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President Mahama, listen to the cries of
your own people (Part II)
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Part I
The President is enjoined to make such appointments in
accordance with Section 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution and
Section 20(1) of the Local Government Act 1993, Act 462. Nobody
doubts the enormous powers vested in him by the Constitution. He
can exercise these powers as he deems fit, but it will be
politically suicidal for him to think that he can exercise such
powers without recourse to the barometer reading concerning the
sentiments of his own party’s members. After all, he is in
office because those party members put their shoulders to the
wheel to mobilize support for him at the elections. These are
the very people not to annoy.
Apparently, Sarpong might be so full of himself and be
over-bloated with the political power injected into him by his
being appointed and shifted around as a Regional Minister. But
at the end of the day, he and the appointing authority cannot
enjoy their status without the total backing of the very people
being undermined. What irks me the most is that these are the
very people that they will rush to at election time to do the
dirty work for them to remain in office. And in office, they
think they are on top of the world.
These negative developments also reflect on the NDC itself,
which reminds me of the internal crisis that shook the party
long before the 2012 general elections and the frantic efforts
made to patch up differences. Although a common front had been
forged to ensure victory for the party at the general elections,
the internal crisis isn’t over. It has only been massaged to the
point of allowing for the garnering of votes. Everything points
straight to the fact that that crisis still exists.
Apparently, the clipping of the Rawlingses’ wings seems to
deceive some that the party’s woes are over. They are not. The
Rawlingses may no longer be the be-it-all-and-end-it-all in the
party or they may not be jumping on President Mahama as they did
to the late President Atta Mills but it doesn’t mean that all is
well within the party. The fact that they no more be the
potentates that they had been before being neutralized but they
still command a good following within the party and can depend
on them to muddy the waters if need be.
And that good following is made up of cadres of the party (the
foot-soldiers) who are now up in arms against the nominees at
the District, Municipal, and Metropolitan Assemblies. Sadly,
these are the very people on whose shoulders the party hangs for
survival. These are the very people who sacrifice their lot for
party work but end up not gaining anything when victory is won.
They are the very people who do the dirty work for the party’s
leaders at various levels, risking their lives and resources
without necessarily expecting to be compensated. After all, they
are not motivated by the kind of greed that propels their
leaders at the various levels—constituency, regional, national.
They do so because of their commitment to a cause that they have
identified with and defended with their sweat, blood, and tears
ever since the Rawlings phenomenon registered itself on the
Ghanaian political map.
Most of these cadres are in the rural areas and know how to make
ends meet without necessarily being at the beck-and-call of the
powers-that-be. They have been so all these years and not
wavered. Had they not been so, there would have been little left
of the NDC. These are the people whose voices are loud and clear
today that they don’t like the imposition of these nominees on
the Assemblies. Unfortunately, their voices are not being heard.
A major problem that the NDC has failed to solve over the years
is this tendency to disrespect the sentiments of the cadres,
especially after they have been exploited for political power to
be gained. The spate of demonstrations and acts of indiscipline
that characterized the government-cadre relationship under
ex-President Mills clearly explains the extent to which this
problem has calcified in the NDC.
Under President Mahama, it is still evident. The street
demonstrations in Tamale, Wulensi, and other areas—leading to
the destruction of the NDC’s paraphernalia and property—is the
direct upshot of that problem. When these cadres can no more
bottle up their sentiments, they resort to such physical acts.
After all, when the hearts if full, the mouth speaks!
I am disappointed that President Mahama has not been proactive
in this area to listen to the cries of the very people whose
toils put him in office—and who are determined to back him all
the way to 2016, regardless of the NPP’s petition challenging
his legitimacy. Everything points to them as the backbone of the
NDC and it doesn’t make sense for them to be maltreated or
treated with scorn.
Nobody is saying that the President should be subservient to
such people; far from that. But it makes sense for him to keep
his doors open so they can reach him with their grievances
instead of taking to the streets and being “physical”, which
runs counter to what democracy entails.
Regardless of whatever the motivation for rejecting the
President’s nominees may be, one fact stands out glaringly for
attention, which is that most of the complaints verge on
incompetence, corruption, and arrogance on the part of those
regarded as impositions.
We have been given to know that those nominees have served a
term already and proved not to be the problem solvers that the
people are looking for. What is it that should make the
President retain them in office? Is it because they are the only
viable people in the NDC or the various communities? Or that
they contributed more toward retaining President Mahama in
office and must be compensated with the re-appointment?
Clearly, those kicking against the nominees are the real
observers of their performance and attitudes and should be given
the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think that they are against
the retention or appointment of these CEOs out of spite or
jealousy. They are doing so because they have genuine concerns
that the President should have listened to long before the
official announcement on their nomination.
No grassroots consultation took place in some cases. In others,
where such consultations were done, the line got distorted and
those fingered for appointment were sidestepped for new faces
that are unknown. Several examples exist, but one is Delphia
Fafa Agbai, who has been nominated for North Tongu. Evidence
exists that she wasn’t part of those interviewed for the
position. So, how come that she was brought in after the
interview had been concluded to be appointed?
Allegations are rife that some people have bribed their way
through. Others are that some considerations verging on
immorality and nepotism influenced the choices made by those
responsible for the nationwide interviewing and recruitment of
the personalities to head the Assemblies. It is the usual
Ghanaian thing, which casts a huge doubt over the integrity of
the government machinery.
All said and done, the implications are dire, and President
Mahama has to place his best foot forward to prevent any
worsening of his relationship with his party’s base in these
communities. If governance should ensure the improvement of
conditions for enhanced living standards, it shouldn’t be a
tug-of-war affair in the choice of CEOs for the Assemblies. A
proper groundwork could be done in consultation with the various
stakeholders in the various districts, municipal and
metropolitan areas so the best candidates can be identified and
given the job. What is too difficult about this approach to
scare anybody?
I want to say at this point that the ongoing demonstrations
against the President’s nominees don’t speak well of the
President himself, especially in terms of his governance style.
A lot of thinking has to be done to address the problem so
President Mahama can continue to retain his accolade as an
“affable” personality. Ghanaians respect him for all that he is
and he must not allow what is happening at the local level to
tarnish his image and detract from his political worth.
It is only a celebrated fool in the NDC who will not cringe at
the impact of these goings-on. More intriguingly, it is only a
certified dunce in the party, especially in its high echelons,
who will do things to worsen the government’s credibility
problems and rejuvenate the party’s own internal crisis.
As the situation stands now, unless the President moves fast to
undo the harm that his action has done, there will be no other
option for the aggrieved people to “advise” themselves, which
will simply translate into losing confidence in him and choosing
to be apathetic to his cause. Is that what he needs at this
time? And is that how to grow our democracy? I don’t think so.
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
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