Busia Is Born Again

They came primarily to honour the memory of  Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, the man they all look up to as the soul of their political tradition, on the centenary of his birth. But the party faithful who trooped in their numbers to the African Regent Hotel in Accra on the evening of Thursday, July 11, 2013, had other pressing issues in mind.

They were there to take inspiration from the memory of the man whose life has become synonymous with the fortunes of the Elephant Family in national politics, and thus recharge their batteries to enable them last the distance in the battle of returning the New Patriotic Party to where most of them believe the party belongs.

In their tunnel vision, the NPP, tracing its roots to the triumvirate of Prof. Busia, Mr. Joseph Boakye Danquah and S.D. Dombo, belongs to the very top echelon of power in Ghanaian politics.

The programme, dubbed 'Kofi Abrefa Busia: Moving the Vision Forward' and marking the centenary of the birth of the former Prime Minister of Ghana, was put together by the Busia Foundation.

With the economy under the National Democratic Congress leader President John Dramani Mahama failing to respond to treatment, many party faithful are sniffing victory in the long struggle to return to power, since elections were lost in December 2008.

On first entering the neighbourhood of the African Regency Hotel, adjacent to the residence of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, one got the impression that a car assembly plant had just opened nearby.

Inside the auditorium, the sight of the old and young, men and women who make the NPP move, tells the story of a very important function for those tracing their political roots to the activities of Busia, Danquah and Dombo.

The forum had just began when I entered and caught Madam Amma Busia giving a resume on the family life of the Professor, who has been my hero and inspirer as a libertarian. I was a boy in secondary school, when Dr. Busia arrived from exile in Britain and became Chairman of the Centre for Civic Education. I instantly took to his style of politics. Today, I can proudly refer to myself as a libertarian and human rights advocate.

In the words of the former Prime Minister's younger sister, Prof. Busia's motivation for remaining in politics is that someone has to do it. On his links with the family, Madam Ama Busia said: 'Busia was a man who never forgot where he came from.' I will like to believe it is important for all of us to remember where we were nurtured, and help to uplift our various societies.

The short clip on Prof. Busia's faith was a great lesson to me about our fallibility as human beings. 'Learning without God,' Prof. Busia proclaimed in the film, 'is empty.' Just before leaving for the event, I had chanced upon a NASA statement from the United States, indicating that 'Its Curiosity Rover has found an unambiguous message from God, written on tablets in a Martian cave.'

'According to an official press release, two giant stone slabs, the size of small elephants was located deep inside a carven abutting Aecolis Moris, a large mountain' on Mars. Upon one tablet is a copy of the Ten Commandments and the Text of John 3:16, written in 12 languages – including English, Spanish, Chinese, Basque and Hebrew. On the other tablet is a simple message in English reading: 'I am real.'

Since reading the short script, I have been pondering on the concept of God and our being. It has really been a sobering experience for me – Watching my political mentor pontificating on the influence of God on the living, added to my confusion throughout the weekend. I am a Christian, but I have never really been a devout one.

Dr. Abena P.A. Busia, one of the former Prime Minister's children who helped to put the entire programme together, summed up her father's devotion in these words. 'He was always trying to do what was right.'

It was when the short clip on the film 'Busia and Democracy' was running that the adrenalin got flowing. The clip travelled from the former Prime Minister's battle with the authoritarian regime bestowed on Ghana after independence, through his role as Chairman of the Centre for Civic Education in 1968, to the formation of the Progress Party, and the landslide victory of the party in the 1969 parliamentary elections.

When the then Prime Minister of Ghana launched his Rural Development Scheme, with the formation of the Ministry for Rural Development, with the late Mr.  A.A. Munufie as Minister in charge, it gave meaning to the man's desire to bridge the gap between the rural areas, where most of us come from, and the urban centres of Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast, Sekondi-Takoradi and Tema.

It is a shame that when the National Democratic Congress virtually replaced itself in what used to be called the Provisional National Defence Council in that comic of an election in 1992, Mr. Munufie betrayed the cause by seeking to create the impression that Busia's rural development concept was a sham.

