NPP’S explosive victory; KEN and KELLY and ‘THE BAWUMIA MAGIC’_2

  ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin [or their ethnical background], but by the content of their character’ – Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. CHRIS LARTEY (From the Sidelines) When the story of the […]

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‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin [or their ethnical background], but by the content of their character’ – Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.

CHRIS LARTEY (From the Sidelines)

When the story of the explosive New Patriotic Party’s December 7, 2016 victory comes to be chronicled, the persona and force of Ken Ofori Atta and Kelly Gadzekpo in the equation of engineering strategies for lawful warfare cannot be discounted.

Ken Ofori Atta and Kelly Gadzekpo, as celebrated Ghanaians symbolize the bright horizons of the future of Ghana, not only in terms of their initiative and ingenuity in engineering a lead financial investment portfolio in previously unchartered terrain, but also in politics, in which their dream to revolutionise the electoral landscape has just been realised.

‘WE VRS THEM’

This piece is important, in the light of the protracted, intimidating, tarantula political culture which men with hands and feet of clay have created. That culture holds that political power and influence hinge on where one hailed from, and how settler farmers, for instance, should rebel against their landlords during elections, or how the conditions in Zongos should be blamed on Akans.

To such people, the beauty of marriage, education and civilisation in bringing nations, communities and peoples together, is only a fable. But this is against the evidence that, for a long time now, in spite of our ethnical differences, we are one people. The major illustration is that from Nkrumah till today, nearly all of the Presidents and Heads of States we have had in this country had wives who were from different ethnic communities.

Kwame Nkrumah, we all know, married the daughter of an Egyptian farmer; Dr. K A Busia, from Brong Ahafo, married a Ga, Naa Morkor Busia, and General A.A. Afrifa, a Ga Dangme from Krobo.

In the same breath, we have had statesman Papa J.J. Rawlings marrying Nana Konadu Rawlings, an Ashanti, whilst the late John Evans Atta Mills and John Mahama married Naadu Mills and Lordina Mahama from Accra and Brong Ahafo respectively…And, of course, President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo, who is married to a lady from Accra. But the messages of unity in this illustration ought to be coming first from those who want to lead us, but who have succeeded only in exploiting the poor, because of the poverty.

TIMES AND MEN

Not many know about the ground-breaking positive exploits of two Databank guys, and the risks the business entity undertook in deciding to move in from outside into a hitherto virgin a business and political environment, in which the vestiges of military rule had sapped initiative and zapped the fortunes of notable industrialists. Interestingly, it is during this period within which business people were cautious about investing in the finance industry in an economy just emerging from an environment in which the major player was the almighty state.

That the two culturally ‘un-identical twins’ boldly elected to step in the muddy waters and go, beyond that, to begin to influence positively the political terrain, was mind-blowing. The epic 2016 elections have revealed that time produces men.

It has not been easy marrying business with politics in Ghana: not then, not now. To the two, however, business and politics then, as now, are inseparable. Occasionally, the two decent God-fearing gentlemen have been pilloried by pig-headed political bigots for wanting to think and act differently in business and politics. The records show that it is only in very few instances that they had defended themselves from the sly attacks of political pirates. Indeed, in most cases, as most decent personalities do, they had preferred the wind to carry away the trash, rather than respond when a protracted war was certain.

Veiled and, sometimes, overt threats to undermine their business activities had been occasionally dropped at them from corridors of power. Undeterred, they had, however, soldiered on.

THE CALL

As the party grew in strength and numbers, so also grew the need for youthful, vibrant middle class actors to begin taking up positions in the administrative and organizational machinery. Towards the end of the Kufuor administration, those on the fringes, who have established themselves as decent professionals capable of filling leadership roles were bolding beginning to participate. In the search for a running mate for Nana Akufo-Addo after the honourable exit of former President JA Kufuor, Ken and Kelly were minded to volunteer to facilitate the campaign activities of the NPP in bringing on board several enterprising young Ghanaians, including ace Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, who was working at the Bank of Ghana as a Deputy Governor.

