Oh, Can Ghana Avoid Going “Backwards Ever”?

The very first general election I ever witnessed was the general election held on 8 February 1951. I was too young to take any meaningful part but you can imagine the thrill that went on in my circles about the possibility of electing our own "black man's Government"?

Hitherto, our District Commissioner had been a white man. Our Regional Commissioner (whom my grandmother, a queen-mother, called Komisan!) and almost all the members of the white Governor's executive council were also white men. True, one or two Ghanaian chiefs were included, but it was mainly for "colour massaging purposes" and very little else, as the Governor was not greatly minded to listen to them.

The excitement we experienced, as we gathered round radio stations (where possible) as the radio announcers interrupted normal programmes to announce the results was indescribable.

I can hear people like Ronald Agozor intone: “This is the Gold Coast Broadcasting Service. The general election. Accra Central – Kwame Nkrumah 19,000.....! or some similar number extremely huge to our children's ears) We could not wait for the announcers to come to the end of their sentences before we erupted into cheers. This election, although a thrill for us, was absolutely peaceful. And through it, we had Ghanaian Ministers for the first time.

For us school children, the most interesting appointment was that of Kojo Botsio as Minister of Education. He it was who abolished "Hall" (the dreaded Standard Seven Certificate examination). Names we could not pronounce, such as Abavana, soon began to glide over our tongues easily. Ghana was on the way to becoming a country whose citizens were not strangers to one another.

But by 1954 – that is, only three years later – things had changed drastically. The CPP of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which had won the 1951 election, was now facing a very strong and determined opposition from the National Liberation Movement (NLM). So when the broadcasters started saying again :”This is the Gold Coast Broadcasting System. The general election!” listening to the results was more than a mere thrill. We were on tenterhooks during those broadcasts.

What the politicians of the time did -- both in 1954 and the subsequent, even more crucial election in 1056 -- was to campaign more vigorously than we had ever seen them do before. I was the driver's mate to the brother of Mr Kwabena Bosomprah, brother of Aaron Ofori Atta, who opposed his own "father" (or in the British sense "Uncle") Dr J B Danquah at Akyem Abuakwa Central constituency. I've never seen blood relations fight against each other so fiercely.

The reason was that a lot hung on those elections. If the CPP won, the Gold Coast would have a unitary government and become independent with that. If the NLM won, however, Ghana would become a federation -- like what was later to become known as the Federation of Nigeria.People could identify with these ideas and fight for them, politically speaking.

Despite the tense atmosphere in which the election was held, the results themselves were greeted with the same calmness -- even in 1956 -- as we had seen in the 1951 election. It never occurred to anyone that results of elections could be “rigged” or delayed. Once the people had spoken, the officials made sure their fellow countrymen got the news as soon as possible.

For rigging elections was to be done by whom for what? Everyone knew that there were diametrically opposed political opinions in the country. If you rigged and got a majority through shady means, could you change the minds of those who hadn't voted for you by force?

In any case, the people who stood for elections in those days were people who really believed in SOMETHING and wanted to convince -- or believed they could persuade - others to accept those ideas. No-one had money and freebies to splash around. The CPP people believed strongly that a unitary form of Government would give them the strong platform upon which to stand and negotiate with the British for the Gold Coast to become independent. And those in the NLM believed – equally strongly – that a federal system of government would enable the districts and regions to enjoy more democracy and allow them to use more of their resources in their own areas. The NLM counted cocoa farmers among its greatest supporters, because cocoa farmers overwhelmingly believed that the Central Government in Accra, through its Cocoa Marketing Board, was raking off too much of the export earnings from cocoa and giving too little back to the farmers. So, I repeat, these were issue-dominated elections. What of now, we must all ask ourselves.?

I mean, in those days, we had core issues that aroused legitimate emotions, yet when the results of the elections themselves were announced, they were treated with total credibility and accepted. And thankfully, the system was so efficient that it was all over -- usually -- in the course of JUST ONE NIGHT! By the time we went to bed, we might have got an idea of the TREND. Definitely, when we woke up the next morning, everyone would know who had won and who had lost. There were a few scattered results in remote areas that were yet to be declared. But the national picture was as clear as daylight. And it was discussed in good humour all day.

In 1960, we held a referendum to decide whether Ghana should have an "Executive" President instead of a Prime Minister, and simultaneously, an election to decide whether the President should be Dr Kwame Nkrumah or Dr J B Danquah. This wasn't much of an election, because the Preventive Detention Act had, by now, succeeded in cowing much of the potential voters. Our descent into authoritarian rule was sealed when, in 1964, another referendum was held to decide whether Ghana should become a one-party state. By that time, the CPP Government had detained a lot more of the vocal Opposition members through Preventive Detention, or driven them into exile for fear of being detained without trial, and it was a walkover for the CPP. But people still believed in the referendum results, even though some didn't approve of the process itself.

It was not until solders began to rule us – after the first coup d'etat in February 1966 – that rigging of votes became a possibility. Even then, it was not until the referendum on whether or not we should have a Union Government – as proposed by General Kutu Acheampong in 1977 -- that massive alteration of votes was undertaken. Even then, the rigging wasn't done by the Electoral Commission, under the redoubtable Mr Justice Abban, but by soldiers who took over his offices and forced him to flee to Togo in fear of his life.

The soldiers who rigged the referendum for Acheampong were so amateurish, however, that the first results they officially declared were from the Northern part of the country! This was counter-intuitive, for past elections had always shown that results from the North were delayed for some time and were announced after many Southern results had been announjced. When they realised their mistake, Acheampong's soldiers stopped issuing any results whatsoever, and everyone realised what they were up to.

People laughed at the clumsy efforts of the soldiers, and Acheampong was unable to implement the Union Government idea, although he “won” the referendum.

Unfortunately, the refusal of the Electoral Commission of today to release election results on time has created the same unease that occurred when the Unigov results were deliberately delayed. Maybe Madam Charlotte Osei doesn't know the history of Ghana too well, because if she did, she would never have created the same sort of vacuum that Acheampong created during his Unigov referendum. In particular, she would have realised that after Acheampong became a figure of fun in Ghana, it was easy for his own military colleagues to remove him from office, an event that eventually led to his being tied to the stake and shot.

I should be writing “WELL DONE, NANA AKUFO ADDO!” right now, but due to the machinations of Mrs Charlotte Osei and her Electoral Commission, I can't do that.

Mr Kofi Annan, who as a former Secretary-General of the UN, understands what harm can be done to Ghana's image abroad over disputed election results, has asked for the results to be declared without further delay.

The Peace Council has said basically the same thing.

As have some other social organisations and the election observers.

But Mrs Osei and whoever s he may be working for, are sticking to their guns. The 72-hour deadline for declaring results was almost upon us as I finished this article. But the declaration of Nana Addo as victor had still not occurred.

A lot will fall upon the head of Mrs Osei if something untoward happens in the course of the incredible silence. Poor, poor woman – to be so evidently used this way by people who will definitely discard her the moment they think they have got what they want from her.

What do they want? To take Ghana “backward ever”!. For you don't safeguard the interests of a nation by plunging it into instability by stealing its election.