The Agony of Defeat and the Exhiliration of victory

As I said in my last email, this election will be the turning point of democracy in Ghana. No longer will a party come to power and have the members turn around to look down their nose on the people who elected them into power.

I visited friends in Ohio for the new year. one of my friends had a posh dinner party and invited Ghanaians, and Americans. Naturally, the conversation turned to the election in Ghana. A Ghanaian doctor, Oraca, who is married to an Ewe lady, also a doctor, led the discussion, playing the devil's advocate. After several minutes, he said he was having a hard time trying to figure out if I were with NPP or NDC, as all my comments and contribution sounded so balanced. The Ghanaians at the party were mostly Ashantis like me; there were those (all tribes) who in anticipation of NPP victory, were planning to go home, but not a single one of them felt sorry for NPP, everyone said they deserved to lose. My lady friend Alice, a very beautiful Ewe, has no interest in politics and did not join in the discussion. Some of our friend ask me if we talk about politics, they're surprised when I tell them we don't, we hardly argue, when we do, it's about mundane things other couples argue about. Most Ghanaians assume almost all Ashantis support NPP and Ewes support NDC. While this is true for the most part, I know some Ewes who are ardent NPP supporters and Ashantis who support NDC fervently.

I think Ghana is lucky, tribalism, while not yet eradicated, is not, a major issue in our country. I personally look at people with tribal prejudice as narrow-minded, self-centered and ignorant. There are people smarter than me, richer than me, taller, better looking and so on, but I do not believe that there is some one better than me at the basic human level. The issue is that if you think you're better than someone just on the basis of religion, race or tribe, then it follows you believe someone else is also better than you on those attributes.

I get calls from friends here in the USA and Ghana, not too many have shown any sympathy for NPP. I believe ardent NPP supporters are wondering what they did wrong. They probably feel like a man who believed he had a good marriage, comes home from work to find his wife gone, leaving a short note 'I want a divorce'. What's worse, he tells his friends and none of them expresses any sympathy for him. They tell him we saw it coming, we tried to tell you but you didn't listen, you brushed us aside.

Let's be dispassionate about this, Ghana, experienced a level of economic activity under NPP regime which surpasses the one under NDC. True, the world community donations and Ghanaians abroad transfer of money home had a lot to do with the economy activity, still, the NPP like the Republicans in USA, are pro business, and most businessmen prefer NPP on that basis. History tells us that no country has been able to go through an economic take-off (like India, Brazil, China e.t.c.), without a massive shift of wealth to a few people. I challenge anyone to dispute this. In the second wave, because these entrepreneurs invest their earnings in their country, they create opportunities for secondary and tertiary level businesses which gives others with modest resources to enter into these lower-level businesses. That in brief is how a country moves from a third-world economy to a sustained growth of a second-world economy.

The problem is that the NPP allowed blatant corruption to go unchecked, we all have our list of such misdeeds. For me, it was the disappearance of cocaine from police quarters, no-one was held responsible or prosecuted for that. That was just unpardonable. As atrocious as Koffour son's sudden wealth was, to me the 'lost cocaine' was the last straw. Ghana is now regarded as a export-base for drug-trafficking to Europe and USA.

Ministers not only enriched themselves, they openly displayed their wealth with an in-your-face type of taunting, telling the poor masses who elected them, 'Yes, I stole your money, I am living good, what are you going to do about it?' There were instances that ministers made some condescending remarks that I thought Koffour should have come out to lambast them, remember when prior to the election, a minister had the gall to say if any violence breaks out he will fly his family out of Ghana?

So what lies in store for NDC? I predict they will do better than they did last time in terms of managing the economy. Will there be corruption? YES!! Why? Because let's not forget, the ministers are just people like you and I. They are a reflection of the population at large. If you assume about 40% of Ghanaians are corrupt (being magnanimous, the figure is probably around 60%), then you can fairly safely predict that about 40% of the ministers will engage in corrupt activities. The challenge for Dr Mills, is how swift he will act to remove such ministers, or prosecute them. NDC is good at satisfying the masses, electrification, water e.t.c. This will serve them well, but they have to do better with creating the right environment for business. The government can not, and should not try to grow the economy by creating jobs. Private businesses do that better. If businessmen believe the government is not going to be business friendly, there could be a massive capital flight and the country will be poorer for that.

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR FROM NDC

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Qualification of Top Appointees. If it looks like some people are being rewarded primarily for their contribution to the NDC success rather than their substance, then that will cause me concern. The NPP did that, they had people who had no qualifications nor substance whatsoever in certain positions.

Freedom of the Media

It never ceases to amaze me how African politicians like to control media freedom. Since Ghana, like other third-world countries has no in-built checks and balances, a free media (I will actually suggest NDC sells off GBC, TV, Newspapers e.t.c.) acts like an eye for the ruling government. In the US, most acts of corruption are exposed by the media. If the head of the fish is fresh and not rotten, then it should not fear the inquisition of the media. This goes for all future ruling parties. NPP did well on this, but it would have served them better if they had divested the media owned by the government.

Business Friendly Environment. This has been discussed above.

Perks and Allowances for Ministers and Top Officials.

This is something that most of us may not be aware of. The Ghana government spend a substantial fraction of our GDP on supporting the privileged few. Free car, gas (petrol), accommodation, telephone, travel allowances. This will be tough but a serious government would usher in a new system where officials will be paid a salary, and they in turn will pay for their cars, gas, telephone (home), e.t.c. That will release a large amount of money, which could then be directed towards developing the towns and villages, providing sanitation and replacing archaic amenities.

Arrogance

We have all heard of the wise saying 'familiarity breeds contempt' I coined my own, "adulation breeds contempt'. It is so true, in our culture we tend to shower our leaders with adulation, excessive adulation if you ask me. The problem is that some, if not most politicians, have a cat's personality. Very soon, they come to believe as cats do, that they are 'gods'. For those who may not have heard of the dog-and-cat personality analogy, this is how it goes. People are kind to their pets, cats and dogs. The dog sees its owners kindness and says 'if he is so kind to me, he must be GOD' and they worship their owners. Cats on the other hand, sees its owner's kindness like this 'If he is so kind to me, he must believe I am GOD' so the cat is arrogant and expects to be waited upon. Do the people at the top have an open ear to the masses' concern, as expressed by the media?

Looking Out For Solutions.

I have said this so many times, there is not a single area of knowledge or technical expertise that Ghanaians at home, but perhaps more so for those abroad, do not have. Let's stop looking to other nations to solve our problems. As anyone who works in IT area in the US will tell you, the field is dominated by Indians. I have worked with a lot of them and believe me, Ghanaians can at least match their intelligence, I will say we could surpass them.

Inclusiveness

Will the NDC government bring in people with needed expertise who are not on the same aisle as NDC?

Bold Ideas and Initiatives.

We need to start doing things right; record-keeping, street naming and house addresses, a typical house number in Ghana tells you absolutely nothing (Plot XYZ Nbr 123), a typical address in any western town or city is meaningful, 1234 Jupiter Drive something like that.

Sanitation: do you know there are no toilets in our markets? How do the sellers answer nature's call? I leave it to your imagination. Checks-and-Balances: we need to start holding people accountable for their actions. We have to start working on these above listed items, it will take some time but if we do not start now, we will be in the same situation a decade from now.

In conclusion, I would like to say this to NPP supporters, mourn your loss, reflect on the past election, learn from it, a mistake is an error that goes uncorrected; but do not linger too much in self-pity and anger. That will not serve any productive purpose. This election should be an eye opener not only for NPP but for all parties, the people are not as silly as politicians think they are.

God Bless our beautiful Ghana. Vince