(Part 2),Elections, Power Sharing Or Dictatorial Democracy,Ghanaians

Since my return to Southern Africa from Nairobi from where I posted my article entitled 'Articles Totally Devoid Of Decency,' in response to an article which I deemed to have ripped decency from its hinges and which spoke about our President in terms I described as lavatorial, I have had time to read a plethora of other articles that are as venomous in tone as the article that inspired my article.

Some of the articles in question describe some male political adversaries as effeminate, good for nothing men who have lost their right to manhood because they are cowardly,timid etc.One writer unabashedly titles his article "When are men said to be women? using all manner of gnomic expressions to defend the indefensible.

I strongly feel that to describe Professor Atta Mills as effeminate is not only unfair to him,but is also an insult to women in general.There is nothing wrong with being a woman,but to equate womanhood with weakness,cowardice,timidity,nonchalant attitude and laissez-faire attitude is very unfair to women and I take umbrage at the fact that not a single Ghanaian woman has raised a finger against such a chauvinistic attitude, an attitude that is usually resorted to when male politicians exhaust their repertoire of political insults.Our dear Ghana is awash with strong-minded,intelligent women,from sedulous market women who have mastered every dance step in economics much better than economics graduates,to Bank Managers, prominent scientists,University Professors,Principals of Training Colleges and Secondary Schools,to renowned Professional Translators and Interpreters.It is an anachronism of nauseating proportions to describe women as the weaker sex,timid,nonchalant, cowardly etc.Where are the women who have been championing women's causes?Where are you when you are being stamped upon, stomped upon,trampled upon? Arise, my dear Ghanaian women,and let your voices be heard.Let your sweet,dulcet,mellifluous voices be heard in every nook and cranny of Mother Ghana.Let it be known that it galls you when womanhood is equated with cowardice, nonchalance,timidity,etc.This is the time for you, Ghanaian women, to show that you cannot be kicked about like' the rotten oranges that we used as footballs when we were' kids.

About a month ago,I had the singular fortune of having an eye-ball-to-eyeball encounter,so to speak,with elections held in an African country.So great was my anxiety to see how peaceful or otherwise the voting was going to be that I only had forty winks. Five-thirty in the morning saw me at the polling station.About four hundred people were already there,waiting patiently in queues.By six-thirty, i.e. thirty minutes before voting was due to commence, the number of people had swelled to about six thousand .Unfortunately voting did not start at seven o'clock as scheduled due to the late arrival of ballot papers.Catcalls ensued,but after a little over an hour the ballot papers arrived and voting started in an orderly manner.All political parties were represented at all the polling stations and ballot boxes were sealed under their watchful eyes.Come December 2008, we Ghanaians should ensure that voting goes peacefully.No stone should be left unturned to ensure that everything,logisticswise,is in place before voting starts.As I said in one of my articles, those who win should be magnanimous in victory and the losers should be gracious in defeat, confident that the elections had been free and fair. We should always bear in mind that elections are not the be all and end all;they are not a matter of life and death.

At this juncture, I would like to turn my attention to African Dictatorial Democracy,euphemistically dubbed Power Sharing.This is a highly dangerous political cancer that is eating into the very marrows of the African body politic and which,I hope, will not rear its very ugly head in Ghana after the December 2008 elections.It is a political phenomenon which,if it is not stopped in its tracks will, in the not too distant future, make absolute nonsense of elections on our continent.In La Cõte d'Ivoire it was deemed necessary to form a Government of National Unity,in Kenya, a defeated president refused to step down resulting in the formation of a tenuous Government of National Unity,in Zimbabwe a clearly defeated President vowed never to allow the victorious opposition party to rule as long as he(the President) was alive and after displaying extraordinary adroitness in political deception,he is still the President of Zimbabwe with the opposition leader as Prime Minister with very limited powers.The Latin writer Pliny was right when he wrote thousands of years ago,´´ Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi´´ meaning Out Of Africa Always Comes Somethng New.

Finally I would like to know what has become of the Bill put before Parliament some time ago aimed at promulgating a law that would make it possible for Ghanaians in the Diaspora to vote.Has it been slung down memory hole? Has it been put in cold storage?Has it been pushed down a bottomless pit? Ghanaians in the Diaspora are waiting for an answer.Â

Tete Cobblah ctetecobblah@yahoo.com.brÂ