LEADERS WILL BE REMEMBERED, CAN PRESIDENT ATTA MILLS RAISE THE BAR?

African politics after independence has been dogged with vindictiveness, counter accusations, cronyism and a whole lot of other negative tendencies which has not augured well for the whole continent. Ghana has always attempted to set the pace for Africans to follow. This has been exemplified through the attainment of independence, when in 1957, Ghana became the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence and secondly, becoming a model democracy which was commended by the US president, Obama and even the queen of Britain last year.

But after all these attempts at ensuring that the Ghanaian becomes the positive benefactor of all these achievements, the ordinary Ghanaian has not seen any improvement in his /her daily life. Extreme poverty and seemingly total neglect has become the portion of the Ghanaian.

Since the inception of the 1992 constitution which has charted democratic path for Ghanaians, the ordinary Ghanaian has embraced this new system with the two hands. Right from political mobilization to declaration of electoral results, the ordinary Ghanaian has been an active participant. This activism has always been influenced by the hope that democracy is the only system that can effectively bring positive impact on the life of the Ghanaian.

But this hope has never been realized and the Ghanaian is wallowing in extreme poverty because of apparent lack of the desire to change the life of the ordinary Ghanaian for the better by the country’s political leadership. Whiles the Ghanaian votes and participate in politics with optimism, some so call powerful political figures high-jack the political system for the benefit of few people and tribes neglecting the general good. People fight for power with only one reason in mind, that is, to retaliate and punish a particular group of people.

The current political era has come with words like witch hunting, political vindictiveness, proceed on leave, causing financial loss to the state, justice, accountability and a lot more which would produce a very copious book should one attempts to assemble them. The irony is that these words are uttered with inner bitterness and a secret desire for vengeance. Ghanaians have also been bombarded with numerous accusations and counter accusations and sometimes clear attempt to bastardize everything that we are not in agreement with. But the bitter truth is that the more our leaders continue this way, the more this canker become a pervasive cycle in our society which will eventually defeat the purpose for which they were once leaders, that is to build a better Ghana not for themselves or even today’s generation but for posterity. As educated as our leaders are, one sure thing they know is that the developed world of today is far better than the developed world just after the Second World War.

From 1992 to date, even presidents have not distinct themselves from indiscreet utterances and accusations. The people who wield a lot of respect and assumed to know better are more often, disappointment. They allow dirty politics to lead them instead of leading the country and start making claims which are unfounded. Though most of these presidents are highly educated with great experience to match it, most of them don’t allow history to guide them in their utterances and actions because of blind political ambition.

One thing they forget is the fact that meeting your enemy with ‘a white heart’ is greater step towards defeating him. Do our leaders know and believe that God or Allah ordain leaders? And if God ordain leaders, then one leader has to be careful in unnecessarily criticizing other leaders especially when they are just starting their leadership journey. What makes our leaders so sure that theirs may be better than their predecessors? Though, some leaders trumpeted this, but Ghanaians did not see much difference Anyway one treats political opposition today, one should know that the seat of government rotates and that even if he escapes the wrath of the current opposition in future, the younger ones in government today will surely be meted with similar treatment in future. But can we as a people get a leader who will redirect as from this self impose slavery, animosity and hatred for each other? Just as a divided house will not stand, so as a divided country will never stand. As divided as Africans are, that is why we find ourselves in this perpetual misery and poverty. No country noted of such sharp political divisions and hatred for political opponents, boast of being among the first world countries. Can our leaders today ponder over this and begin to make comparative analysis of the history of these rich worlds? As divided as they were, so they called themselves primitive society and as united as they are today, they then call themselves civilized and ‘first world’.

In fact, this is not to suggest that accountability should be thrown out and trampled upon but it will be better to silently do the right thing and allow the people to judge for themselves. This is in line with the popular adage that silent is golden. I must be emphatic that all our governments and regimes under the fourth republic have been extreme in their criticisms of the various passed government, including even the current regime that won power on the wings of the promise of charting a new course. But the blatant truth is that either their regimes are no much better than the former or their regimes have produced some excesses which does not in any way justify their hollow attempts to smear their predecessors. Former president Kufour has been the only leader to admit certain degree of excesses in dealing with certain issues under his government. Are our leaders then learning from the past, especially the current regime?

I would have wished that our current president will be the first person to learn greater lessons from the experience of the passed two presidents. This is because this is a man who has achieved everything when it comes to academics. Again, he is the only president who has had the privilege of been a former vice president and also lived under sixteen years of democracy. To cap it all, he demonstrates Christianity in especially his speech though I do not know much about his private life.

Under normal circumstances, these three experiences of our president should rather have had a positive influence on the president’s indecision and decision on the former presidents in particular. But within the pass one year of the president’s leadership, not much of the attributes and accolades that we showered on the president has been demonstrated in what he does and does not.

