Look who is Moulding Mills For President

IT BETTER BE BETTY
Not too long ago, The Ghanaian Observer, a paper to which I enjoyed a brief but rewarding association as a columnist, started publishing the profiles and achievements of some important Ghanaian women under the caption ‘Women of Distinction.’ The column, which was written by a lady journalist, did lively exposés on some popular national characters, such as former GJA boss and presently member of the council of state, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, as well as other relatively ‘unpopular’ but hardworking women in the regions. There was the revealing and most impressive work on an educationist in the Volta region, whose travails, as was reported, were nearly heroic.

I don’t remember if the series featured Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of former NDC minister and Kumbungu MP, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu; but I am almost certain Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, ex President Rawlings’ sweetheart, was not featured. In many ways, she is a woman of distinction: First lady for 20 years, president of a good NGO and mother of four lovely children, including daddy boy Kimathi Rawlings.

There are women; and there are women: those who had won before they got their men. In politics, if you need anything said ask a man; if you need anything done ask a woman. These were the words of Premier Margaret Thatcher. And if you look around the world, women are doing a lot these days. Germany has a woman chancellor, Liberia has a woman president and the USA may get her first woman president next year, if Mrs Clinton does better than the charismatic Barack Obama. Britain may have a woman deputy Prime Minister soon if Labour Party chairman, Hazel Blears, wins the deputy leadership contest. If she doesn’t, another woman, Harriet Harman could slip through. And Mrs Sogelene Royal narrowly missed her chance to become France’s first woman President in a keenly contested election, only recently.
Things are changing for women in many areas of national life that were hitherto, a male preserve; and they are for the better. So The Point newspaper’s prediction Ghanaweb(14/06/07) that NDC flagbearer, Prof Mills, would choose Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, to partner him as vice president for the 2008 presidential elections, was refreshing as it was interesting. If Mills becomes president, Ghana will also taste female power at the highest level of national decision making. And it is about time.
So, Betty it would be, and not Nana Konadu Rawlings or the well-liked former communications minister, John Dramani Mahama. But who exactly is Betty Mould Iddrisu? Fortunately or perhaps most unfortunately, in our kind of politics, where you don’t need to spend time pruning metaphors and platitudes to define people, it is not very difficult to attempt a characterisation of political personages. It becomes even easier when the fellow you are defining has not written any book. That saves you the trouble of deciding between what they have written and the principle they really stand for. And as you know, politicians in our part of the world prefer writing cheques to books. Well, who will read the books anyway, even if they bothered to write?
As a former lecturer of intellectual property law, Mrs Iddrisu may have written a thing or two. Well, if she did, we did not see them. Instead, what we see is gorgeousness and ‘gorgeousity’ made flesh: a smooth, beautiful and intelligent statement encased in a manicured carapace of liberal feminism. If you will fall for her beauty, you would be enchanted by her brains. She has made her mark as a respected senior civil servant at the Attorney General’s department, and also belongs to some important national and international legal think-thanks. A fine legal brain with a warm demeanour, Betty is at once a good prospect for any important political office. You are not likely to find a lot of skeletons, even if you are able to spot cobwebs in her cupboard.
Usually, women who make it to the top are the fiery feminism fanatics, or so we have always wanted them to appear. On the political plane, Margaret Thatcher was a woman not made for turning, as one of her speeches went: The lady is not for turning, but at home, she turned around very much for Dennis Thatcher, her husband, who was dubbed the buffoon by the British media. So, less than two months after her defeat in the French presidential elections, Sogelene Royal has dumped her partner, Monsieur Hollande. But Betty is not a fiery feminist; she is a toned version of triumphant feminism: assertive but feminine enough to be moulded by a man.
But, why Betty, does Mills really believe in her or she is the Prof’s last resort? A painter can only succeed in depicting a type of beauty which he has loved in a real human being. If he doesn’t see absolute beauty is an object, he cannot paint a beautiful picture; he would end up making a caricature of a cartoon. It is also true in politics: if a political partnership in not based on admiration or talent, but on pure strategy or expediency, it fails. If it doesn’t fail, it stinks like putrid. That is exactly what happened to the relationship between Rawlings and veep Arkaah. He was kicked in the groin and his jacket was torn with a punch. He did not believe in him, needless to say. He wouldn’t have had him for a vice, if he had the choice.
