By Felix Mawulolo Amegashie
President Barack H. Obama has come and gone but he left in his wake memories that will forever linger with this generation until perhaps he comes back some day to refresh us.
I must congratulate the Atta Mills-led government for the very simple and down-to-earth manner in which activities celebrating Obama’s historic visit to Ghana were handled in the face of obvious financial challenges confronting the country.
Equally deserving of commendation is the open arms with which President John Evans Mills embraced his political opponents including those who rated him undeserving of the office of president, to the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport to welcome the visiting US President.
This is what I call leadership: making the best of relationships and resources for the common good of the people. President Mills did not submerge the opposition but rallied them around his good self in branding Ghana as an “adolescent democracy” in the eyes of the world.
It is only in Ghana that competitors in a bitter election can quickly recover from their age old rivalries and come together for a common purpose on a memorable day as that of the visit of Barack Obama.
We all deserve credit and I cannot agree more with President Obama when he stressed that “perhaps the minority deserves much commendation as the majority”.
“Domestication”
The breakfast meeting between Obama, the President and the two ex-presidents was the next attraction to the whole programme. There was life and humour amidst serious talk at that breakfast meeting that saw Nana Konadu Rawlings and Theresa Kufuor with their respective sweethearts, together on the same platform after a long period of unhealthy exchanges of cross-fire between the two former first gentlemen of the land.
President Obama, the social-democrat that he is, was more than delighted to eat with the President and the two ex-presidents the available ration and did not visit the loo as many had feared he might! All these tastes of the “domestication” of the visit added serious colour, culture and an African courtesy to the entire programme. This is indeed a feather in the cap of Ghana’s protocol department.
“Bad blood”
Soon after breakfast, Radio Gold and TV3 granted interviews to the two ex-Presidents. While Jerry Rawlings promised that the perceived “bad blood” between himself and John Kufuor would be dealt with, John Kufuor quickly riposted that there was no “bad blood” between the two of them. Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor might not be enemies but they share different political ideologies and that makes them political opponents.
We may have our internal differences as individuals and sympathizers of different political parties, but when it comes to forging a common tie to project the image of Ghana beyond our borders, it is imperative for the government to do all that can be done to put the two gentlemen on the forefront.
Tasking them with specific roles to play on behalf of government in order to harness their contribution to the common good of the nation will not be too little too late.
To President Mills who is held in high esteem by the international community for his commitment to the rule of law and, freedom of speech, multi-party democracy and his readiness to combat corruption, drug-trafficking and ostentatious lifestyle as a sitting head of state, Obama’s visit is a real exercise to legitimize his office and Ghana’s “adolescent democratic” credentials of Ghana.
Konadu and Theresa
Mrs. Konadu Rawlings and Mrs. Theresa Kufuor might not be friends but in times as these when we need each of them to play one role or the other to support the development agenda of the nation, appointing the former first ladies as ambassadors of one government initiative or the other under the Mills administration will be very rewarding and a major plus to our “adolescent democracy” in order to attract major and minor policy advantages from all over the world so that we can perpetually remain on top as the beacon of democratic hope to a continent bedeviled with undemocratic regimes, crime, hunger, wars and diseases.
A move in this direction from the President, assures any sitting president that upon a peaceful transition and handing-over, one does not only retire, sit at home on a pension and tell mythical tales to his grandchildren but one is equally useful and respected as an ex-president to partake in the activities of the successive government. This will discourage the temptation of doing all one could, fair or foul, to perpetrate his party in office.
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana!
P/S: this article was originally published in July 2009.
(Edited: by Alhaji Haruna Atta, Editor of The Accra Daily Mail Newspaper)
http://www.modernghana.com/news/227576/160/can-mrs-rawlings-and-mrs-kufuor-ever-be-friends.html
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=165362
No comments:
Post a Comment