The same One Ghana spirit behind the bonding of Ken and Kelly that have birthed a novelty in business initiative in Ghana was at work in recommending to the NPP flag bearer a man who they believed could help strengthen the NPP fight off the vicious propaganda web that opponents had woven almost inextricably around the party. In the calculation of Ken and Kelly, whilst that Northern ticket ought to be ‘home boy,’ informed, researched, professional, vocal and hugely youthful, the candidate must foremost have that attitude and character of robustness and resilience. These graces were pregnant in Bawumia, ready to birth.

It is still a mystery to some decent and elite middle class folk how an endowed banker with all the opportunities before him could ignore juicy, top-notch local and international offers, including those from Breton Wood institutions, and wade into the muddy waters of useless cultural strife.

But Bawumia, as have become evident, would not be discouraged: he was bent on fighting fires that had scorched the earth under the NPP, making it difficult for heavily-populated Moslem, urban Zongo, Northern, fisher-folk Fante, Ewe, unbending Ga Dangme youth, rural Brong Ahafo communities etc to look at Ghana and vote according to their conscience and their circumstances.

THE BATTLE

The task then in 2012 and now was to diffuse the raging whirlwind of vile propaganda that fed on ignorance and politically-induced drudgery in the countryside. It appeared that the only way to keep the NPP in opposition was constantly tag it as Akan and violent. In the minds of the shenanigans, it is okay to be comfortable in bed with spouses from other ethnic backgrounds for ‘pillows,’ and yet elect to taint others when it came to lawful quest for and access to political power.

Ken and Kelly understood the system and deftly strategized to beat it the same way they did in very difficult times when their investments were under threat. In doing that, they found a selfless partner in Mahamudu Bawumia, who has a solid record of leading put the nation’s fiscal programme on track by reducing inflation, strengthening the cedi and making credit accessible to the buoyant informal economy now said by the TUC to have gone up to 85%. This feat he achieved when he worked with the Bank of Ghana before and into the John Kufuor 2000 to 2008 administration.

Outside the shores of Ghana in another black African country, he had achieved a similar feat, restoring confidence in a moribund economy.

Though the party hierarchy did not then understand the decision to pick an outsider, they respected it and supported it, as the two, from the sidelines, initiated strategy after strategy in mapping out the countryside and constructing appropriate messages for the onslaught.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS

For those familiar with the demographics underlying voter sympathy, settler communities were a particular thorn in NPP flesh – from Edubiase through Ejura and Kpandai to Kintampo. In Fanteakwa and Akyem Agogo as well as Adeiso etc and the Afram Plains, ‘tenants’ turned ‘landlords’ overnight during electioneering campaigns. The electorate in these and similar communities were instigated against the NPP through carefully orchestrated propaganda.

In the Northern Regions, apart from constituencies like Yendi and Bimbilla, which were favourable to the NPP, one needed a rather strong personality to win typical indigenous constituencies if you did not belong to the ‘established system.’ The NDC has been to them a party of natural choice to them for decades, courtesy the political coup d’etat against a section of an unfortunate ethnic group.

It appeared that Bawumia had understood the dynamics playing out in the region because, since 2012, he worked tirelessly in the trenches, not only learning, but together with his co-strategists, fervently engineering and re-engineering a redemption plan for the difficult terrain.

To him as an intellectual, professional, technocrat and academic, winning the battle lay in investigating, not only the settler community debacle, but also the myth surrounding, for instance, the persistent ballot boom in the Volta Region of all places in Ghana.

For those who know Aflao and Agormenya, which are both in Ketu, it is unimaginable how the two can be populated above La, Teshie or Nungua and yet, be able to deliver, over time, ballots that have been magical. The typical voting tradition, interestingly, never showed this time in the ballot box December 7, when they screws got tightened on account of strategies put quietly in place.

THE POVERTY PICTURE

Again, it is still a mystery how the NPP won the 5 out of 6 seats in the remote western corridor of Lawra, Nandom etc, where poverty was worst in the North. Traffic in the Western corridor is not heavy, and that naturally impacted negatively on economic activity. The Eastern corridor was slightly buoyant; even so, the winners in the chain were transport owners and buyers from the South ferrying agro cargo from Burkina Faso.

