Ghana's democracy
By Reuben Abati
I ARRIVED in Accra last Saturday, to meet the last moments of the campaigns for Ghana's 2004 elections. The Presidential seat and 230 seats in parliament were up for grabs, and although there were eight political parties on the hustings, and four main candidates for the Presidential office, only two parties, the ruling, liberal New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the authoritarian, opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) were the main contenders. This is understandable. NPP is the party of the incumbent President John Agyekum Kuffour, and NDC, the party of former President Jerry Rawlings, who has been complaining bitterly about real and imaginary irregularities in the electoral process.
Arriving Accra about 72 hours to Ghana's fourth general election since the country's return to multi-party democracy in 1992, I was on the look out for areas of similarities and differences with the Nigerian experience. It did not take long to discover that whereas Nigeria is wobbling and fumbling with democracy, Ghana is on the path to consolidation and renewal. The city of Accra, the nation's capital was unusually quiet and peaceful three days to such a major election. It was the last day of campaigns and it was clear that the candidates respected this. The streets were not littered with campaign leaflets. There were a few posters here and there, but they were mostly those of President Kuffour and a few of his principal rival Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
Public buildings were not defaced with posters or election materials. And I did not see even one, big, gigantic billboard taking over an entire street and blocking the motorist's view as is always the case in Nigeria. There were no area boys in view reminding everyone that the country is at the threshold of a major cataclysm. In Nigeria nobody respects the directives of the Electoral Commission. When INEC directs that campaigns should end, that is in fact when the Nigerian politician begins his own campaign, in the expectation that this would give him an advantage over other candidates. Ghana's democracy is a statement on the Ghanaian attitude and character.
At the Palm Royal Beach Hotel, I had hardly settled down when I learnt that Abel Guobadia, the geriatric who is in charge of Nigeria's elections had also been sighted around the hotel. I was amused. Guobadia must have gone to Ghana to observe and learn a few lessons from Ghana's management of the electoral process. By Sunday, there were so many Nigerians and other foreigners: election observers, NGO workers, pro-democracy groups, correspondents, milling around and the main subject of course, was Ghana's elections and democracy. There is no doubt that Nigeria has a lot to learn from Ghana. In the 2004 elections in that country, there were only 10 million voters up from six million in 2000. Ghana is a relatively small country compared to Nigeria, but its electoral commission led by Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan is independent.
The opposition parties complained about the possibility of fraud and irregularities in the voter's register, but no one could doubt the integrity of the electoral commission. This is important to any electoral process. So supremely confident was Afari-Gyan that he dismissed the complaints as rumours: "these rumours are part of our election landscape all the time", he said. He and his men gave a good account of themselves subsequently on Tuesday by conducting in 21, 000 polling stations an election that has been adjudged free, peaceful and fair by both local and international observers. There was violence in the Northern part of the country resulting in the death of two persons, but generally the election was peaceful, and it was not that kind of peace induced by fear or the conversion of democracy into a piece of blackmail.
There was violence in the North because there has been ethnic and cultural tension in that part of the country following the killing of a local chief and 40 of his associates, and not because the politicians seized the initiative. In Nigeria, the situation is different. Before, during and after elections, our own politicians go about with bodyguards and thugs, every election, there is always the fear of death and violence in the air; political thugs and agents boast openly about their capacity to inflict terror; they scare away the people and turn democracy into a test of muscles. Not so in Ghana.
To buttress this point, I only need to add that on Saturday, after lunch in Dele Momodu's house which is a block away from President Kuffour's personal home and his residence as President, I could not fail to notice that Kuffour lives among the people, not in a fortress that reminds the whole world of his importance. As we drove past the building in the Airport area of Accra, I observed that there were no armoured tanks in sight, no stern-looking soldiers on parade. Neighbours strolled past the house and in fact, one lady stopped and could be seen chatting with the policemen on duty. This was a few hours from an election in which Kuffour's future as President was at stake, and yet there were no thugs at his doorstep protecting him from the enemy and reminding him of his power of incumbency. Such simplicity. Such humility.
I was promptly reminded of a similar experience in Gaborone, Botswana a few years ago. I was in a taxi, going to keep an appointment in town when I was shown Sir Ketumile Masire's residence. I asked the taxi driver to drive towards the gate of the building. He did so without any second thoughts, knowing that in his country, it is not a sin for an ordinary person to go near the homes of elected officials. There were about two policemen around. Nobody challenged us. We made a U-turn and drove off. I would later try a similar adventure around our Presidential villa in Abuja. This was in the days of General Abacha. In the first place, the taxi driver was nervous and he kept complaining that I was taking a risk and we should stop driving too close to Aso Rock.
