Nana Akufo Addo’s All Die Be Die Problem

If Nana Akufo-Addo loses the 2012 election, as it is now more likely than not,

historians will look back at the day he made the “all die be die” statement as the

turning point of his electoral fortune and political career. The “all die be die”

rant reduced Nana Akufo-Addo from a viable alternative to the Mills led government

to a desperate loser seeking to appeal to the worse instinct of Ghanaians. The

statement further affirm the belief among many Ghanaians of NPP’s penchants for

violence and vile rhetoric. The party under him is willing to do all that it takes

to make Nana president even if it means crippling the country in violence just as in

Ivory Coast, Rwanda, and Kenya.

The statement should not be taken likely by all well-meaning Ghanaians and even by

foreigners who wish mother Ghana well. It constitutes a smallest window in the mind

set of an Ethnic Entrepreneur and how he intends to conduct himself during and after

the 2012 elections. The “all die be die” rants were a dog whispers to supporters of

the NPP in the Ashanti Region that they could resort violence in the evident the NPP

loses the 2012 elections. It was also meant to provide NPP a political cover to

reject or dispute the result and declare violence and discontent in the country.

This is not a new trick the NPP is seeking to employ. The same play book was used

after the 1992 elections in order discredit the Rawlings led NDC government.

The “all die be die” statement is also a subtle admission that NPP will lose the

election. It is constitutes a window in to the mind set of a democratic tyrant’s

strategy for forcing his opponents in to fights by throwing the first punch. It is

therefore not surprising the current politics of attacks and insults on the person

of the President and his family. Nana Akufo Addo knows that he is no match to

President Mills’ unimpeachable moral standing and economic records. Absent any hitch

on the government’s moral and economic records, the Nana campaign have no option but

to resorted to the campaign of insults, personal attacks, and outright lies and

misinformation hoping that one of those falsehoods will stick. These kinds of

campaign tactics is known in the United States as throwing the kitchen sink at your

opponents. It is desperate ploy by a candidate who knows he would retire from

politics without having the benefit of the office he had for so long yarned for and

entitle himself.

If you doubt that the “all die be die” statement is a dog whistle for violence ask

NPP’s Ashanti Regional organizer, Mr. Kennedy Kamkam. He was on report to issued a

stern warning to the nation’s Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Afri Gyan, for what he

term “siding with the ruling government” simply because he introduced a biometric

registration process and thought there is no need for a verification process. It is

worth mentioning that Dr. Gyan has been election commissioner in Ghana since 1992

and have supervised elections under both the NDC and NPP administrations. In fact he

declared NPP’s President Kufour winner in two election. He is recognized in Africa

and the world as one of the most trusted election commissioners on the continent.

Yet the NPP wants to drag the reputation of his man in the drain. Mr. Kamkam was on

record to have also said that should Nana Akufo Addo lose the 2012 election, they

and their allies will form a parallel government in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest

city.

The NPP wants to repeat the same strategy as it did in the 2008 election, rig

election in their stronghold by creating confusion. In 2008, many polling stations

in the Ashanti Eastern Regions the NPP obtained more votes than the number of

registered voters in some polling stations. Also, whiles the voter turnout for

Ashanti in the runoff election was 83.31%, the average for the rest of the country

was about 72%. Ashanti Region’s turn out was over 10% the national average. Anyone

who followed radio reporting during the 2008 run off election know this for a fact.

Prof. Adu Boahene, the NPP candidate for president in the 1992 presidential

election, employed similar strategy and the NPP lost. After that electoral defeat,

they alleged all kinds of violence, rejected the results, and proceeded to write a

book titled Stolen Verdict. The party then made a concerted effort to delegitimize

the NDC government by boycotting parliamentary elections. When all the dust settled

it became apparent to them that boycotting the parliamentary election was their own

waterloo. As it provided the NDC government a one party domination and left NPP

voiceless in our body politique for four years. It did not take much for the NPP to

rejected the Adu Boahene mantra and charted a new course; a course that saw them

through two successive elections victories under President Kufour.

It took over two decades before Prof. Afari Gyan laid the truth of the 1992 results

to rest in an interview with Kojo Oppong Nkrumah of Joy FM. The pillar of Ghanaian

democracy did not miss words. He said to the amazement of many, including his

interviewer, that the NPP lost the 1992 election clear, pure and simply. Yet the NPP

and its allies will not stop circulating the same snake oil about the 1992 election

that they continually sold Ghanaians for more than two decades. Neither will they

back off from the dead-old tactics of tribalism and appeal to violence.

As the experience of Mr. Kufour and Prof. Mills showed, elections are not won by

appealing to people's worse instincts. Candidates win elections by promosing hope

for the future, light at the end tunnel, and bread at the end of a day’s hard work.

People will be reluctant to support candidates who seek to divide the country along

ethnic and tribal lines for their own political interest. We are all witnesses to

the carnage that ensued in Yendi when politicians unnecessarily inflamed ethnic

passions to garner support leading to the gruesome murder of Ya Naa (the Regent of

Dagbom) and tens of his kinsmen. The interests of Ghanaians far outweigh the

interest of any political group. Therefore ethnic entrepreneurship and the politics

of appealing to tribalism any time one fine himself in a political corner is not a

winning strategy. It is a loser and we thought the NPP learnt that lesson from their

previous campaigns.

Government of Ghana should be candid in informing Nana Akufo Addo and or any

candidate who want to inflame ethnic passion and violence that they will be

personally responsible for any lost of life in Ghana. And if Nana doubts this, he

should check the lives of the like of Gbagbo and Charles Taylor among several

others. The international community has a legal framework for dealing with

recalcitrant violent leaders, it is called the ICC.

Abdul Musah sidibe

agolumusah@yahoo.com

Abdul Musah Sidibe is a human rights activist and an African political observer. He

is currently resident Calgary, Alberta, Canada.