Akufo-Addo’s victory and “Esther” John Mahama’s 2016 agenda

Written by Manasseh Azure Awuni, September 2013

My mentor, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, wrote a very prophetic and timeless article in the most critical moment of the 2008 Presidential elections. I say that intriguing piece of literature is timeless because I discovered it on Kwaku’s website two years after it was written, enjoyed it as though it was written that very day and would find it relevant three years later.

Like cola nut, which our wise elders say lasts in the mouths of those who value it, Mr. Sakyi-Addo’s article, like any other great literary piece, received my attentive reading more than once. I have read that article not less than five times, but each time I read it, it was as if I was reading it for the first time. The last time I read it was August 29, 2013, when the Supreme Court of Ghana gave its ruling on the 2012 election petition.

So what is this article about?

The 2008 Presidential Election of Ghana was forced into a second round. The two main contenders, the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), failed to cross the 50% mark one needs to ride in the only car in Ghana with the Coat of Arms as its number plate.

But the results after the second round proved more critical when one more constituency, Tain, needed to be contested because the margin between the Law professor of blessed memory and Nana was not conclusive enough to allow the Electoral Commission to declare winner. The ruling NPP, which was trailing the NDC, did not only insist on contesting Tain, but it also talked about contesting the votes from the Volta Region in the court.

It was at this point that Kwaku Sakyi-Addo wrote an analytical and prophetic article, asking Nana Akufo-Addo to let go and concede defeat. On the NPP’s plan to contest Tain, Mr Sakyi-Addo wrote:

“True, on paper there’re 53,000 votes. But there aren’t that many, really. In 2004 as well as voting in 2008, approximately 30,000 voters turned up. In 2004, President Kufuor beat Mills in Tain by 1,516 votes. On December 7, Mills won by around 1,276. And NDC won the parliamentary race too… Let it go.”

On the talk about going to court to reject votes from the NDC’s stronghold, this was what Kwaku told Akufo-Addo:

“The thing is you did not lose this election in VR. You lost it everywhere. In the Western Region, Mills gained 35,426 from his first round score. You had 28,545 fewer votes than your votes in round one. That’s a net gain for Mills of over 74,000 votes. In Brong Ahafo where you won on December 7, you lost 4000. Mills gained 25,000. In unfancied Upper East, you lost almost 1000 votes. Mills won 35,000 more. In the Volta Region, you received only 195 fewer votes than in round one. Alright, Mills gained an extra 81,000. But you also made a net gain of 131,000 in Ashanti. My point is you won’t have a compelling case to contest Tain or go to court. So let it go.”

In that article, Kweku implored Akufo-Addo to call Mills and congratulate him because the numbers weighed against him. If he chose the court, the critical question would be “whether those offences changed the outcome of the results in any substantial way.” The NPP later abandoned the court action it had initiated, but it contested Tain.

Four years later the NPP would go to court to challenge the election results. And one of the two broad issues based on which the petition was to be upheld or dismissed was Kwaku’s point: “Whether those offences changed the outcome of the results in any substantial way.” But that is not the only reason Kwaku’s article is being cited like a biblical quotation at a time its relevance should have been limited to an addition to archival material.

In that piece, Kwaku made a profound point to Nana Akufo-Addo: “If you lose an election, don’t lose your face. So stare down that phone. Wear your famous thinking man’s pout. Take a deep breath. And make that call.” Nana Addo did not call Prof. Mills to congratulate him. But he did that five years later. Before he delivered what I think is one of the most memorable speeches by any Ghanaian politician in recent times immediately after the Supreme Court ruling, he called President John Mahama to congratulate him.

Like every great work of literature, one does not finish reading without taking away a few powerful lines. My best line from Kwaku Sakyi-Addo’s article is his admonition to Nana Akufo-Addo: “You see, politicians think of the next election. Statesmen think of the next generation.” This prophecy came to pass on August 29, 2013, when Nana Akufo-Addo moved from a politician to a statesman when he accepted the Supreme Court ruling and doused the tension in the nation with soothing words of peace and unity. It doesn’t take eternity to do that, does it?

Nigeria’s Prophet T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nation’s has openly praised Nana Addo, saying Africa would be peaceful if politicians and leaders followed the example he has set. The General Overseer of the Action Faith Chapel International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams also told a thanksgiving service congregation, which included President John Mahama, that Akufo-Addo “will go down in history as a true statesman of his country.”

