Flirting With Catastrophe

Written by Sunskreen

I am not a politician, nor political – I’m just one who loves Ghana so much – but now having uttered those very words, I shudder at their abuse over the last few days in Ghana. ‘We love Ghana’ in deed, has become such a popular refrain on radio amongst the political houses that it makes me wonder whether this isn’t part of a larger strategy script that is being read to bamboozle the average undiscerning listener.

My fellow Ghanaians and persons with a heart to Ghana, we came very close to catastrophe. Let no one fool you into thinking this was just another peaceful round of elections that demonstrate how ‘democratically advanced’ Ghana is. The association of these elections in Ghana with the word ‘democracy’, makes me wanna (and I must beg your pardon here), spit out in disdain! We made a real mockery of democracy and in the process came all too tantalizing close to relapsing into a state of chaos no different from Kenya’s or Zimbabwe’s in recent times.

As I mentioned from the onset, I do love Ghana very much. I am very proud to mention to my friends beyond the shores of Ghana what a beacon of peace, political stability and economic viability Ghana is on the sub-continent. This picture of a utopia was menacingly close to disappearing in the 48 hours following the ‘run-off’ elections to determine the next head of the republic.

For those who have lost touch with Ghana, I will give you the elevator summary of what went down. Radio stations in Accra declared the opposition party winner prior to rumours emerging (quoting the Electoral Commission strong room as a source) that the incumbent had actually won. Supporters of the opposition were vociferously opposed to this and were supposedly mobilizing mobs with machetes and stomping EC premises to voice their opposition to the new unforeseen developments. There were threats of large scale violence looming on the horizon.

Now on this fateful afternoon of the expected final announcement from the EC, I was sat in the dusty front seat comfort of a taxi on my way home from Osu, the heart of Accra. Over the stereo was blurring music playing from “Peace FM”. That in itself would be unremarkable except that all the songs that were being played were patriotic songs. Sandwiched between two plays of the national anthem of Ghana, was a song in Twi entreating Ghanaians to embrace peace. After the second play of the national anthem, there was a stream of songs in different languages all drumming the message of peace, unity and the ‘one-people’ concept. One song even called for ‘non-violence’ in these elections. There was no voice over on this station for the entire 30-minute drive in this taxi. It was almost as though these dirge-like tunes had been made for a moment like this:

Offices had been closed and workers had been asked to go home in preparedness of potential widespread violence. When I say offices, I mean large corporations, even some multinationals. Rumours emerged that even the buzzing centre of commerce, the Accra Mall, was being asked to close early. It was 2:30pm and I was sat in uncharacteristically heavy traffic for that time of day. The taxi driver remarked “Obi ara ko fie, obia suro’ (Everyone’s going home, every one is afraid). On my inbound journey into Osu earlier in the day, a taxi driver had said to me ‘I say, if they don’t call this thing give the opposition, what go happen for this country inside, hmph! Me I dey go pack my things then lef Accra’. Now his ominous words came back to haunt me, no doubt compounded by the ‘patriotic’ solemn songs blurring out of Peace FM. It was like going to the funeral of someone beloved and wondering whether it was real. I was in a state of shock – was Ghana really on the brink of a widespread civil unrest. Not many seemed to be betting against it.

I sat back and wondered, is this how fragile our peaceful democratic state is? Would people really toss out nearly 30 years of reasonable political stability to send the country into a death spiral akin to that of Zimbabwe? Were the political leaders who ‘loved’ Ghana so much, willing to risk this? Even more worrying, were we incapable of holding a simple two-choice election, and tallying votes fairly and expediently?

My last statement is only a surface statement because behind the word ‘fairly’ lies many worrying details. The allegations that have been tossed about make a real mockery of our professed democracy. Polling station party representatives being beaten and imprisoned in some areas; some constituencies experiencing near 100% voter turn out after registering much less in the first round; Ashiaman descending into scenes straight out of Hotel Rwanda (yes indeed, the mob was threatening to attack a hotel were they suspected some ballot boxes had been smuggled to); the home of one incumbent official being beset by mobs who believed he was housing a ‘ballot paper thumb-printing press’; and the pick of the lot, a whole constituency going without any voting on the day because voting material did not arrive.

Going back to Ashiaman, I was listening to Joy FM on Election Day and wondered which country I was sitting in. There were gun shots in the background as the Joy FM reporter bravely reported from the scene of security forces versus mob violence. Apparently tear gas and warning shots were being aggressively used to disperse the mob and voting had come to a virtual stand-still in the township of Ashiaman. A heavy military presence had been deployed throughout that town.

Now the mental image of this I found very disturbing. This is by no means the Ghana I grew up in and loved. Mind you, this was violence taking place during the election, not to be confused with the violence that threatened to take place upon the announcement of the final results. I wondered, after 5 successive elections, were we incapable of having truly ‘free and fair’ elections? Have we not learnt to nurture a true democracy? In an election were 23,000 votes could decide the winner, what credence does our said democracy have if we can’t vouch for the fairness of the electoral process?

For me, there are a few takeaways from what was largely a very disappointing state of affairs. One – let’s not take our freedom and peace for granted, seriously. The sight of many scurrying home early from work was extremely disconcerting. It felt as though one was witnessing the very beginning of a tragic end. Two – our democracy as we know it, is not sustainable. This is a democracy that encourages boldface underhand tactics that go unchecked; a democracy that thrives on near barbaric aggression at times and a democracy that is ultimately a farce.

Now I hate to prescribe medicine to these problems for I feel I will be joining the legion of talkers. But I feel I should end this note on a tone of hope and not hopelessness. Our long-term political salvation, thankfully, is still in our own hands. After this election, I believe the new incumbent and new opposition really need to sit down and look back at what was a very flawed process of which both parties are equally guilty. We need to have an electoral commission that is truly independent and unwavering in its commitment to carrying out its civic duties. Further, if these blood- and power-thirsty politicians have any bit of love in them, let us seriously resolve to have measures in place that ensure that election results are non-contentious. Is it time to go electronic on the process and eliminate the sometimes convenient inaccuracy of the manual process? Should we now pay serious attention to the National ID project that will ensure only qualifying Ghanaians show up to vote in future elections?

These are burning commitments that may seem like unnecessary financial undertakings. But my brothers and sisters, whatever price these come at, they wouldn’t be a price too high to pay for the continued peace of this country, which we fumbled, and so nearly lost.

[This note was penned based on events prior and up to the 30^th of December, 2008]