For instance, as a Christian, the president should know that the conscious attempt to tell Ghanaians that the former regime did not do any good is a great insincerity and hence ungodly. How can any well meaning regime claim the former regime did not work in the interest of the people? In any case, is it the work of the present regime to make such utterances especially when they cannot determine the success or otherwise of their regime and more importantly whether they will meet people’s expectations? As a Christian, he is aware that man proposes but God disposes. For the measure that is use against kufour government today, that same measure will be used against Mills’ government tomorrow. We have really reached a point in our existence where the politics of undoing our predecessors especially, must stop. Either than that, such leaders should take note of the standard they are setting and the fact that posterity will not recognize any good they do. As a Christian president, the president is aware that King David even when he had been ordained leader of Israel never attempted to undo King Saul. When David got the chance to kill a sleeping King Saul at the time that Saul wanted to kill David, he swore never to touch the anointed one of God though Saul had then lost the favor of God because of his excesses. Even when Saul was killed, David tore his cloth into pieces and mourned King Saul. One thing our president should know is that leaders are ordained by god whether good or bad. Hence, it is therefore imprudent to unnecessarily condemn such people. We have been given the opportunity to correct what they did wrong and that is what we must focus on.

In fact, any speech by our president actually has some criticisms for the passed regime especially the president. There have been incidences of the former president’s car and offices taken away from him. Again, about three months ago, Ghanaians were notified that the former president was not paid. The passed year was characterized with numerous accusations and ranting on the radio stations as if we were in election period, all in attempt to destroy past government’s achievements. Can the president sincerely reflect on these actions and compare them to how David treated Saul and even the household of Saul. In fact, when you watch our president on television and recognize the sincerity in his eyes, one tends to wonder why he contradicts this with his unco-ordinatored utterances. I am not actually condoning wrong doing but I sincerely believe our president can set example for future leaders to follow instead of following blindly the smear campaigns that characterized the pass regimes. Really, Kufour actually came to correct the wrongs that were done 19years before 2001.It is clear that the 19 year rule of former president Rawlings was underpin with conscious effort to erase all Asantes and Akans from key leadership positions. Even then attempt was made to reduce the Asantes who were admitted at the universities especially Legon. Like the blacks in USA, Asantes and Akans were not admitted in certain key universities like Legon. This came to entrench the idea that Asantes did not like education. This is even the reason why most Asantes were not in public service and Kwahu’s are seen much as business fellows. But in all these some Asantes and Akans were in his government.

The former president Kufour also came to power with this common knowledge and decided to reverse the inequality. I know people will take me on for this, but truth always stand and I am a personal witness to this. When I went to Legon in 2001, one would hadly hear Akan on campus. But around 2003, the most dominating language were English and Twi. But in all these, there were some people in his government who were not Akans. Even though this was not entirely bad idea, the excesses at implementing similar ideas resulted in the bitterness that is glowing in some people even after his leadership.

Imagine Rawlings erred by dividing Ghana and sidelining a certain tribe, does two wrongs make right and couldn’t kufour had done better in this, if it was deliberate. Therefore if the regimes of the two former presidents were full of excesses, the current president has the golden opportunity to stay neutral and put in the necessary measures to ensure that the excesses that occurred during the first year of his administration do not occur again. It is then and only then that this bitterness and politics of vindictiveness will cease. Whether we like it or not, democracy as a system of government does not consider a tribe, color or region in terms of who becomes the president .Sixteen years ago, our Ewe brother was the president, eight years ago, Asante was the president and currently our Fante brother is the president. Nobody knows who is next and it is in this vain that we must treat all equally. The past wrongs should never be repeated because as an ordinary Ghanaian who follows the gimmick of most politicians, I know the fact that the pass government never gave the NDC the ‘dog chance’ of winning the last elections, but today, NDC surprisingly forms the current government. For posterity sake, Mr. President, work towards the cohesion of Ghana and if today despises you and speaks despicable about you, especially most of your close aids that have a hidden agenda, posterity will hail you. REMEMBER EVERY REAL LEADER WILL SURELY GET SOME PEOPLE WHO HATE HIM BECAUSE OF HIS FORWARD LOOKING POLICIES. NO MATTER OUR TRIBAL DIFFERENCES, WE ARE BUILDING GHANA AS ONE PEOPLE AND THERE WILL DEFINITELY COME A TIME WHEN NO TRIBE, PERSON OR POLITICAL PARTY WILL GET MUCH PROMINENCE BUT RATHER THE COUNTRY GHANA.IS THE PRESIDENT READY TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FUTURE OF GHANA? WHOEVER IS NOT READY WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. ‘A WORD TO OUR LEARNED PRESIDENT IS ENOUGH’

Daniel Donkor

( POLITICAL SCIENCE GRADUATE OF LEGON) ASABERE POLLING STATION SECRETARY OF NNP, SUAME CONSTITUENCY,KUMASI.

Dannydon19@yahoo.com