Those who know, too, the stretch from Walewale to Bolgatanga would admit that there are virtually no industries that can offer basic, formal employment till one got to Bolgatanga. Little wonder that the average kayayei you can find in Accra hail from Walewale.

In late 2009, whilst I was on an IFPRI Washington programme in the Upper East and Burkina Faso, we chanced on Ghanaian farmers from Bawku and Zebilla entering Burkina Faso through the Naamong border to a small community called Kaya in South East Burkina Faso. There were moving out to take advantage of Blaise Compaore’s much-touted irrigation facilities to grow some economic crops, including onions and tomato to improve their socio-economic wellbeing.

‘ONE VILLAGE, ONE DAM’

Am sad to hear people express skepticism at the ‘One Village One Dam’ pledge by the NPP, saying it cannot be done. That is limiting the mind and capacity of man to grow, develop and excel. Having, for seven solid years, made Burkina Faso my second home, courtesy of the programme, I humbly submit that ‘strongman’ Blaise Compaore long achieved that agenda before 2009.

I just stumbled on material on my laptop last Monday, listing 42 districts outside Ouagadougou and Bobo which are hugely irrigated. Ordinary tomato distributors on the CMB Market in Accra can attest to that fact.  

But we may also check with the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou, if we want to take politics out of the game. Burkina has a successful grazing and mechanized cropping policy; and they dealt with the Fulani herdsmen headache when we were eating each other up over where we were born. Blaise didn’t have the benefit of oil revenue.

‘ONE DISTRICT, ONE FACTORY’

’I don’t want to believe Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom was among those who claimed the vision is an illusion. Students of the Delloite and Touche phenomenon know it can be done – even if the only available resources are earth or sand. We can start from value chain engineering.      

But that’s how far we had come, when we have lost out on agriculture to our neighbours. Indeed, up to 1997 we were exporting vegetables to Faso. On that IFPRI programme I had cited, we met, too, in that farming community in Kaya, a Ga from Accra, who had moved to Bawku to settle and organize his life. Lack of employment opportunities in our own land have also forced thousands of youth from Brong Ahafo and Ashanti to move into Burkina Faso to produce palm frond brooms and also locally Made In Kumasi shoes for sale on the streets of Ouagadougou.

From the balcony of Hotel Delwende in Grande Marche, Ouagadougou, where I often lodged on official assignments, I have engaged them in attempts to buy their wares, only to know they are my brothers from Ghana, though am Ga and not Akan.

Perhaps, God designed that the man to lead the Economic Management Team of Ghana saw for himself firsthand the challenge that would face him.

Years earlier, running mates were virtually chaperons and cheerleaders. Today, the dynamics have changed and the NPP discerned that, allowing the man the required space to shrilly, truly and objectively express his true self.

TAMING OF THE SHREW

Significantly, in Tamale, the intimidating activities of the Azorka Boys had been contained by 2014. The major reason for their irrelevancy was that they appeared to have been more aligned to Papa Rawlings than the succeeding Presidents. With the exit of Mills and the ‘persecution’ of Papa Rawlings by the NDC, therefore, the vim and venom in them began drying up. Additionally, individuals and communities in the municipality were beginning to see through the activities of this breed of politicians. They were gradually coming to terms with the reality that their brothers they had trusted had only exploited them.

Additionally, civil society activity on the part of moderate youth associations helped further put pressure on the intimidating bands to tone down, weakening the NDC as a result in the Tamale municipality.

SMALL MERCIES FROM KAYAYEI

There is an interesting twist to the inexcusable poverty up North. In a region where the hope of ordinary families lie in remittances from urban centres to deprived relatives, it is incidentally teenage migrant workers who bear the brunt of the responsibility. Who are those major breadwinners save our poor kayayei and their male porter counterparts as well as the metal and plastic scrap scavengers wheeling their wares in traffic and totaling 20,000 in Accra alone.

The paradox is that majority of typical elite and political class in the North love to enjoy their comfort in Accra, Kumasi or Tema. Those who had invested back home are in the business of running less risky entities like educational facilities or guest houses they refer to as hotels, which hardly create enough jobs for the teeming youth.