The truth is that we were a bit far away from the emperor's gates. I wrote about the experience later in this column, and even that attracted the displeasure of the powerful men in Abuja. A senior colleague got a phone call, from one of those people asking him to call me to order and that I was merely inviting trouble by driving round Aso Rock and describing what I saw. The senior colleague told me he tried to explain to them that if they had read the article carefully, they would see that I was playing around with a literary form, and that I did not mean any harm. They told him they were more concerned not about literature, but national security. Abacha has since left Abuja and the Presidential Villa, but the men of power in Nigeria's capital have remained inaccessible. Aso Villa is so far away, the ordinary Nigerian regards it as a fortress. Personal homes of politicians are guarded by a whole detachment of security agents, and private thugs. The Nigerian politician is forever hiding because he is afraid that he might be killed.
The people of Ghana are different. They have a Presidential jet in Ghana, but Kuffour has refused to use it. Dele Momodu told me about how his magazine, Ovation West Africa once did a story about "the richest men in Ghana". He was bombarded with threats of libel suits and general protest. The rich men of Ghana did not want anybody to tell the public that they are rich. In Nigeria, many of us go to great lengths to advertise wealth. Even those who are struggling and have no riches like to be identified as rich. Not surprisingly, Ghana's election 2004 was not about the flaunting of cash at the polling stations but rather about democracy. Ghanaians are very proud of the fact that they are Africa's first politically independent nation; they wanted to use this year's election to show that they are ahead of other African nations in the management of the electoral process. They have managed to learn from the mistakes of 1992, 1996 and 2000, and this much was on display. To start with, the people have confidence in their Electoral Commission. They believe that their votes count, and hence they turned out in large numbers. The Ghanaian media kept talking about "the power of the thumb"; that is the power of the vote. On Sunday, I saw an expression on television: "kokromoti voter": I didn't need an interpreter to know that the media was focusing on the right of the average Ghanaian to choose.
There are about 20 FM stations in Accra alone, and it was amusing being told that the airwaves had been seized by those a German friend who was in Accra to cover the election called "intellectual warlords". In the run up to the elections, these warlords were on radio and television, particularly radio which is the most powerful medium in Ghana, analysing Kuffour's administration and the other candidates and advising the voter. Some of these warlords were so brazen that they called Kuffour names. Nobody has been jailed in Ghana or harassed for being an intellectual warlord. I told my German friend that the only warlords we know in Nigeria are those fighting religious and ethnic battles not with ideas but machine guns, explosives and human skulls. Ghana is different because it is still driven by ideas. Both the people and their leaders listen to the intelligentsia; civil society has a voice that is loud and robust, and there is such a level of freedom of information that is moving that country upwards as an open society.
By last weekend, most Ghanaians were rooting for Kuffour. They were looking forward to another four years of his economic reforms. For them it was a choice between Kuffour's "So far so good" slogan and Mills's "For A Better Ghana". Indeed, Ghana can be better. Close to 40 per cent of its population still lives below the poverty line; there is unemployment across the country, ethnic tension in the North, and in the last four years, fuel prices have gone up repeatedly, (although kerosene and aviation fuel are cheaper in Ghana than in Nigeria). But Kuffour has helped Ghanaians in the last four years to stabilise their democracy. He has brought government closer to the people. Social infrastructure works with clockwork precision; exports have increased. The country is a major tourist attraction for all categories of foreigners including Nigerians who are setting up homes and companies in Ghana. Accra is only forty-five minutes away from Lagos by air; every weekend, there are Nigerians heading in that direction to experience the humanity of that country; I know a number of families planning to spend Xmas in Accra away from the confusion in Nigeria.
Under Kuffour, Ghana has re-discovered its rhythm as a land of hope and possibilities. The relative success of Ghana's democracy extends the boundaries of African renaissance and Afro-optimism. When Abel Guobadia returns from his trip to Ghana, hopefully he would be able to tell his bosses and supervisors what they should be told: that the integrity of electoral frameworks is central to the sustenance of the rule of law, that the people should count so that their votes may count; that the independence of the Electoral Commission is important and that Nigeria is still in the woods compared to Ghana" a country that we like to refer to as small. Ghana has just shown us that it is not size that matters but values, integrity, systems, processes and institutions.
