, most Post-colonial societies, such as Ghana, were confronted with the twin challenges of transcending economic under-development and addressing the problem of nation-building as inherited colonial legacies.

Over 60 years on, the verdict of the ordinary Ghanaian is that as a nation our score card on economic development is just average, at best, and that a lot more could have been done in this domain.

In fact, in the economic development domain, some commentators readily add that save the brief post-independence period of 1957-1966 under Nkrumah when the country registered development, generally Ghana has lagged behind. .

The comparators relied on in this judgment, are not necessarily countries in the West African region, or even the continent, except maybe South Africa, and few others, but rather countries in Asia such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Tiger states, as they are labelled by some scholars. Curiously, even some Ghanaians use the standards of developed countries like Germany, UK, Netherlands, US and others to assess the country’s economic performance.

There appears always to be a nostalgia that previous or past governments seem to have done better than a government at any given time.

Rightly or wrongly, this is the general perception on the issue of the question of economic development as a post-independence national objective. However, to all intents and purposes, on the question of nation-building, Ghana has done very well, and deserves a big pat on the back. While there is always room for improvement, thus far in absolute or comparative terms Ghana deserves a high mark on this question of nation-building, as indicated by the three presidential candidates hailing from the North.

Needless to say, this assertion that as a country Ghana is doing quite well on the question of nation-building, places a burden on me to explain what is meant by nation building. By nation building, I mean a government in an independent country, like Ghana, deliberately using its laws, constitution, etc. to ensure inclusivity of all groups in terms of access to political positions and the socioeconomic resources of the society.

In fact, since independence, the overarching aim of successive governments in Ghana has been to ensure that the different ethnic nationalities feel they belong, just as different from religious groups and have equal stake in the polity.

Specifically, successive governments in the country have worked to prove that a serious nation-building project is more than just the mere practice of democratic governance; it should be about protection of rights of all persons without regard to the region or ethnicity/ tribe, lest it becomes a democracy unfused with human rights.

The Northern Question in Ghana

The North, in Ghanaian parlance, is more than mere geographic description. Unlike descriptions such as Eastern, Central or Western regions, which are generally neutral geographic terms, the North is a heavily loaded concept since essentially it has connotations for political economy and recent history of structural discrimination.

The North was part of the colonial project of creating a periphery out of the subjugated Ghanaian periphery It was to be deliberately kept under-developed as part of the overall strategy of under development of the colony, whereby it was to be the preserve of cheap labour for recruitment for mining, farming, and menial jobs in the South as was the case in many of the British colonies in the continent.

Thus, the wealth generated and accumulated in the Southern part of the country are not unrelated to the deprivation of the North, as it were. Like all colonial projects, the dominance of the South which were closer to the coast had to be rationalized and justified through global racism which was seen as akin to discrimination against the North.

As a result of this deliberate policy of deprivation, some of the most sophisticated civilizations in Northern Ghana, such as the unconquerable Mossis, powerful kingdoms like the Dagombas, Gonjas and others, were made to appear as something less than they were and are.

A deliberately constructed social discourse spiced with stereotypes, myths and folklore were all woven into the Ghanaian social fabric to sustain and justify the newly created culture of differential treatment to ensure primitive accumulation as the bottom line agenda.

The Post-colonial state took after the colonial state ideology and practices in many respects, however, it is highly commendable, that on the question of nation building, Ghanaian political leadership endeavoured to depart from the colonial practices of politics of exclusion.

It was Ghana’s first President, Osagyefoo who set the pace and all subsequent regimes, civilian or military, have used that template of working on getting the North to catch up on issues of nation building including spreading development equitably to the region.

The educational system was a very important instrument employed in this regard, scholarships and free education and inclusion in national politics were some of the drivers. It was not equal yet but there was a sense of equity and good faith to the approach of development.

On this, the state, represented by its government, was ahead of society, despite the fact that some of these stereotypes and myths lingered and still linger on in some sections of society.

On the whole, though, the Ghanaian society has evolved from such primitive thinking, and that is why the overwhelming majority through the primaries of their respective political parties presented Northerners as their preferred presidential candidates.

The immediate reaction here, expectedly, will be that it is not the first time in Ghanaian history to have a Northern presidential candidate and in fact even an elected president in the person of Hilla Limann and in recent years, President Mahama and twice candidate Mahama.

In fact, what is new and distinguishable from the cited previous instances, is that the two dominant political parties have all chosen persons who happen to be Northerners as their presidential candidates.

The two major parties represent over ninety percent (90%) Ghanaians, a fact which suggests that 90% of Ghanaians believe that qualification and merit, rather than ethnicity or region of residence, should be the main criteria for a person to become president of the country.

The two leaders of the two major political parties were all subjected to rigorous process of democratic primaries of their respective parties and the over 90% that the two parties represent chose them. The assumption here is that the delegates are truly representative of the constituencies that they were chosen from.

The case of the NPP is the best exemplar of this evolution in the thinking of Ghanaians with regards to the relative importance of ethnicity and merit as important criteria to aspire to the highest office of the land. The choice of Dr. Bawumia, by a political party the majority of whose members are from the majority Akan ethnic group, illustrates this intellectual evolution poignantly.

Bawumia, like Mahama, to the NDC party, not hailing from a majority ethnic nationality was not an issue. Nor did the fact they both came from a peripheral region, as described above, of any relevance in choosing them.

Economic Development & Nation -Building

This is better appreciated when compared to some countries on the continent, countries in West, East and Southern Africa. Ghanaians have taken that for granted because of the successes. A friend from a West African country recently queried me for criticising his country for being only a state but not a nation, he told me “na nation building we go eat” meaning that nation building does not produce the economic goodies.

The response I gave was, how does it benefit citizens when you have all the goodies and there is no nation state to enjoy them. He was from a highly-ethnicized country. No one will dispute the need for livelihoods, but we seek first nation and the economic development may be added unto it. This does not mean that it should be dogmatically sequential venture, that can be dangerous too as lack of material needs could derail the nation-building project. Ideally if economic development should go on concurrently with nation-building that is the best trajectory to pursue. The view being canvassed here is about striking a balance with more premium for reasons assigned above placed on nation-building in the case of a post -colonial society, as Ghana.

Tanzania is a case that comes to mind. It has over years wilfully pursed a nation-building programme under Nyerere and today there is a strong foundation to embark upon an equitable economic development porgrammme.

But, across Tanzania’s borders, there are countries with a strong economy, in fact, one such is described as an economic power house, but any observer of the African political landscape knows that it can crumble anytime; on the slightest shock, like general elections, it gets to the brink because it is nowhere near nation state, just a geography. People are killed in cold blood in the hallowed name of maintaining chauvinistic ethnic hegemony.

It is against this backdrop that if we were to ask our beloved patriarch, DC Kwame Kwakye, about the two parties having chosen candidates from the North, being the wise words smith he was, he will tell us December 7th is a great day for Ghana, and great it is because Nation- building has won.

Nana. K A Busia, Jr

Asst Professor & Research Fellow

Public international law

School of Advanced Studies,

University of London, UK; &

Former Senior Legal & Policy Advisor, UN.