The Islamic Salvation-Front Effect of Election 2008

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

It has been said that curiosity was that which killed the cat. Still, in the case of the latter, since this feline has nine lives, it presumably was readily able to recover and even learn a lesson or two. And this may primarily explain why many cats continue to roam the rafters of many Ghanaian homes.

In the case of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), it was abject complacency that quashed the good fortunes of, perhaps, the most dynamic and progressive political machinery on Ghana’s postcolonial landscape. And exactly what do we mean by complacency having, literally, smothered the chances of the NPP setting a sweeping record in the number and percentage of parliamentary seats the Danquah-Busia camp could have comfortably clinched during the most recent general election?

The answer is two-fold. For instance, not quite six or seven months ago, NPP national chairman Mr. Peter Mac Manu was widely quoted as vaunting that the party was the best and greatest in the whole of the African continent. Mr. Manu was also quoted as asserting that it was next to impossible for the NPP to lose its then-34 parliamentary seat majority. And on the latter score, readers may recall this writer furiously admonishing the NPP bigwig to be wise and modest with his pronouncements. In short, in a real sense, while I was visibly surprised by the parliamentary results of Election 2008, I was, nonetheless, far, far from being shocked by the same.

Having achieved so much for the country with far fewer resources and in a remarkably short time than the pioneering and fabulously well-endowed Convention People’s Party (CPP), for example, top-echelon members of the ruling NPP began to prematurely pat themselves on the back, as it were, and to congratulate themselves for having done with apparent ease what even the putative Africa’s Man of Destiny could not do in 15 years, which was to induce a libertarian political climate in the country.

Today, Ghanaians can freely roam the streets and alleyways of their country without the fear of masked soldiers and security forces, as well as NDC-sponsored commando apparatchiks, knocking on their doors and rudely demanding that they surrender themselves for summary execution, simply because the Dzelukope Sanhedrin held a conclave at midnight the previous day and unreservedly determined that they were veritable enemies of the revolution. This, precisely, was what Dr. J. B. Danquah, the Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics, meant when he passionately and eloquently wrote about the “Liberty of the Subject.”

The irony, though, inheres in the fact that having enviably ensured the near air-tight protection of the liberty of the postcolonial Ghanaian subject, and with apparently little else to do in order to prove themselves in two short terms of laudable governance, by both Ghanaian and African standards, major party operatives began to counterproductively bicker and war among and against themselves.

The other downside of so admirably guaranteeing the liberty of the subject, was that Ghanaian society became so transparent, especially at the level of governance, that the people began to erroneously believe that the NPP was, in fact, culpable or guilty of corruption far more than the criminally bent, secretive and ham-handed and ironically named National Democratic Congress (NDC) had been. All of a sudden, almost everybody began to lose track of the odious Shit-Bombing and Cash-and-Carry policies of the P/NDC. Some citizens even began to speculate about the NDC having been effectively consigned to the throes of death.

One upshot of such illusion, obviously, had quite a lot to do with Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom’s sophomoric and near-quixotic decision to loudly and abruptly part ways with the Danquah-Busia scions and pontifically launch an ill-fated presidential campaign on the woefully premature and equally ill-advised ticket of the rump-Convention People’s Party (CPP). Like his hero, the proverbial African Show Boy, having been charitably, magnanimously and meticulously tutored by the Danquah-Busia scions, Paa Kwesi determined to perform the political equivalent of Jujitsu on his former fellow journeymen and women.

But what got my proverbial horse, more than any other, was when some top-echelon operatives of the ruling NPP began to sneer at the house-to-house presidential campaign of Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, of the criminally bent and terror-sponsoring National Democratic Congress (NDC). The paradoxical “Identification Haircut Peacenik” (IHP) had spent eight years scheming his return to power, this time not as Dzelukope Jeremiah’s second bananas, but top-dog of the NDC killer machine himself, and yet these same NPP operatives who labored some twenty years in the political wilderness that is Ghanaian opposition culture had, somehow, curiously convinced themselves that the incontrovertibly humanizing campaign strategy of pressing the proverbial flesh was too demeaning and inartistic to be single-mindedly pursued without let or hindrance, as it were. Then again, for those of us who still remember our grade-school catechism, did Jesus Christ himself not counsel about the Kingdom of God/Heaven being gained entry into by those who are unreservedly willing to use the most aggressive means?

Anyway, I am writing all this on the 113nth birthday anniversary of the Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics (Dec. 21, 1895), and even as I write, not a single note or news item from Ghana indicates that the Danquah-Busia scions are in a celebratory mood in honor of their foremost patriarch. On the other hand, the Nkrumaists annually congregate to heartily celebrate the practically UNKNOWN BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY of their flamboyant “Osagyefo.” Isn’t this in of itself something to visibly worry about?

Ultimately, what happened during the most recent Ghanaian general election may be likened to what occurred in Algeria in 1992, when the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front nearly spooked its way into a decisive electoral victory. The emergent Algerian democratic culture then appeared to be direly threatened. A strongman by the name of Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika rose to the rescue. Of course, a civil war ensued; still, Algeria is today a far better and more peaceful society than would have been the case, had the Islamic Salvation Front prevailed.

In essence, the greatest threat to Ghanaian democracy today is the terror-sponsoring so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC). And while we may not publicly advocate it, and it is even practically and patently unwise to advocate it, Ghanaians should not be afraid to fight a drawn-out war against any vicious attempt by the Anlo-Ewe Mafia minority to re-enslave the rest of us majority Ghanaians. Needless to say, twenty years of our domestic enslavement is enough! We must also avoid unwisely sacrificing our inalienable right to liberty in the specious and idiotic name of political role-modeling for the rest of the African continent. Once upon a time, deposed President Kwame Nkrumah naively sacrificed the great fortunes of Ghanaians on the largely rhetorical and cosmetic altar of pan-Africanism. And today while, indeed, Ghanaians may feel proud about having pioneered the modern African liberation struggle, on the socioeconomic and cultural front, we remain as depressed and lethargic as all else. Of course, there is absolutely no harm in being a model for the emulation of others, especially our fellow Africans. Still, charity must begin at home!

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of 18 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com. ###