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Ghana: Sovereignty Lies With the People

Paul Ohia

4 January 2009

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The world was in an expectant mood last weekend waiting for the outcome of the presidential election from Ghana and it is interesting enough to know why the world became curious because of election in one Sub-Saharan African country.

The answer is that for some years now the county has been referred to as a good example of democracy in Africa and any failure would have proven to the international community that we cannot get it right.

Thus when the Electoral Commission (EC) announced that Prof. John Atta-Mills has beaten his opponent, Nana Akufo-Addo to clench the presidency, the whole fear of the country being under tension dissolved like a piece of made up wax thrown into a burning furnace. Everyone one heaved a sigh of relief.

It is very remarkable to note that the election went so smoothly that there are no rumours or threats of suing the winners. Yes, there were some allegations of vote manipulation but they were so minute compared to what happens in other African countries. It did not matter in the minds of the majority of Ghanaians because in any power tussle there must be some measure of desperation. They are really in a true learning process.

Of major importance is that in his major speech after the announcement, the ruling government's presidential candidate, Akufo-Addo congratulated President-Elect Atta Mills with the pledge of working with him to heal and unite the divided country.

If that came as a surprise, read a part of the acceptance speech of Atta Mills: "With the elections over, there is only one Ghana. There is no NDC Ghana, there is no NPP Ghana, there is no CPP Ghana. There is one Ghana."

Also worthy of note is that towards the day of election in the Tain region which became a decider for the poll results, the President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, called on the two parties to respect the outcome of the elections. He did not declare an all out war on the opposition neither did he see it as a do or die affair that his party must hold on to power.

He presented himself as a man who holds strongly before him the vision of the founding father of his country, Kwame Nkrumah. Though a former president, Jerry Rawlings could be awarded credits for what happens in modern-day Ghana, one cannot forget the vision of Nkrumah, a great son of Africa.

Nkrumah, was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966.

He was in the United States for studies in the early times of the twentieth century and during this time he preached at black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City. He read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy. Nkrumah encountered the ideas of Marcus Garvey, and in 1943 met and began a lengthy correspondence with Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James, Russian expatriate Raya Dunayevskaya, and Chinese-American Grace Lee Boggs, all of whom were members of a US-based Trotskyist intellectual cohort.

After amassing all these knowledge with some in the United Kingdom, Nkrumah returned to his country where he proclaimed that the Gold Coast (the present Ghana) needed "self-government now", and built a large power base. Cocoa farmers rallied to his cause because they disagreed with British policy. He invited women to participate in the political process at a time when women's suffrage was new to Africa. The trade unions also allied with his movement. By 1949, he organized these groups into a new political bloc.

With this pressure and international protests the British decided to leave the Gold Coast. They organized the first general election to be held under universal franchise on February 5-10, 1951. Though in jail, Nkrumah's CPP was elected by a landslide taking 34 out of 38 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. He was a very successful head of state with clear-cut economic visions.

Other African states also had founding fathers that came with good visions for their countries and the continent beginning from Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia to Patrice Lumumba of Congo Democratic Republic but the problem is that if they are to wake up from their grave today, majority of them would be highly disappointed. Though they left behind institutions that are supposed to make their continents prosper, the ensuing governments suffered so much coups and the military made a mess of all the visions. In some countries, rebels still remain in the bushes fighting the government in endless battles.

Added to this are sit tight rulers who refuse to go. If very intellectually minded founding fathers like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and Nelson Mandela of South Africa gave themselves a time limit then one wonders why some of the leaders who sat at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) are still seating in the African Union as heads of state.

But the biggest statement made by Ghana in the present election is that sovereignty lies with the people and not vested in economic or parochial interests. Despite the fact that in the next year the country would be earning oil revenue, some people with selfish interests have not started doing all they can to be at the corridors of power or to plant their surrogates.

Moreover, the opposition is given an opportunity to compete on equal terms with the ruling party, there is no attempt to snuff out power from them and forcefully impose a one party state even where the citizens do not like one party system.

If the spirit exhibited in Ghana is replicated all over Africa, the continent would no longer stand out as an epitome of famine, conflicts, self inflicted humanitarian disaster and sundry setbacks.

Meanwhile, Atta Mills must keep the flag flying in his Ghana bearing in mind that he will be the first leader of the country to usher it into the comity of oil-producing nations and its attendant monetary gain. Good enough, the country's political atmosphere has advanced before the anticipated oil wealth.

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