The flight was smooth and uneventful. The Boeing 767-300 took off from New York City on an inconspicuous Friday evening on the nine-hour flight to Accra, its return flight due back the following Sunday evening. One passenger, ?Eric Akosa,? who is a 15-year Diasporan was understandably apprehensive. In spite of not having been back home for the past five years, he had packed it all in and was headed home to stay. His planned restaurant would sustain him until his family joins him when everything is well.
Meanwhile back in Accra, ?Francis? could not wait. That North American Airline flight bringing Eric back home will, on its return flight, take him to the United States for the first time. Francis will obtain his degree as quickly as possible. Then he will work a little bit to raise enough money to return home. Like most of us, Francis was planning to stay no longer than eight to ten years.
The following Wednesday evening, as Eric was getting accustomed to life back in Ghana, and Francis was staring in awe at skyscrapers in sunny New York, members of the Diaspora Vote Committee (DVC) were getting ready to engage students of the University of Ghana (Legon) in what was to be an academic exercise. The planners of the debate were charged with inviting students and politicians from all sides of the Diaspora Vote debate. The NDC?s Tertiary Education Students Confederacy (TESCON), unfortunately, had entirely different plans for the debate.
From the onset, it was clear that they did not show up for the educational exchange that the debate was meant to be. The NDC?s TESCON shouted down any student who made statements in support of ROPAA. One student was overheard saying ?they want to come and create confusion then leave for us to suffer the consequences.? In essence, the DVC represented a group of people known as ?them.? Everyone else who lived in Ghana, on the other hand, fell into a group known as ?us.?
The delegation leader of the DVC Kofi Boateng was the first to speak on behalf of the group. After introducing himself, he methodically explained what his organization in New York City does. Among other things, his organization awards scholarships to students from developing countries to study abroad. ?By a show of hands,? Boateng enquired, ?how many of you would want to take advantage of such an opportunity?? Not surprisingly, every single hand in the audience went up. When he asked one of them to define what ?Diaspora? meant, the students realized they had been had. They began dropping their hands embarrassingly.
The most unfortunate aspect of this whole Diaspora vote debate is that it has been unnecessarily divisive. Those who may have political or other reasons to oppose the measure have sought to create an us-versus-them aura around it. Thus, rather than focusing on, and addressing the legitimate logistical issues, they have drawn an impassable line between the measure?s supporters and opponents.
However, as Francis, Eric and the Legon students have clearly demonstrated, there really is no ?us? or ?them.? Ghanaians in and out of the country cross paths easily and often. Back in Chicago, Eric was frustrated that in spite of keeping up with issues in Ghana and actually contributing money to his preferred candidate for his district?s Parliamentary seat, he could not vote. Today he can register to vote because he lives in Ghana.
Conversely, Francis voted in both the 2000 and the 2004 elections when he was in Ghana. By the time 2008 rolls around, he would be knee deep in his studies abroad and probably struggling to pay his rent like most of us. Yet, if the opponents of ROPAA would have their way, Francis must drop everything and spend some $2,000 that he does not have to come home and vote.
On the hypothetical front, if Kofi Boateng?s organization makes it possible for one of those students who vehemently oppose ROPAA to come to the United States to study on a scholarship, like the movie ?Trading Places,? they would find themselves on the other side of this Diaspora or homeland issue.
Besides the overwhelming legal argument in support of ROPAA, the historic evidence of Diaspora contribution to our nation?s governance is mind blowing. Of the five or so democratically elected leaders of our nation, only one did not live and study abroad. It is clear what record our leaders with Diaspora background possess.
Further, our very culture respects the village youth who left for the city to pursue more opportunities. When issues arise back at home, depending on how much that youth has matured over the years and how much he or she has contributed to the sustenance of the village, he or she is invited to sit in on the decision making process. In the event that a physical presence in not possible, his or her input ? in this case, vote ? is included in the decision making process.
Those who seek to differentiate this scenario from the Diaspora Vote issue on the basis that the latter has crossed national boundaries are only demonstrating how narrowly they view the world today. For whether the relative crossed district, regional, or national boundaries in the pursuit of opportunities, it is in fact a concept that can also expand across all boundaries. The only difference in the case of the Diaspora Vote is that there is a perceived advantage for one political party over the other(s).
At the end of the day, that is what this opposition is all about. Never mind that their actions thicken an already uncomfortable dividing line between Ghanaians at home and their brothers and sister abroad.
If Ghanaians abroad were not motivated by genuine care, they have virtually nothing to lose by ignoring issues affecting Ghana and living in their so-called comfort abroad. But our umbilical cord can never be cut from Ghana even if we tried. That is the fire that burns in us, and will continue to burn. So if our national song opens: ?Yen ara y?asaase ni.? (It?s our own land), the Diaspora song should open: ?Yensoso y?asaase ni.? (It?s our land also), or better yet: ?Yen nyinaa y?asaase ni.? (The land belongs to ALL of us).
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