I Want To Save Ghana - Boakye Djan

WITH BARELY 11 months to the general elections, Osahene Boakey Djan, architect of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which was set up in Ghana after the June 4, 1979 uprising, has confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that he has a burning desire and is nursing an ambition to become the next President of Ghana.

Boakey Djan, 65, said he wanted to be Ghana's President for only four years, during which he would free the country from poverty and harsh economic conditions and bring about responsible wealth which would be shared equitably among all Ghanaians.

“Not that I just have a desire to be the next president, but it is simply unavoidable. I want to be President because that is the only point of power that you can exercise to change this nation. It is not about power, it is about changing our condition for the better. Let's face it; I have done it before in this country when I promised I was going to restore continuality within four months and I did it within a period lesser than that so probably, I may not even need four years, but in this case the four years mandate is there.

“I think and I believe sincerely that the overriding issue in Ghana now is defeating poverty and there can be no bigger picture than that. The desire to position myself to change this nation democratically is there and there is no question about that,” he stated.

When asked on which party's ticket he would be contesting, the retired soldier said he would be running as an independent candidate but on the shoulders of the Platform for National Independent Alternatives (PINA). He said the group had already requested him to contest the forthcoming presidential election and were waiting for his reply.

“I had a discussion with them and I was impressed at the massive work they had done. One thing that struck me was that they had gone to the Electoral Commission and had reports that show that during the 2004 elections for instance, popular votes of the individual parliamentary independent candidates outnumbered that of the CPP and PNC combined. So technically, the independent candidate position may be an alternative to the NDC and the NPP, given the fact that they were not nationally organised and coordinated.”

According to Boakye Djan, the common feeling among many Ghanaians now was that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had all been given an opportunity to govern the country and that it was about time an independent person was given that opportunity since there was no other alternative. “So I started to do some research and some consultancy and I am convinced that the time has come for the need for an intervention that would not allow the NDC and the NPP to take Ghanaians for granted,” he indicated.

He declined to describe himself either as an Nkrumahist or a sympathizer of the J.B. Danquah tradition, and simply described himself as a “Progressive Democrat”.

Boakye Djan told DAILY GUIDE that it was never too late for him to embark on a presidential campaign and that a research he had conducted proved that it could be effectively done within six months to the election. He debunked the assertion that he could not raise enough funds to finance his campaign.

“I want to serve this country to free our people from the shackles of poverty so I need not go about spraying money. What do I need money for? How many priests pay money to people before they come to church? Rather, the people go to church and apart from paying offertory, they also pay tithes because they believe the priest or the church would help them in life after death. “Politics is about taking care of your life before you die and the time has come for voters to be made to sponsor and make the politician take care of their lives before they die.

“We should begin to look at politics differently otherwise we can never solve our problems. We should not be giving money to people to buy their vote. The Ghanaian voter must be prepared to support a political party and pay for its expenses to go and produce the goods he has promised for the nation; that is when political leadership can be held accountable to the ordinary people.

If you allow politicians to buy your votes upfront, they are making an investment and therefore the first thing to do is to recoup the investment when they get to power,” he added.

He as well debunked the assertion that he was not in touch with the ordinary Ghanaian voter and that he had become a spent force.

“Though I had been in exile from 1979 to 2001, I have been in constant touch with what is going on in Ghana. You necessarily need not be in the country else you risk getting used to what you want to change. The advantage I had was that I lived with this thing I want to change and I grew with it but I have also lived outside in another culture so I have got a basis of comparison to change this damn thing forever.

“All the first generation African politicians, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Herbert McCulley, and Kwame Nkrumah had one thing in common and that was staying outside, and on that basis they had it 'taller' than the others.”
On whether he was happy at the turn of events in the country, 30 years after the June 4 episode, Boakye Djan said “yes and no in the sense that 1981 had to come and that actually delayed the democratic process for about 10 years, and what is the point of removing a military government then you allow it to come back?
“If we had been allowed to continue with the constitutionally-elected governments you can imagine where we would have been by now.

But I also feel elated in the sense that because of June 4, nobody in this country can ever hope to use the gun to take over government.

“Some crazy man can actually take the gun and say he has taken over but he can not hold it for keeps. There is enough consciousness in the Ghanaian that democratically-elected governments are the best way to go. I am getting exasperated with the existence of certain things that are not around still after 30 years of my intervention. Now, they are talking about coalition rule, consensus building and an all-inclusive government and this was what I was starting 30 years ago in 1979. That is the evidence of a visionary leader. But the reality is that we as a race of Africans are on the fringes of humanity. We are out of the mainstream and something has to be done to propel us out of the fringes into the mainstream. And it is only through ending our poverty situation.

I am talking about responsible wealth that must be created abundantly, exchanged among ourselves and managed efficiently and enjoyed by all of us and not just by a tiny few.” Giving a little exposure on what he does for a living and his family, Boakey Djan said: “Basically I make a living out of consultancy at the moment. When I was in Britain I did a lot of consultancy for the City Council and I did some good investments. But at the moment, my wife and I have set up a publishing company.

I have also set up an agro-industrial estate of over 270 acres. I have four children. My first born, a daughter, never survived the exile, and the rest are below 30. I must admit that under very tough conditions, I took them to public schools but they have managed to get to the university and one is in his final year and the other one is a social worker. One is helping manage the farm. I have no grand children yet.”By Halifax Ansah-Addo