After Election, What?

Fellow countrymen and women join me in thanking God for showing us such a great mercy and grace and has directed us as to who the winner should be.

(Thank you Lord).

All said and done December 7,2004 has come and gone and has been another hallmark and a display of Ghanaians maturity as far as infant democracy is concerned in Africa. And by that Ghana has also set the pace for the rest of Africa to follow. All the participating parties achieved this not without little Violence and intimidation, but these are to be expected in a multi tribal country like ours. So I say Kudos to you all Ghanaians for ensuring peaceful elections.

Everybody may have his or her opinion about what happened during the election but let us forget about all our differences and forge ahead as a nation. In my opinion it is good Kufour has won again so he could continue or finish what he has started.

By the elections results, Ghanaians have shown that they have come of age. Kufour winning by 52.7% and Atta Mills following him with 44.3% shows that it was keenly contested and that will put the government on their toes that any act of complacency or deceiving the people of this country will be at their own risk.

But my biggest worry at this stage of our democracy is that tribalism is the greatest threat to our infant democracy.

A close analysis of the election results (which I made) suggests that people still see

N.P.P as an Akan speaking party while N.D.C is seen as a Non-Akan speaking party.

(Considering the fact that they are the two main political parties in Ghana).

Ashanti region has the biggest number of constituencies,( 36 constituencies). Out of the 36, N.D.C won only 3 and N P P 33. Volta region has 22 constituencies and N P P did not win a single seat (I stand for correction).

With the exception of Greater Accra which was evenly won by both parties (for obvious reasons) N P P won massively in all the Akan-speaking constituencies while N D C also won massively in all the Non- Akan speaking constituencies. (You can check the facts from the Electoral Commission). This is not good enough for our democracy as a nation. The Civic education unit of the electoral commission needs to look at these facts and educate the masses about it.

Now what is next after the election? I will employ all Ghanaians to put our differences aside, and put our acts together for accelerated economic growth and development. Now we have got the freedom so we need to develop, for without development, freedom is useless.

To paraphrase Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, he said: ?Freedom and Development are closely linked. They are like chicken and eggs. Without chicken, you have no eggs and without eggs, you soon lose all your chicken. In the same way, without freedom, you have no development and without development, you soon lose your freedom?.

So fellow countrymen and women, let us join forces and resources together for our economic empowerment to enable us develop in order to enjoy the freedom that we have today.

Economically, our destinies are in our own hands, nobody will develop our country for us. We have the resources to develop and with good leadership. I hope we can achieve something good.

Once again congratulations to President Kufour and N P P and better luck next time to all the losers. Long live Ghana; long live all Ghanaians.