Ethnic card and an African election

There are countless examples across Africa of how misguided and power hungry politicians and other public office holders played the ethnic card in a bid to wrestle power and how those irrational acts decimated their own nations.

Rwanda is perhaps the best example but so is Kenya after the 2007 elections in which up to 1,500 people died from ethnic clashes. Even the Ivorian war was in part ethnically executed.

It’s against this backdrop that I find a pronouncement by Ghana’s caretaker President, John Mahama, who is seeking to retain power during the country’s December 7, 2012 elections most offensive.

President Mahama

Addressing the chiefs and people of Nankpanduri in northern Ghana during a campaign tour of the Northern Region this week, the President of one of Africa’s brightest democracies, seemed to appeal for their votes – not so much based on his vision, policies and the record of the ruling party but – simply because of where he comes from, the Northern Region. The bait to his ethnic cleavage, his kith and kin, is not only Machiavellian but also obnoxious.

Ironically, three of the four candidates that participated in the IEA presidential debate last Friday are from the northern half of the country but I don’t quite think that Ghanaians were bothered by that as much as the vision, policies and ideas they espoused on that platform.

With that unguarded statement, President Mahama has doubtlessly and quite deliberately so, drawn many Ghanaians away from the policy discourse they are craving for, to their differences, superficial as they are.

But Mahama is not alone in playing the ethnic card in this election. His main opponent, Nana Akuffo Addo in this election, a few months ago also made an ethnically charged statement trying to distinguish his Akan ethnic group from other ethnic groups in the country.

Nana Addo

The PPP’s Paa Kwesi Nduom has also made some ethnically charged in his recent campaigns. In a campaign stump speech a week ago in Cape Coast, capital of the Central Region, Nduom urged his supporters to ignore ‘Adze wo fie oye’ (understood to be a reference to the vice president Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur who is also from Cape Coast) and adopt ‘Adze papa wo fie oye’.

Nduom reframed his statement by urging his supporters: ‘Don’t just vote for a Fanti, but a Ghanaian who is competent….’ But by the time Nduom reframed his message the harm had possibly been done.

Ghana certainly deserves better. There are over 10 major ethnic groups in Ghana with many more sub-regroups.

Ghana elections: first of three debates, no clear winner

Ghanaians saw four of the main contenders vying for the presidency at a national debate last night on national television. It was the second real presidential debate since the country’s return to constitutional rule in 1992.

Ghanaians go the polls to elect a president and parliamentarians on December 7, 2012. The three big issues of the 2012 election are the economy, jobs and education. But the first of the three 2012 debates focused on the economy, social sector and private sector development/industrialization. 

Although the organizers initially listed foreign policy, it never really was on the menu last night.

Tuesday’s debaters were the care-take president John Mahama of the NDC, Dr Abu Forster of the CPP, the PNC’s Hassan Ayariga and Nana Addo of the NPP.

Here is my take on how the candidates faired in the first debate.

Abu Sakara’s delivery was brilliant: articulate and largely level-headed. He attacked, especially the president, without coming across as angry, overly ambitious or even worse, presumptuous. He brought his superior intelligence to the table. He reframed ‘problematic’ questions intelligently without saying so before answering them. I was only shocked at his wild take on the history of the CPP as a pro-private sector party. I guess he was only trying to distance himself from the statism of the past.

Nana Addo obviously was on the attack half of the time and that may have excited many, particularly the NPP base. Did it work? May be yes, may be no. Seriously, I am not so sure how that will play on the minds of undecided voters.

I thought Nana’s framing of the big picture – move GH out of export of raw commodity dependence to a light industrial manufacturing economy that adds value to provide sustainable jobs and improve quality of life of the average person – was great. But he seemed to have fallen short rather badly when it came to filling in the details. The ‘details’ he offered were either sketchy or contradictory or both. The linkage he tried drawing between his educational policy/programme to the structural transformation of the economy lacked depth, if you like, unconvincing.

Generally, he’s not a fiery person but I was shocked at President Mahama’s sluggish delivery. Was he thinking he had the presidency already in the bag? His framing of the big picture was uninspiring at best and quite frankly dubious. Albeit, he later provided elements that fit well into an economy that is ready to structurally take-off, transform into a full-fledged middle nation and is willing and capable of competing on the global stage. Sorry to say, i really Mahama is withering quite a number of potential voters who thought he was an excellent candidate after Mills.

Thing about this sort of debates is that substance matter and so does appearance (not so much looks) but connection to the population/viewers/listeners. Mahama didn’t sound convincing even with the figures. He didn’t seem like he really wants the job, that he deserves the job. Sakara was very methodical, clinical and compelling more than half of the time. Nana Addo’s passion meant he was sometimes very persuasive if even overly hawkish and downright annoying.

Hassan Ayariga provided comic relief. But why was his wife covering her face each time it was Ayariga's turn to answer a question? Ayariga clearly has inherited the domestication agenda left behind by Dan Lartey late leader of the GCPP.

It was a shame, the PPP’s Paa Kwesi Nduom was not allowed on the debate platform. According to the organizers, the Ridge-based Institute of Economic Affairs, the platform is designed for only parties contesting the elections that have at least one MP in parliament.

Two more presidential debates and one vice presidential debate are coming up. The first proper presidential debate was held in 2008. The 2000 and 2004 debates did not include some major parties.