Take Charge of the Transition, Mr. President

By Leonard Quarshie

leoghana@yahoo.com

It’s only been a week since Professor Atta-Mills was sworn in as the 3rd president of the 4th republic and things are not going well. Some of the things that have occurred in the last week are the inevitable result of the short transition time from the January 2, 2009 run-off election to the inauguration and formal handing over on January 7, 2009. But that is hardly an excuse for the things that have happened. The arbitrariness that has characterized the workings of the transition team has been appalling, to say the least. Take for instance, the matter of the seizure of government cars from functionaries of the previous government. That exercise has not only been embarrassing but also shameful.

What is the use of a transition team if questions such as the whereabouts of state vehicles can not be asked of the former government’s transition team? I thought that was the rationale for a transition team in the first place. Isn’t the job of the transition team of an incoming government that of demanding an accounting of all state assets and facilitating the transfer of executive authority? So, why all these blunders? What occurred on January 7, 2009 was not a coup. It was a democratic transfer of power from one elected government to another. Of what use is the seizure of cars from Chief Kufuor, Benjamin Debrah and others only to apologize later.

And what is the rationale for abruptly sacking Mabel Sagoe, the acting head of the DVLA and replacing her with Justice Amegashie? Is this dismissal not similar to President Kufuor’s directive to senior civil servants to proceed on leave in 2000, which the NDC justifiably criticized?

Why is the NDC which criticized these occurrences in 2000 when the NPP did them, repeating the same mistakes? This is not the change, Ghanaians voted for. Ghanaians voted for civility. Civility is not a weakness. It is strength. We must cultivate this trait as nation and move away from this arbitrary way of doing things.

These occurrences represent a repudiation of President Atta-Mills’s promise to wage a different kind of politics. A politics of inclusion and not of division. While it is legitimate for the NDC government to demand accountability from the Kufuor government, it must be done with civility. Infact, the Kufuor government and its functionaries must be held accountable for their actions and where they have run foul of the law, they must be made to face the full rigors of the law.

But accountability is not synonymous with chasing or matching people out as President Rawlings suggests. Neither is it synonymous with seizing cars arbitrarily on suspicion that they belong to government. It is soberly and calmly gathering and collating facts and figures and then demanding answers. The people who have had the privilege of serving in government just as the NDC did from 1992 to 2000 are not common criminals. They are people. And they deserve some dignity.

The suspension of the appointment of 30 A5 Foreign Service Officers by the transition team on suspicion that proper procedure was not followed in their hiring is a hasty decision. Even if this was true, the matter must be handled delicately and fairly and not the Gidigidi, BugaBuga way, Tony Aiddo is handling it—because it has the potential of causing panic and damping morale in the civil service. What will be next? A review of all civil service appointments since 2001? These issues are delicate matters that must be handled with tact, maturity and a great deal of circumspection.

Which brings me back to the NDC transition team. While the business of transitions requires people with experience, it also requires people with wisdom. The composition of the NDC transition team is problematic. Some of the names on the list remind people of the PNDC and early NDC days. And it is the actions of these people that is causing disaffection for government and confirming the worst stereotypes about the NDC, a week into office. The people of Ghana did not vote for the PNDC way of doing things. They voted for Atta-Mills and the NDC of John Mahama and Hanna Tetteh Kpodar.