That pronouncement tells everything about the failed attempt to repudiate the role Busia played in contemporary Ghanaian politics. For the twenty-seven months that the former Prime Minister was in power, a number of solid achievements stood in his name, including the Kaneshie Market, a number of roads, electricity, and water projects throughout the country.

In my humble village of Ekumfi Ekrawfo, for instance, guinea worm was endemic. It was during the Busia regime that Nana Amua Sekyi, then Tufuhene of Ekumfi Edumafa, became the Member of Parliament for Ekumfi and offered his wages and all allowances as a donation for the development of Ekumfi. The government of the day added to it, and constructed a small community water project for Ekrawfo and Essarkyir.

The availability of pipe-borne water completely eliminated the scourge of guinea worms in my humble village. Up to today, the people have appreciated the role played by the former Prime Minister in their humble lives.

As Prime Minister, Prof. Busia courted a negative press for his support for dialogue, as a means of solving the apartheid problem of South Africa. In an interview with David Frost on BBC Television , Dr. Busia said even wars were finally decided by dialogue. By proposing dialogue, he was seeking to engage the two parties locked in the dispute over apartheid to begin talking to each other.

In those days, it was sacriligeous to suggest that the African National Congress, for instance, should engage the apartheid regime which was killing black activists in their numbers. It took more than three decades for the then Prime Minister F.W. De Klerk to engage Nelson Mandela to seek the end of apartheid.

One of the controversial issues Prof. Busia pursued, and for which he was lampooned, was the Aliens Compliance Order. At a time foreigners had completely taken over petty trading and small businesses in Ghana, the law, simply requesting foreigners to register to stay or leave if they would not, became an albatross around the former Prime Minister's political neck.

Significantly, it was the departure of many aliens, and the promulgation of another law reserving petty trading and small businesses in the hands of Ghanaians, that saw the rise of indigenous Ghanaian businesses. Love or hate him, Prof. Busia did a lot to promote Ghanaian businesses.

When Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo rose to make his contribution, he was cheered as if the Satellites, who were then engaged in the Under 20 World Cup in Turkey, had scored a goal. 'It is good,' Nana Akufo-Addo emphasised, 'to celebrate the life of the former Prime Minister.  … I'm happy that people who do not even know him are here to celebrate his life.'

He said it was surprising that someone as meek as the former Prime Minister could create so much controversy while he lived. 'Political discourse today, open society, and the ability to speak one's mind without fear of arrest, reflect the views of Dr. Busia.'

He said the greatest legacy the former Prime Minister bequeathed to the nation is the Constitution of the land. 'If Prof. Busia were to come back today, he will recognise it and be happy.'

The 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, himself a human rights advocate, said: 'Free people, as advocated by the former Prime Minister, have the best opportunity to create wealth.'

He defined freedom as access to opportunities, including the right to education. 'Access to education,' Nana Akufo-Addo explained, 'should be extended to all the people of Ghana.'

The man many in his party believe should have been at the Flagstaff House, aroused the audience by telling them that this country could not develop on the old economic order. 'If we want development, we should jettison the old economic policy. We cannot continue to be exporters of raw materials and expect to prosper,' Nana Akufo-Addo pontificated.

He said as a student of Busia, Danquah and Dombo, he is a very proud man. 'I continue to be proud to be part of a family that makes us understand what Busia was all about.'

When former President John Agyekum Kufuor took the floor, he gave a narration of how Prof. Busia aided him to read Political Science and Law at the world-famous Oxford University.

He said leadership is just not entrusted to people. Those who really appreciate the meaning of leadership had been nurtured for a long time. In his opinion, former Prime Minister Kofi Busia was in this class of leaders.

Busia prepared himself for leadership, and as a global icon, he was well connected as well. He told his audience that the inherent strength of Dr. Busia was his tolerance and quality of education.

Democracy, he explained, is a form of government based on ethics, telling the audience that the concept of 'Freedom and Justice' in the national motto reflected the life and belief of people like Kofi Abrefa Busia, Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah, and the early leaders who struggled so that this nation could be free.

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