In many ways, the vice president portfolio is an important thing. A vice president is as good as the president: They are usually presidents in waiting, and the office is supposed to prepare them to take over when the president finishes his term. It means that, the qualities we look for in a president must be present in the vice. Is it about time we voted to select our vice presidents at party elections, the same way we campaign for flagbearership positions, as the people of Britain are doing presently? The office of the vice president, we must understand, is not a ceremonial obligation; it is an important political function. The vice should not necessarily be the president’s idea; s/he must be the party’s idea. It would be refreshing to see any of our presidential hopefuls for 2008 submit their vice presidential candidates to congress for a decision. Well, it will take us another century to think about this luxury.
Seven years ago, candidate Mills tested the presidential waters with Mr Martin Amidu as vice president. They lost to Kufour and vice president Aliu Mahama. In 2004, Prof Mills’ vice was Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, when they lost again to Kufour. In 2008, the NDC flagbearer would settle, hopefully, for Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of a political dinosaur. Do we see a typical trend in these appointments? Have we lost the plot somewhere?
Not that I want to revisit an old unspeakable problem; but it is got to be said somehow. Are we about accepting that a politician has a winnable formula only if he selects an assistant from the northern part of Ghana? In 1992, Prof. Adu Boahen chose Alhaji Roland Alhassan, as his vice. Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah was Kufour’s vice in 1996, because of the great alliance, which gave the NPP no other choice for a running mate. When he became president, J.A Kufour hid under regional balance to reward rich-man-party financier Aliu Mahama with the vice president position. With the NNP flagbeareship elections scheduled to hold soon, talk is going on that many of the candidates are looking north for a political master plan. At least, it was almost meant to happen that Mr Dan Botwe would have settled on Hawa Yakubu, or so it seemed. Well, Betty is not from the north; she hails from Ejuratia, Ashanti region, and she speaks fluent fante. But her husband Hon. Mahama Iddrisu is a northner. So Betty’s northern side, apart from her rather impressive personal and professional qualities, may have appealed to the NDC flagbearer. If it wasn’t going to be Betty, it would have been the Bole Bamboi MP, fine boy John Mahama: a gold in triplicate, anyhow you look at him. Of course, not pure gold; but a very likable person, who will not disappoint any day, because he is a treasure everyday. He would have done the Prof. a lot of good. He is the only NDC face who can pull votes from NPP strongholds. If it is strategic to look north for running mates, then we must look north for presidents, too. President Aliu Mahama? Or we could turn to Odumase for Boakye Agyarko.
But for now, we would trust a professor’s instincts. Those I have spoken to, who know Betty’s sort very well, wonder if the spotless beauty will accept the honour. The reasons have been that, it is most unlikely Mills would win the 2008 presidential elections, even if the votes are counted in the Akosombo darkness. It would only be an act of political buffoonery for any person to be partner, decidedly, to such an unpromising prospect. Besides, she has never been desperate for political honours, the ‘civil servant-lawyer-academic’ that she is. She seems to be pretty content with what she is doing with the Commonwealth Secretariat presently.
Friends of the lawyer also reckon she is not the type made for the insult-peddling poetry that African politicians have come to accept. She cares about her image and her lavishly toned skin; she would not have time explaining why her skin looks Jacuzzi pampered, or why her hair styles have changed rapidly over time. And if the Prof chose her over John Mahama, because the latter lacks the power and the no-nonsense uncivil tongue to trade in invectives, then he has made a terrible mistake in Betty. For, that is exactly what Betty Mould Iddrisu is not. Tony Aidoo may be a better Veep.
The NDC is not bound to lose the 2008 elections. And it is simply because the NPP is not bound to win. An NPP presidential hopeful, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey has acknowledged this reality. Kufour’s 2004 victory (52%) over Mills, was not a landslide; it was an uncomfortable win, and the discomfort is showing through the number of gentlemen vying for the party’s flagbearership position. Nothing is certain in 2008; what is certain is that, Mills will be a veritable political debit if he loses again; that would banish the Prof and his vice from the politics of Ghana for good.
What if Prof Mills wins? It will be a very deserving win, because the Prof has fought hard over the years, and he hasn’t won because Ghanaians are not sure of his party; not his person. For, he looks very capable for the office, and he could win this time if voters decide that the NPP has done a bad job with the electricity situation. And if he wins, we would be happy to smile to a woman vice president. But, he would not win.
The feminist that I am (in Ama Atta Aidoo’s definition), I would be happy to see a woman vice president. In fact, I am looking forward to when we would have a woman president in Ghana. May be, that is what will save a continent that has been going back in development over the past forty years, in the words of Tony Blair.
God created women out of men; and he created men out of nothing. It seems the nothingness is showing through men; that is why we have nothing. Let’s try women.