Daily Independent (Lagos)
Sunny Igboanugo
7 January 2009
On Tuesday, December 30, a delegation of the Federal Government was in Ghana, one of Nigeria's strategic and influential neighbours in the West African sub-region.
The mission of the delegation led by National Security Adviser, General Abdul Serki Muktar was to intervene in what appeared a political debacle in the country. It had specifically come with a message from President Umaru Yar'Adua to his Ghanaian counterpart, Mr. John Kufuor, to him that Nigeria was deeply interested in the political development in the country.
Ordinarily the visit would have been seen as a brotherly show of concern to a development, which appeared laden with signs of danger of political and social crisis, similar to those that have darkened the firmament in many African countries for so long. But it was, as events have come to prove, an unwarranted misstep, which has added to the litany of embarrassing developments seemingly trailing its activities in relations to internal and external engagements in its jagged history. Even before the curtain could fall on the report, shown on television, it had become a subject of intense debate. Not a few saw it as an unnecessary showmanship, aimed at achieving other aims than what it ordinarily appeared. It was seen as an uncanny public relations stunt aimed at selling the oft-repeated mantra, which became more forceful after the 2007 sordid magic, of election not being free anywhere in the world than any attempt to help.
Not only because of the timing, but that it was made such a ceremonial affair with a compliment of television cameras beaming on it, seemed to bolster the thinking that it had more implications than met the eyes. The argument that Yar'Adua could have picked up his phone to express such concerns, as other world leaders might have done, also added to the belief that the country had not come to help. In fact, one Ghanaian journalist had tried to make a joke of the whole show, comparing it to a vagabond, without a family going to mediate on what he believed was a quarrel between a husband and wife, when their voices only rose on a minor disagreement. Such an effort could have elicited nothing but open disdain among the couple or at best, a source of entertainment capable of strengthening their relationship, he said.
According to him the bemused couple would be wondering from whence the meddlesome interloper obtained his principles for such intervention. Even if this argument was misplaced or overstretched in respect of the Nigerian intervention, it would be strengthened by today's Ghana. Not only that Nigeria stands out as the only country, which toed that line in engaging with the country at that moment, but the effortlessness with which the supposed electoral debacle was resolved, only helps to cast the self-acclaimed giant of Africa in the garb of the biblical busybody, whose eyes are covered with logs, seeking to remove the specks in somebody else's eyes. Today, Ghana is installing a brand new President, in Prof. Evans Attah Mills.
A Tortuous, But Sure-footed Journey
There is no doubt that the journey leading to today's historic event was strewn with a lot of disturbing signals capable of making the less schooled in the Ghanaian development and political history anxious. In fact, the only sin Nigeria would have committed in the eyes of its traducers is that of hypocrisy arising from its own history of democratic ethos and not that it had no basis for showing concern, if such was actually intended.
The situation in the country, especially to the uninitiated and those unaware of what has come to be known as "the Ghanaian Spirit" had indeed degenerated to a level where many lovers of democracy across the ought to become worried that the country, which had begun to advertise itself as one of the most viable democracies, not only in Africa, but the world, was about to miss it this time. It took the disputes between the two main political parties that contested in the run-off election, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), that seemed to have reached a crescendo to come to this.
By morning of Tuesday, in the country, it was obvious that things were no longer at ease in the country. Hundreds of NDP supporters had besieged the Ridge, Accra office of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (ECG), demanding the immediate release of the result of the run-off election, which they believed then, and rightly too, was won by their candidate. The demonstrators, who obviously had been told of an alleged plan by the rival ruling party to manipulate the election, had feared that the EC had been sold on the project.
The demonstration, which began the previous evening with chants of "we want peace, we want peace" had grown in intensity with the lapse of time. The commission had indicated that it would declare the result of the election by noon on Tuesday. But it did not until well over 5p.m. Ghanaian time. By then, even those who had seen the agitation as unnecessary attempt to taint the credible electoral process, which the world had celebrated in the first ballot, and which many also saw as evident during the repeat, had begun to believe the NDC story. That was until the EC spoke.
Its boss, Dr. Kwado Afari-Dyan in announcing that the country would not know its next president till Friday that week, had explained that the delay, was necessitated by the need to iron out some differences among the two contending political parties, alleging electoral infractions against each other in their strongholds. He acknowledged that the NDC raised serious concerns against the results of the election particularly in Kumasi and other parts of the Ashanti Region, home of incumbent President, John Kufuor, while the NPP also did same over some constituencies in the Volta Region, home of his predecessor, Jerry Rawlings.
"We have always said that the name of the game is evidence. And today, the NDC provided some evidence that we think that there is a need to audit some of the results of the election in the Ashanti Region, and NPP has promised to do same in regards to some of the elections in the Volta Region," he had said.
Though he also acknowledged that Mills was in the lead, he explained that because of the closeness of the result it was necessary to conduct fresh election in Tain constituency, in the Brong Ahafo Region, where none was held on December 28, as a result of the violence that led to the burning of the commission's office in the district. He added that the election in the outstanding constituency was to clear any doubt about the eventual winner, because the result there-from could affect the outcome of the entire election.
A Cooling Balm On Festering Wound
The effect was instant. It was like a glass of cold drink to a scotching throat. Like the morning dew under the first sunlight, the massive tension that overwhelmed the country, evaporated in a dramatic manner. It was like as it happened three weeks earlier on December 10, when it took the words of the same man to douse tension created by the allegation from the NDC that the NPP had rigged the election. In both cases, the party was wrong. But it was also happy that it was wrong. In fact in the case of penultimate Tuesday, which was laced with street demonstrations their anger turned to celebration instantly.
Closely monitored by security operatives, including the army and police, who had erected metal barricades to prevent them from gaining access into the commission's compound, the irate mobs, donning the regalia of the party had formed into groups dancing in different directions on the road leading in and out of the commission's office. Indeed, to anybody in Ghana, especially the capital, the elixir effect of the development was evident.
Hunted Now Hunter
But just when many seemed to have heaved sighs of relief, events took another dive down the slope. The NPP, which all the while seemed to have been playing it cool, became the aggressor, initiating its own demands. Upping their agitation with court petitions, the party first wanted the EC to put off the announcement of the result of the election after the Tain exercise pending the determination of electoral challenges in some contentious areas during the run-off. Later the demand, which was refused by an Accra High Court, changed as they insisted, this time that the election should not even take place until the Volta Region dispute was settled. It was also refused, as the court, before Justice Amoako Asante, had insisted that the petitioners, in all the cases should put other interested parties on notice, instead of coming by ex-parte motions. This was followed with renewed demonstration in the outstanding constituency, where supporters of the party besieged on the eve of the election chanting "No Volta, No Vote." All these further darkened the cloud and raised another wave of apprehensions.
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