WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE FOAM IS GOOD FOR THE FONA: ALIU MAHAMA OR NANA ADDO?

Perhaps, what makes the forthcoming American presidential elections eventful is the ‘audacity of hope’ firing through the United States from the camps of Barack Obama, the black Illinois senator, who is tipped to turn the political stakes. But the presidential race is also remarkable for one thing: it is the first time since the 1820’s that neither a sitting president nor his vice, is seeking to occupy the Oval office at the White House. Whoever is lucky enough to win the race is for America to decide.

The 2008 presidential race in Ghana is also remarkable for one thing: the multitude of candidates aspiring to lead the West African country. About four months ago, I mentioned in a newspaper column that despite the numbers, we don’t have an heir presumptive; that golden boy who has Barack Obama’s audacity to constitute himself into the conscience of the Ghanaian citizenry. There are too many to choose from: Alan Kyeremateng, Dan Botwe, Kwabena Agyapong, Addo Kuffour, Kofi Apraku, Obetsebi Lamptey, Akufu-Addo, Osafo Maafo, and many other NPP hopefuls. With the NDC flagbearership thrust on Mills for the umpteenth time, we have a lot of patience to see what happens to Mahama’s PNC, the CPP, and Wayo’s URP. Of course, boxing fine boy-Ike Quartey-has also thrown in a challenge, with his vice already decided in Nii Lamptey.

It all looked an open game until recently, a seemingly disinterested Vice-president-Aliu Mahama-energized his bid to succeed his boss. And he isn’t going solo; he has loyal followers-Friends of Aliu Mahama (FOAM), who see him as a natural successor to Kufour. In many ways, the FONA-Friends of Nana Addo, had been in existence before the FOAM. Now, there are reports of mudslinging among the FOAM and the FONA, as the NNP leadership race seem to be narrowing down to the vice president and the foreign minister. The two gentlemen appear able enough to lead a country, but Ghanaians need more than an able leader this time; they want solutions to the never-ending problems.

I have only started reading Barack Obama’s autobiography: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, so I wouldn’t attempt to spell out what the bestseller thematises. It is an unputdownable piece of political literature that traces the humble beginnings of a leader through the topsy-turviness of American politics, to what I presume, will be his vision underlying his bid to succeed George Bush Jnr. What is clear, even from the few pages I have read, is what this thin figured man typifies: that rare breed of a visionary whose manifesto is instantly decipherable from his personality. Top American journalists, who have interviewed him, say he doesn’t need to say any ‘isms’ to make an impression. He is an experience unto himself; and you leave his presence mesmerized, believing there is something unforgettable about the experience-himself.

What do Akuffo-Addo and Aliu Mahama typify? The only time in my life that I met Nana Addo, was at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, where he hosted his wedding reception. Of course, the likes of me couldn’t be Nana’s guest on such an important occasion. I was a student at Legon’s Commonwealth Hall, who as Vandals, always looked out for leftovers (item 13), whenever receptions were held. I saw Nana, who contrary to what I had heard, does not wear his good fortunes on his sleeves. He is a nice guy; well, not a quintessential golden boy, but a guy good enough to be pretty much anything the heavens permit. At the time, to me was all in all, so a good pair of shoes was enough to impress me. I didn’t hear him speak, but I had heard that he is an orator.

The name Aliu Mahama rings bells in the corridors of power at present, but it was before the Kufour presidency, just one of the 22million names in the Republic of Ghana. The last time I saw him on GTV, he looked really good and exuded the confidence of a man looking into the future with promise. He looked very much his vice presidential self. He didn’t come across as a man nursing a vaulting ambition, but he looked ambitious enough to be president. As veep, he has seen how easy or difficult the prospect appears.

How would an Akufo-Addo presidency sit with Ghana? A Danquah-Busia through and through, Nana Addo’s ‘born again bid’ is not a surprise to anybody. He has pursued it as a project rather than a prospect. He hasn’t written a popular book yet, but he has found a way of selling his vision to those who would listen. He has tested the presidential waters before, but congress seemed to have sacrificed his bid, but not the man himself. He has not yet been eclipsed by the promise seen in other contenders.