Many more prominent Ghanaians and institutions, I guess, feel the same way but are unable to express it for the fear of being tagged. But Nana Addo’s singular step has endeared him to even some of his staunchest critics in the NDC. Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Tuesday (September 3, 2013) visited Nana Addo and applauded him for acting as a statesman in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. The “Iron Lady,” who previously said Nana Addo never went to a Law school, Tuesday called him a “lawyer and statesman.”

The next election and the next generation

In fact, Nana Addo’s status after his graceful acceptance of the verdict confirms the title of Kwaku Sakyi-Addo’s article in question: “Winning despite losing.” Any right thinking Ghanaian, apart from those whose heads are infested with political maggots, would attest to the fact that his action helped a great deal in the peace we are enjoying after the ruling by the nine judges of the highest court of the land.

In his concession speech, Nana Addo said: “It is now up to all of us Ghanaians to put the dispute behind us and come together to iron out our differences, ease the tensions among us, and come together to build our country. There are myriads of problems facing us as a people. This is the time for us all to come together and work to find solutions to the challenges that confront our people.”

Unfortunately, however, not all members of the winning team think about the challenges of the people who elected them. Some of them are preoccupied with the “next election” and not “the next generation.” John Abdulai Jinapor, deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum is one of them. Mr Jinapor, who was once spokesperson to the President John Mahama, watched the Supreme Court ruling with the President in the Flagstaff House. And immediately after the ruling, he started posting pictures he took with the President on his facebook page.

The deputy minister’s photographs with the visibly elated President on Facebook are not my mutton. My beef is the caption that accompanied the photographs:

“JM [John Mahama] declared legitimate President. Battle for 2016 begins today.”

Battle for 2016? Is that why Ghanaians queued to vote for you? That after being declared winner, your next agenda is the next election? What about the unemployment? What about the power crisis? What about the corruption, which is threatening the stability of the nation?

Though John Jinapor is very close to his boss, John Mahama, and made this statement at a time he was with him, I cannot conclude that the president sanctioned it and that it is his agenda after he had his legitimacy cemented by the Supreme Court. That notwithstanding, I have a piece of advice for the President if he is unfortunately thinking along the lines of John Jinapor.

A word to the president

Mr. President, Ghanaians will not remember you for how long you ruled, but the impact you made in the lives of the hungry and homeless masses who queued to vote for you. And you don’t need eight years to make an impact. My father used to tell us that the years would not stand still because of his poverty. The years will not stop moving because of your presidency. 2016 will soon be here. And if you have the nod again, 2020 will soon come and you will be saying goodbye to Ghanaians?

Do you want to be remembered only as the longest serving president of the Fourth Republic? (Remember you enjoyed a few months on the throne before your actual election.)

Though Ghanaian politics is dirty and the road to the top is murkier than the swimming pond for pigs in my village, I am sometimes tempted to believe that Providence has a say in who rules us. This is not only because it defies coincidence to have four successive “Johns” as Presidents but also because of your own journey to the Presidency.

Mr. John Mahama, your opponents do not agree with you anytime you say your election is divine. But that seems to be true and I liken your elevation to Esther in the Bible. She was the most unlikely candidate to succeed Vashti as queen because she was an orphaned slave. It would have been difficult for you to become the flag bearer of your party because of where you come from. Face it! Since 1992, your northern colleagues in politics have often played second fiddle to those from the south.
Prof. J.E.A Mills, who led the NDC in elections since 2000, selected Mr. Martin Amidu as his running mate but lost. In 2004, he picked Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, as running mate. When he lost, he again decided to change a running mate, another northerner, for the 2008 election. The lots fell on you despite stiff opposition from your own party, including the founder and his wife, who wanted Betty Mould Iddrisu of the Woyome Scandal fame to partner Prof. Mills.

You went with Prof Mills once, and you won. But your tenure as vice president did not end before your elevation to the highest throne of our republic. You became President when President Mills died.
Again, you campaigned for barely five months (including your “thank you tour” in funeral cloth) and won over Nana Addo, who had been campaigning since 2007.

If indeed, you believe your elevation is by the grace of the Old Man above, then you must also believe that it is not for nothing that He elevated you. When the Jews faced annihilation and Queen Esther gave reasons why she could not intervene for her people, her uncle, Mordecai sent her a strong word:

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

You come from a part of the country, where, if you give someone GH¢10 ($5), you will find a delegation in your house the next morning to thank you. There are many such people all over the country because politicians after Dr Kwame Nkrumah have thought more about the next election than the electorate.

There is a reason why you were chosen over the son of a former president. Think about what Mordecai told Queen Esther.