Examine the Structural Defects First

In the aftermath of the grim reality that is the unprecedently close political matchup between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the easiest and cheapest way to pretend to find the cause or causes of what went wrong is to facilely settle on finger-pointing in the form of scapegoating. This is precisely what the allegedly pro-NPP pressure group, Patriotic Reform Movement (PRM) has resorted to when, in reality, the causative factors for the shocking “victorious defeat” of the New Patriotic Party in the 2020 General Election is clearly multifaceted or inescapably overdetermined (See “10 Government Officials Not Wanted in Akufo-Addo 2nd Term – NPP Group Makes [Up] List” Ghanaweb.com 1/1/21).

The list of ministerial undesirables, as composed by the members and/or leaders of the PRM, could be much longer. But it would practically not get us anywhere, if also because the composers of the List of “Must Be Fired!” approach the suggested solution for making the Second Term of the Akufo-Addo Administration more formidable from the effects or end-results angle, instead of beginning from the causative angle. For example, it has been widely and reliably noted that the mode by which NPP parliamentary delegates are selected, quadrennially, by an electoral college-like delegate system or primary, does not ensure that the parliamentary delegates so selected represent the vaster and diverse interests of their constituents. Consequently, what the members and leaders of the Patriotic Reform Movement ought to be demanding as an immediate solution or alternative to the problem of the patently undemocratic or “bossist” or top-down selection of the party’s parliamentary candidates, is to enable all card-carrying members of the NPP, come the parliamentary primaries, to vote.

What the preceding means is that all eligible parliamentary primary voters must have their dues currently paid or paid up to-date. This is precisely what an increasingly democratic and electorally and politically enlightened National Democratic Congress’ establishment did in its parliamentary primaries in the leadup to the 2020 General Election. Which means that, by and large, parliamentary candidates fielded by the local constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress tended to be more reflective of the will, interests and aspirations of their prospective constituents than was the case with their New Patriotic Party counterparts. As well, the selection of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive Officers, MMDCEs, must be significantly and effectively democratized.

The inadvisable scuttling of the December 19, 2019 Referendum to determine whether the MMDCEs needed to be democratically elected to serve their respective constituents or otherwise, notwithstanding, the NPP’s leadership at both the party’s Kokomlemle National Headquarters and Jubilee House, would be better off running local elections for the selection of MMDCEs, in order to avoid the perennial impasse that attends the undemocratic selection of these local administrators. This will make the latter more responsive and accountable to their local constituents and not cavalierly presume to be able to ignore the needs and aspirations of the people they have been chosen to serve without having to worry themselves silly about the next election season or day of reckoning.

It is this woeful lack of accountability that has ensured the widely alleged double-crossing of parliamentarians by these MMDCEs, a remarkable number of whom are widely known to use their local executive’s positions as launchpads to seriously undermine the parliamentarians of their local constituencies, the wresting of whose parliamentary seats often becomes the foremost agenda of the MMDCEs, instead of being focused on the economic development and the material improvement in the quality of life or living standards of the members of their local purview or jurisdiction.

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What the foregoing proposal also means is that at some point going forth, and very well before the 2024 General Election, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would have to retable the inadvisably scuttled December 19, 2019 Referendum, this time with a lot of public education among both the members of the general public and our invested local chieftains. Fortunately, and refreshingly, we have a new and more democratically minded and progressive leaders at the National House of Chiefs (NHC) who are apt to be staunchly in favor of the significant “deepening” of our local democratic culture, in the visionary words of President Akufo-Addo. It is also quite certain that a significant percentage of Nana Akufo-Addo’s ministerial appointees will be dropped from his yet-to-be published list of second-term cabinet operatives. Which means that at least half of the 10 cabinet appointees proposed by the members and/or leaders of the Patriotic Reform Movement, as deserving of having their noggins put on the chopping block, will be literally shown the exit.

But the cause or reason for such discharge would not necessarily be identical to those given by the PRM leaders. The very decision by Nana Akufo-Addo to reduce his cabinet by at least 25-percent of the size of his first-term cabinet necessarily implies that there may be some very good appointees who may be let go, albeit reluctantly.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

January 1, 2021

E-mail: [email protected]