Nana’s strength seems to lie in the making of the character of the man seeking the office. He is not the kind of guy you would normally sympathise with; you either love him or loathe him. When you look into his eyes, you perceive the image of an important patrician who knows not what it takes to be a common tribune. You can identify with him, well, to a certain extent. After going that extent, you are compelled to fall for his charm or dispel that charm as a façade shadowing his ostentatious flamboyance.

But you know he speaks very well. He has astounding proficiency in French, English, Hausa and Twi. You have no difficulty imagining in him an excellent president if speech was all there is to it. His profession as a lawyer has served him well; so have his politics. We are used to his style. He wouldn’t disappoint at an international conference. When you hear that he could contest cases in a Paris court, you know it makes him a rare breed.

Nana’s weakness may be his ‘so close and yet too far’ relationship with the ordinary Ghanaian. That Yaw Osafo Maafo modest flavour is not present in his being. You are likely to conclude that, if he belongs in the gods, then Zeus should make him King. Yet, you know you can trust him, but you don’t know how long that trust should last.

Like Nana, Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s thoughts live with himself; not in a book. If you wondered where the NPP plucked him from, to deputize Kufour, now you know he is part of an establishment. If he hasn’t played his vice presidential role excellently, you know he hasn’t faltered. Perhaps, he hasn’t been prepared for heights greater than where he is, but the going ins and the coming outs may have prepared him for anything. You know you can sympathise with him somehow, but you would rather he did take that precarious dive into the murky waters of politics. He is neither above nor beneath the game; you want to preserve him for something ultra-political or downright civil. But when you look at him carefully, you see a man sitting on a dutifully protected political treasure. If he was a poet, he would have written in the free verse: he is not deeply entrenched in a particular tradition; you could make him your own at a point. This makes him worthy of your trust and confidence. Even then, he is a politician, so you would always wonder how long you can go with him before his real man pops out.

Aliu’s strength lies in that same cool guy persona he seems to have cut for himself. You are almost tempted to call it moribund, but you can’t put a finger to anything uncomplimentary about him. He doesn’t come across as a guy probing the feathers of the unknown for a selling principle; he is a principle unto himself, and he could sell it.

The manicured gentle persona appears to be Aliu’s main weakness. When he launched the Veep self discipline campaign, he sounded like a ventriloquist than a man selling his own idea. But that is the trick in politics: peoples’ ideas goad you on, and you buy into those ideas if you want to represent the people. Yet, you are not sure exactly what he represents. It is easy to see in him an answer, but you know that answer is pregnant with questions. He may be worth the gamble, yet there is reason not to gamble.

In many ways, politics, even in the advanced democracies, is a gamble of a sort. In our situation, where politicians do not sign autographs, because they don’t write bestsellers, gambling becomes a tool rather than a game. So an Akuffu-Addo-Mahama partnership could be one of the gambles the NPP may want to play. What kind of partnership will this be? What considerations would have informed such a partnership anyway?

Sometimes, doing nothing is the most practicable alternative. In 2000, this alternative was not attractive to the NNP. It was wise to play a tribal card, to cure that tribal sickness of the NPP being a rejuvenated Ashanti confederacy. Vice president Aliu Mahama has served the party well, perhaps, very well. He has so much potential to go even further, by completing the good job as president. In many political traditions, a vice president is as good as the president. And in most cases, they are presidents in waiting, unless they are too much of a gamble. This is what is happening to the Republican Party in America.

If President Aliu Mahama sounds lovely in the ears, vice president Akufo-Addo would not break your tympanic membrane. The converse is even truer. And that is where the thought bounces back: You are a vice only once. That is the reality underlying the FONA and the FOAM’s ‘who is who’ debate. Nana deserves the presidency; so does Aliu. If this was a Shakespearean tragedy, we would have left it to chance, to see whether Macbeth should be King or remain a villain. But we know each of the Macbeths in this NPP presidential drama has ambition to be King. But who did the witches speak to first?

That is the one hand. On the other hand, well…. there is no other hand in politics. There is only one hand-the voter’s hand. Let’s wait and see who that hand picks.