NANA AKUFO ADDO’S ALL DIE BE DIE PROBLEM

If Nana Akufo-Addo loses the 2012 election, as it is now more likely than not, historians will look back at the day he made the “all die be die” statement as the turning point of his electoral fortune and political career. The “all die be die” statement reduced Nana Akufo-Addo from a viable alternative to the Mills led government to a desperate loser seeking to appeal to the worse instinct of Ghanaians. The statement further entrenched the belief among certain quarters of Ghanaian society that the NPP under Nana Akufo-Addo has no interest in the prevailing national harmony in Ghana since 1992. The party under him is willing to do all that it takes to make Nana president even if it means replicating in Ghana the new dark age we saw in post election Africa. In this sense our neighbouring Ivory Coast comes to mind.

The statement should not be taken likely by all well-meaning Ghanaians and even by foreigners who wish mother Ghana well. It constitutes a smallest window in the mind set of an Ethnic Entrepreneur and how he intends to conduct himself during and after the 2012 elections. The “all die be die” comments were a dog whispers to supporters of the NPP in the Ashanti Region that they could resort violence in the evident the NPP loses the 2012 elections. It was also meant to provide NPP a nice political cover to reject or dispute the result and declare violence and discontent in the country. This is not a new trick the NPP is seeking to employ. The same play book was used after the 1992 elections in order discredit the Rawlings led NDC government.

The all die be die statement is also a subtle admission that NPP is willing to employ every foul means to win the 2012 elections. It is constitutes a window in to the mind set of a democratic tyrant's strategy for forcing his opponents in to fights by throwing the first punch. It is therefore not surprising the current politics of attacks and insults on the person of the President and his family. Nana Akufo Addo knows that he is no match to President Mills' unimpeachable moral standing and economic records. Absent any hitch on the government's moral and economic records, the Nana campaign have no option but to resorted to the campaign of insult, personal attacks and outright lies and misinformation hoping that one of those falsehood will stick. These kinds of campaign tactics is known in the United States as throwing the kitchen sink at your opponents. It was employed by the Republican 2008 and the 2010 US congressional elections. The NPP is burnt on replicating the same tactic in Ghana.

If you doubt that the “all die be die” statement is a dog whistle for violence ask NPP's Ashanti Regional organizer, Mr. Kennedy Kamkam. He was on report to issued a stern warning to nation's Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Afri Gyan, for what he term siding with the ruling government simply because he introduce a biometric registration process and thought there is no need for a verification process. It worth mentioning that Dr. Gyan has been election commissioner in Ghana since 1992 and have supervised elections won by both parties. He is recognized in Africa and world as one of the most trusted election commissioners on the continent. Yet the NPP wants to drag the reputation of his man in the drain. Mr. Kamkam was on record to have also said that should Nana Akufo Addo lose the 2012 election, they and their allies will form a parallel government in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city.

The NPP is willing to repeat the same strategy as they did 2008 election, blot the ballot in their stronghold whiles accusing the NDC of rigging. In 2008, many polling stations in the Ashanti Region the NPP obtained more votes than the number of registered voters in the polling stations. Also, whiles the voter turnout for Ashanti in the runoff election was 83.31%, the average for the rest of the country was about 72%. Ashanti Region's turn out was over 10% the national average. Anyone who followed radio reporting during 2008 run off election know this is a fact.

Prof. Adu Boahene, the NPP candidate for president in the 1992 presidential election, employed similar strategy and the NPP lost. After that electoral defeat, they alleged all kinds of violence they rejected the results, and proceeded to write a book titled Stolen Verdict. The party then made a concerted effort to delegitimize the NDC government by boycotting parliamentary elections. When all the dust settled it became apparent to them that boycotting the parliamentary election was their own waterloo. As it provided the NDC government a one party domination and left NPP voiceless in our body politique for four years. It did not take much for the NPP to rejected the Adu Boahene mantra and charted a new course; a course that saw them through two successive elections victories under President Kufour.

It took over two decades before Prof. Afari Gyan laid the truth of the 1992 results to rest in an interview with Kojo Oppong Nkrumah of Joy FM. The pillar of Ghanaian democracy did not miss words. He said to the amazement of many, including his interviewer, that the NPP lost the 1992 election clear, pure and simply. Yet the NPP and its allies will not stop circulating the same snake oil about the 1992 election that they continually sold Ghanaians for more than two decades. Neither will they back off from the dead-old tactics of tribalism and appeal to violence.

As the experience of Mr. Kufour and Prof. Mills showed, elections are not won by appealing to people's worse instincts. Candidates win elections by providing hope for the future, light at the end tunnel, and bread at the end of a day's hard work. People will be reluctant to support candidates who seek to divide the country along ethnic and tribal lines for their own political interest. We are all witnesses to the carnage that ensued in Yendi when politician inflamed ethnic passions to garner support. The interests of Ghanaians far outweigh the interest of any political group. Therefore ethnic entrepreneurship and the politics of appealing to tribalism any time one fine himself in a political corner is not a winning strategy. It is a loser and we thought the NPP learnt that lesson from their previous campaigns.

It is time for the Government of Ghana and international community to make clear to Nana Akufo Addo and or any candidate who want to be selfish that he or she will held personally responsible for any lost life in Ghana. And if Nana doubts this, he should check the lives of the like of Gbagbo and Charles Taylor. The international community has a legal framework for dealing violent leaders.

Abdul Musah sidibe
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Abdul Musah Sidibe is a human rights activist and an African political observer. He is currently resident Calgary, Alberta, Canada.