WHAT ELSE IS NEEDED FOR A PEACEFUL ELECTION 2012?

In exactly five weeks from now, the country called Ghana will ask her citizens to choose for themselves a leader for the next four years provided all things being equal. Yeah, it is the election that has been tagged as the make or break by many. Many also think that despite Election 2008 was regarded as tough and highly competitive, that of the impending one is on an even higher pedestal. Among the many names assigned this election, that which remains on the lips of many and even in the recesses of their memories and that which promises to go into history is that of the All-Die-Be-Die mantra. Indeed, it is an all-die-be-die election but we are in a position now than ever to make it the most peaceful election in our democratic dispensation.

Firstly, as expected in any worthy election there must be a sense of competition. A healthy competition is that which all worthy societies wish for and progressively attempts to seek during such elections. However, that of the December 7th, 2012 elections in Ghana is fast promising to fall below this standard. Will it? However, natural occurrences seem to be working against this from happening.

The NPP presidential candidate is credited for that infamous mantra of all-die-be-die. He and his party executives have tried on almost all fronts to tell the good people of Ghana that that expression is just a wake-up call; a clarion one on their supporters for surveillance before and during the elections. This certainly was condemned in no uncertain terms by many well-meaning Ghanaians and civil groups. But hey! Wait a second. Has the NPP stopped propagating such a mantra: militancy, anger, acrimony?

To be fair to the loyalists of the NPP, my best answer is NO! Yes, no!

To even make matters worse for the major opposition party, the NPP, is the highly individualistic perspective from which the lenses of the glasses of the flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo seems to be viewing. As should be expected in an election, the main opposition would like to win back power but the condition of Nana Addo raises the stakes even higher and tighter. Here is an astute politician with the dream of reliving the days of his father at the presidency. Unfortunately, his attempt at the presidency has not been successful until today. The greatest enemy, now, for him is his age. At 68, he has to win the impending election or forget it. This is because should he lose this election, he will be 72 at the time of the next elections in 2016 and it will be very suicidal for his party to bring him back as their presidential candidate. This is, indeed, the basis of the all-die-be-die nature of the election from the NPP's standard-bearer's point of view. For PR gimmicks, one does not expect the NPP to accept this stance publicly. But the grand question is whether the NPP will allow the egoistic obsession of an individual to ruin the fortunes of the whole party in impending elections and throw the country into doom? Or will they stand up to reality and assert that should we lose, there is still another day; even if not with Nana Addo, it will certainly be one of us? This is their dilemma. For me, this is not a dilemma at all. It is a straight forward issue that must be answered without shivering by the party hierarchy and her loyalists.

Oh yeah! The National Democratic Party (NDP) led by Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings had even drawn the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into the web of the all-die-be-die nature of the elections. Yes, it did. It is a fact that the NDP was in the election to destruct the chances of the NDC. From that perspective, the NDC were all up in arms to fight back. Certainly, this increased the tension characterising the campaigns to the election. Fortunately (yes fortunately, not only for the NDC but for the whole country in the name of reduction of the tension), the NDP was disqualified. It might be difficulty to understand why the simple filling of forms might be the toughest thing for a political party to do. How possible? How then can they muster the courage to tell you and I that they are in to govern? But again, is this not a possible manifestation of the invisible hand at work in the affairs of our country? This is possible because it will calm tension within the NDC which hitherto would have been more aggressive to counter the NPP knowing that NDP is on its (NDC) heels. But now that NDP is out of the race (at least for now until the ruling by the Supreme Court on the issue as brought before it by the NDP), the NDC is calmer and certainly this will reduce the overall aggression they will take into the elections.

The political temperature and tempers in the country started rising towards the 2012 elections immediately after the late president was sworn in as president of Ghana. This continued until a man acclaimed by all: both young and old, rich and poor, literate and illiterates, Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians, indeed, people of all races, as a gentle, calm and peace-loving, the late Prof. J.E.A. Mills gave up his spirit to do what has now been christened as 'to perform celestial duties'. Has the peace-loving man not paid the ultimate price for us? Then, the disqualification of the NDP comes in afterwards. These are two paramount and high pitch sounding signals that we must protect the peace we have as a country. Let not destroy the little that has been built. Just imagine how we have struggled to get this far. How do we begin all over again? Let this ring through your mind as the election approaches. What else do we need in order to control ourselves so as to ensure a peaceful election after all that nature has worked for us (some though sorrowful) through highly non-understandable angles?

As the D-day approaches, we keep our fingers crossed and expect each and every one of us to do our best in the supreme interest of the country and our own existence as humans and behave as expected. The best candidate ought to win and transform the fortunes of our people.

Remember in all things you can make the world better with the power of your thought. Think about it!

Lawer Egbenya
([email protected], www.danielegbenya.blogspot.com).