Acute “Do Me, I Do You” Syndrome

Let me premise on the simple fact two wrongs don't make a right. No matter how we may try, we can't disapprove this time-tested aphorism. So, it is time we thought over this and begin to do things like first class animals.

The Kufour and the NPP government is a bad experience for most Ghanaians from the big city of Accra to the village of Zebila up north. The overt ostentation and gross insensitivity of the NPP is enough to hurl at them all jargons in the lexicon of no-mercy.

However, it is very crucial as a nation not to talk only on the negatives of past governments but the positives as well for the scientific fact that you need both the negative and positive poles to generate light. We must always try to see how the equation can be balanced by forfeiting the negatives by the positives. When will we hear commendation from a present government to a predecessor? Only talking always on how much was chopped minus what was saved does not help in objective and progressive analogy.

It pressingly significant to highlight on the predicaments our ex-presidents have gone through in hands of their political opponents since independence.

Mr. Kufour few days ago cried agonisingly of maltreatments from the present government. Much as I consider his cry morally reprehensible, I agree with him on a nationalistic view point. Every Tom, Dick and Jane witnessed that Kufour's predecessor, Rawlings, never had a dog worth of good treatment from his government.

However, if Kufour as president never had the moral conscience and political will to treat his predecessor with courtesies and privileges befitting of an ex-president, it does not mean that the vicious cycle must continue when he is out of power.

Mr. Kufour perhaps took cue from how Rawlings handled Hilla Liman. We all witnessed how Liman, from finery to rags, died in the Rawlings' government. One time president of Ghana died as a pauper with an ailment not worth his life. Reports indicated that he (Liman) needed to be flown out for emergency treatment but his legitimate courtesies were scrapped off and diplomatic passport was confiscated. Is that not pathetic?

Hilla Liman obviously died out of frustration just like Kwame Nkrumah's premature death in the hands of the nefarious 1966's coup doers. I believe Rawlings didn't perish in Kufour's hand because of his all-weathered and militaristic nature. I think Kufour's cry needs so much attention in order to avert this concatenation of bad experiences in different political regimes.

One of the contemptuous treatments of ex-presidents stretches across so many angles; the commonest is when the current president disassociates his government from certain projects initiated by the previous government; and needless set up of tea-drinking commissions and committees to review “transactions” of a predecessor.

Misunderstand me not, deals like the ex-gratia Mr. Kufour contrived for himself is nonsense and non-sense in the remit of moderateness, and it will take only the indoctrinated block-headed to fine anything wrong with its review. But the way and manner it is done can qualify for maltreatment and vilification of his government. Greed has almost replaced Kufour's middle name on matters relating to the ex-gratia in the domain of the new government.

More so, It crucial for the present government to align his government with all things that was initiated or instituted by the former government. One of such deserted projects is the “Prestigious Poultry House” in the world. The government might be running away from them base on the condemnations of such initiatives on political platform. But let us descend on the common fact that political campaigning has substantial level of prejudice and for that matter, our leaders should be bold enough to reconsider their prior-election words or stance. I don't think thunder will strike them, the babel however is expected.

The issue of “you do me, I do” over the years has unnoticeably stuck our nation in square one. We can seize the opportunity today and begin doing things differently. The time is now or never! As President Mills avowed to be a father of all, he must set the precedence now or get ready for mega maltreatment after his term of office.

I am not in anyway suggesting a compromise with the rule of law but doing things differently in conformity with common sense. For instance, the just ended BNI's chase of people like animals is unacceptable. Where are we running from, and where are we running to?

Seventeen years of born-again democracy in Ghana does not commensurate this vicious cycle that requires only common sense to deal with. If this government fails to show the difference, then let us prepare to relish the taste of its repercussions.

This cyclic problem will considerably be mitigated when an ex-president automatically retires as a member of the Council of Elders to the new president. I believe Rawlings would not have had such a bad treatment as a counsel to Kufour.

I think it is discreet for the indulgence of ex-presidents in national arrangements/engagements to mitigate withdrawal symptoms that might induced a kind of feeling of negligence on the part of the of the incumbency.

Our political leaders simply lack the foresight of the fact that political power is not sustainable. And our young democracy and increasingly wised-up electorates signal that we will ever have transitions. Until we advise ourselves, this quadrennial/bi-quadrennial apparition will continue to revisit us.

President Mills for now is pre-eminent on the score sheet of modesty and he ought to show the difference by putting in place sustainable mechanism to bisect this circle of developmental encumbrance.

Salaam!
Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence
Nurses' Training College, Tamale
Tertiary Institutions Network (P.R.O.)
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