Very hot country (I)

How fast this country has raced to become very hot un­der-feet can be blamed on pro­crastination. It flows from the “it will be well’ and years long of both blinkered and deliberately nursed and nurtured structural political divisiveness by power-holders and seekers alike throughout before and after independence. It looks like some ice breaks are cracking. One reads a disclaimer quoting that the ruling NPP, one of the dominant competing political parties is not averse to a forensic audit of the electoral roll, the pivot of the current high-tensioned fric­tion; and it is said the or supposed Electoral Commission [EC] was pro-appointing their own presum­ably external Auditor. That half way may boost a thaw. However, there is no reliable information about demurring. I regret not be­ing able to vouch. The safest bet is the mentioning with hope.

Meanwhile, the stand-off is becoming towards calcified which is no mere shame but it portends difficulties beyond. The wildness of the intense environment potentially exacer­bates, a no Russian roulette. If the frost stays to bite, there a number of things speculate—a boycott, legal complications and a slippery slope. Our experi­ence of these at the start of this now partly wobbly constitution. I refer to the aftermath of the defeat of Prof. Albert Adu Boahene (NPP Ticket) by Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings (NDC)–‘’STO­LEN VERDICT co-authored by B.J. da Rocha and Nana Akufo-Addo (the president to­day at fag-end of his term) and a parliament of only EIGHT forming the Opposition led by a Military Doctor, a Major from 37 Military Hospital in Accra.

Against that background, I am going back to trace and not to blame or condemn the sources of this seasonal storms in the precincts of imminent elections. I am using Ghana but refer to the wider African context, specifically Britain as the ex-colonial power rela­tive to the Anglo-Saxon West Africa, all since independence between mid-50s-early-60s. There is only a partial but partisan grubby understand­ing of the non-flexibility of the EC—what it is generally about. Honestly, for whom they are working. We don’t have a ‘’chippy-chippy-chep-chep’’ situation, because its hypocrisy not to feel that ‘’fomu ado’’— there is strengthening public weariness or is it apprehension about what’s going on with and around the EC Anyway, I shall press on with skirting the tracings.

Britain, the colonial power knew or must have but it suited their ultimate expectations especially calculating beyond ceding as the independence euphoria stormed the British Empire between mid-40s to early-70s. What’s happening in Ghana today is significant part results of that studious calculus. Take a cursory check on the rapid replacing the Union Jack [British National Flag] in a then vibrantly sprawled ‘Rule-Britan­nia’ morphing into a Common­wealth of former Colonies— India-Pakistan [partitioned 1948], South Africa ejected for Apartheid two or three years effectively after British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s ‘’Wind of Change-speech ’’ 1958, in Johannesburg and the Gold Coast 1957, turned Ghana to lead the demise of the Empire.

The hint about the expectant metamorphosis of Anglophone West Africa was given by J.E. Casely Hayford in a speech at the National Congress meeting of the National Congress of British West Africa (at Lagos, Nigeria Dec. 29, 1929) “to maintain and inviolate, the connection of the British West African Dependencies with the British Empire …’’ Prime Minister (then, from the Leader of Government Business) Dr Kwame Nkrumah with Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru led the movement to force South Africa out of the enlarg­ing (British) Commonwealth for turning a Republic (said to be incompatible) and apart­heid, globally obnoxious. That caused strain between Nkru­mah and his friend Sir Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia when he turned round to shift Ghana into a Republic from Prime Ministerial system of Government. Nkrumah explained he had consent of the late British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

That indeed opened the floodgates for upcoming independent African countries. Sequel or indeed ante, was the notion of “Government and Opposition”. We had misunderstood it generally; and importantly that being the Opposition means “ENEMY”. That had its starters at the old Legislative Assembly to the fore in the disagreement 1922-25 over who was fitter –Chiefs or the Intelligentsia, to present the request for Britain to share the formulation of policies and decisions to run the country, “not a fatuous demand” [Dr J.B. Danquah in his Introducto­ry commentary in “Gold Coast Men Affairs” by Magnus J. Sampson; Dawsons of Pall Mall 1969].

The greater quick fix proba­bly overlooked was the British describe the Opposition as “LOYAL OPPOSITION”. I believe the tag is to either miti­gate or deter both the meaning and conjecture of destructive and mischief-maker group(s). Our politics have developed contrarily. A discreet enquiry said the British had not pursued that as necessary in respect of the degree of scholarship and quality-maturity of the political players of the time. But politics had inherited a mixture of old antagonisms and new –old Legislative Assembly through feuding rump of ARPS, de­tention of “Big Six”, Boycott, workers walk out, strikes the killing of Sgt Adjetey and Co., Nkrumah leaving to found the CPP, the North’s NPP and the NLM debacle. Eyes were red which birthed the enmity root­ed in ethnicism and through the years broke households and labelled orthodox Churches, including cascading the unorth­odox outflanking orthodoxy, also in-fighting today.

Everyone is right country. If you belong to my cause exclusive of ‘’audi alterem partem’’-listen to the other party. That attitude affronts Representative Government. This is the debris we confront left from the beginning for our polity, dismantling itself presently, going to the polls as everyone’s heels dug-in, unabat­ed and increasingly confused. Lord Hailsham the Lord chan­cellor wrote in his diagnosis and prescription ‘’The Dilemma of Democracy’’ [paperback Collins pb 1978 pg 13] : ‘’It only now that men women are begin­ning to realise representative institutions are not necessarily guardians of freedom, but can themselves become engines of Tyranny’’. That might be imag­inatively, inconsistent with our current national dilemma.

To Be Continued…

By Prof Nana Essilfie-Conduah