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Akufo-Addo, still a democratic
dancer
By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong
Of all the contradictions boiling in Nana Akufo-Addo,
presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
in the 2008 general elections, none is more intriguing
than his continued enrichment of the democratic process
through his ability to play with idealism and
pragmatism. That Akufo-Addo’s on-going broad-side
post-Election 2008 “thank you tour” still plays out like
campaigning for Election 2012 reveals his strong
conviction as a democrat and freedom enricher.
Because he lost the elections to President John
Atta-Mills, it is more the idealistic Akufo-Addo that
Ghanaians have got to see first – through his detail
explanation of democracy and freedoms as vehicles for
progress, and as Ghanaians have come to know well, his
over 30 years of struggles for democracy and freedoms.
But despite opposition charge that Akufo-Addo is
arrogant, over the course of the campaigns, as he darted
around Ghana a different Akufo-Addo revealed himself.
This was disciplined, a unifier and consensus building,
practical and cautious – politically liberal,
non-arrogant, yes, but in many ways temperamentally
rooted in the NPP’s democratic conservatism.
Akufo-Addo was also unequivocally unafraid of the
trade-offs, compromises and conflict inherent to Ghana’s
toddler electoral politics. He took on the autocratic
and the megalomaniac ex-president Jerry Rawlings often
ignored stupidity that is increasingly becoming a
serious concern as Ghana enlarges it democratic space,
by reporting him to the Inspector General of the Police
for threatening him and in doing so further enhancing
the democratic believe in Ghanaian institutions.
Coming from a party with high leadership potentials, the
NPPs have warmed to both sides of Akufo-Addo, and
correctly so. The NPP, CPP, NDC, PNC and Ghanaians have
learned in the past 51 years that neither idealism nor
pragmatism is functional unless coupled with the other.
After the 2008 elections Akufo-Addo has proved he has
the ability to be an idealist and pragmatist at same
time, with his eyes on democratic and freedoms growth.
And there are reasons to believe that Akufo-Addo will
further help promote democracy and freedoms as a leading
opposition figure against the fact that the ruling
Nation Democratic Congress (NDC) roots in democracy and
freedoms are shallow, coming from long-running military
juntas and Marxist-Leninist traditions with human rights
violations despite its affirmation that they are now
social democrats.
Such backgrounder feed into the fact that Akufo-Addo’s
instincts will orient him toward democratic pragmatism
more often than not, as democracy driver and democracy
watcher. For one thing, the return of some former P/NDC
military junta figures such as Lt. Gen. Arnold Quanoo
and Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey as members of President
John Atta-Mills’ security team has send concerns in the
democratic field.
Part of the democracy and freedoms work is to tame brash
plans and actions that undermine democratic ideals. With
Atta-Mills increasingly seen as easily manipulable and
too quiet for Ghana’s sizzling politics, especially by
the less democracy savvy forces within the NDC,
Akufo-Addo and his democratic fellows have to be on
guard against the NDC bending democratic values and
relapse into the dictatorial practices of the P/NDC era.
The NDC come against the John Kufour-led NPP that
further grew human rights, democracy and freedoms – so,
if Atta-Mills follows the usual pattern, he will have to
be inclined toward caution. The image of Victor Smith,
the impetuous former spokesman for Rawlings and part of
the Atta-Mills transition team, raiding the Osu Castle
with some military officers to recover state-owned
vehicle from ex-NPP functionaries sent wrong signals to
the Ghanaian democracy and recalled nightmarish images
of brutal military threats, deaths, harassments and
fears during the 20 years of the P/NDC era. Ghanaians
would prefer the return of more democratic prudence in
government in the last eight years.
With 2008 presidential elections being virtually 50-50
for the NDC and the NPP, Akufo-Addo has to remember that
Ghanaians who voted for him didn’t do so just for his
sobriety but the spark of his democratic idealism as
well. The principles Akufo-Addo will act on are tied
together by a sense of idealism about what the ruling
NDC can accomplish when it sets out to deepen democracy
and freedoms.
Akufo-Addo has the opportunity to teach the NDC and
Ghanaians that democracy and freedoms aren’t grown by
governing parties only but the opposition as well.
Akufo-Addo faces Rawlings and his NDC associates who
weren’t born and bred of democratic conviction but the
diet of chaos, unfreedoms, threatening military juntas,
and dictatorship.
Around Africa, all eyes are on Akufo-Addo to continue to
demonstrate his democratic ideals and pragmatism,
especially in accepting the results of the 2008
elections results despite some serious issues involved.
Atta-Mills, after all, don’t have history of struggling
for democratic ideals. But in opposition, instead of
abandoning democratic idealism, Akufo-Addo should strive
to deepen it for the good of posterity. It becomes
Akufo-Addo’s responsibility and obligation to Ghanaians
against the fact that there are still some who aren’t
committed to genuine democracy and freedoms, and would
see Ghana relapsed into military rule.
After all the undemocratic figures Akufo-Addo and his
associates battled against for are still around, more in
the ruling NDC. It means using his part of the
democratic capital Ghanaians gave in the 2008 general
elections to stop undemocratic behaviour and dealing
unflinchingly with figures around Atta-Mills who still
have military, enemy and dictatorial mentality that
could be released to suppress Ghanaians freedoms. And it
means Akufo-Addo and his NPP constantly revivifying
their ancient roles as the vanguards in crafting
strategies to check the spread of undemocratic behaviour.
Whether he is in opposition or if he were to be
President, Akufo-Addo has proved that he can balance
democratic idealism with democratic pragmatism. With the
Ghanaian democracy only 17 years old, more democratic
work needs to be undertaken, especially in further
expanding decentralization by integrating it with
traditional institutions and values. Atta-Mills attempts
in integrating traditional rulers into district
assemblies are one such step. The idea has been that if
Akufo-Addo had won the 2008 elections, he would have
further build upon John Kufour by deepening democracy
and freedoms, of which he has been in the forefront in
the past 30 years.
Of course it isn’t a mystical formula and possesses its
own perils, as Akufo-Addo is fully aware when he battled
military juntas and anti-democratic forces to help open
up the floodgates of democracy and freedoms Ghanaians
are enjoying today. But more than ever, now that he is
the leading opposition figure and the fact he won 50 per
cent of the 2008 votes, Akufo-Addo shouldn’t forget that
he sold himself to voters as a democratic idealist. From
Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians have felt the jolt of great
democratic things in the making.
By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong,
Canada, January 25, 2009
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