DECLINING AGRICULTURE

In the Upper East, even though attempts had been made to rehabilitate the Tono, Vea, and Pwalugu irrigation facilities, farmers’ sons and daughters in the region are not convinced that they can rely on agric to improve their lives. What we have in the North generally is an aging population in agriculture, which fact researchers and development agencies working in the regions affirm.

The youth, particularly in Upper East, would rather do goro work for buyers entering Burkina Faso to buy vegetables as clearing agents or third-tier forex bureau workers and immigrant workers. Or they would act as scouts leading buyers into farm gates and filling out outdated crates of tomato and bags of onions.

They had seen their parents hang to death out of pressure for their inability to repay loans from ADB, when there were assailed by poor yield and lack of markets in a lawful competitive trade and cross border economic integration arrangement. From Bolgatanga through Navrongo to the Paga border, the only jobs for majority of the region’s youth are the seasonal goro work that depends largely on the agriculture boom in Faso.

The Pwalugu Tomato Factory still cannot fire for the last 12 years because of lack of the raw materials, which only a properly-crafted and sustained agricultural youth employment model producing the variety and quantity can address. The despondency has raged on and on…Bawumia as the next man in charge of the economy has been apprised of that and offered hope, hence the improvement in the region’s current ballot boom.

THE SADA AGONY

We missed the opportunity to make our brothers up North improve their lives by the SADA rape. Those who looted SADA and those who supervised the loot must take blame for the current dehumanizing condition people are living in communities up North.

SADA had broken the hearts and spirits of Northerners. A shrill voice from within was needed to vividly tell that horrid story. The only major relief in the three regions was a DFID UK agricultural programme that was supporting about 200 communities in agriculture (livestock and crop) to improve vegetable, maize, rice etc as well as ruminants and cattle production.

A London consulting firm is managing the programme for DFID UK under a four year contract. But, for that intervention, a different and direr story of grinding poverty would have been told.

REACHING OUT

More and more interaction with his people in separate campaigns from 2012 till the current 2016 gave him an insight to the evident dire economic situation, enabling him to develop appropriate messages of hope to his ‘people’ in a language they understood.

Mahamudu also filled a vacuum left by NASARA, the elite NPP campaign organization which had been working to improve voter mobilization in Zongo and Moslem/Northern communities. Alhajis are a respected breed among Northerners and Moslems and so Bawumia was, in the last several campaigns among such communities, privileged to have caught the ears and eyes of sheikhs and Emirs and clerics, in his quest to offer hope in the midst of the gloom generally facing such communities. Bawumia’s fathers as well as brothers and sisters believe their son is sincere and honest in his crusade, hence the encouraging vote this time from the settler farmers, Zongos, Moslems and Northerner communities.

Good that we have come this far, so we can together learn lessons in true development that affects and positively impacts people and communities. Then, whether we are in government or out of government, we will stay united, in spite of our cultural or religious differences. The mystery of the trinity of the Bawumia, Ken and Kelly unnatural friendship illustrates the blessing we have delayed accessing as a nation.

At the risk of falling into the same condemnation, is it not albeit noteworthy that Ken is Akan, Kelly Ewe and Bawumia Northerner, uniting doggedly in friendship to realize an excellent feat and dream of unity and national reconciliation as reflected in the polls?

Development experts and agencies agree that, unless sub-Saharan Africa formalizes its bludgeoning informal economies in which most of our teeming youth are caught and take advantage of the youth bulge in population in creating jobs, poverty and backwardness brewed by greedy politicians will gnaw our societies inevitably into civil unrest. All three – Ken, Kelly and Bawumia – have abundant energy and abiding faith in God and Allah; imbued with a Solid Rock (OBOTAN) mentality and attitude for achieving results, they have shown that nothing would frighten them.

For a second time in Ghana, the battle against hate politics has been won…For the larger Ghanaian public, the real battle for reconstruction has begun. The trio has already exhibited the We Can Do It spirit. We as Ghanaians have an opportunity, in supporting them, to sentence forever and crucify divisiveness…

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