Reflecting on Ghana’s 2016 election
It is December 9,2016 and it has just hit 8 p.m. My friend and I are taking a walk on one of the narrow roads of the University of Ghana.
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In minutes, we had to move away from the narrow streets. Something momentous had happened. The country was bursting at its seams. Lot of people could not possibly contain their joy and satisfaction. First there were a bunch of jubilant supporters wielding the flag of the opposition party. They were shouting as hard as they could. Then emerged some students. They were equally jubilant.
In no time, there were many cars on a road which ordinarily did not attract so many cars – at least at a time. All the vehicles had flags of the blue, white and red tricolour with the image of an elephant embossed on it. They were all tooting their horns.
There were persons sitting on the bonnets of moving vehicles, leaving the driver with little but enough room for vision. There were supporters peeking their heads out of the windows of their moving vehicles.
The reason? The current President John Mahama had gone ahead of the Electoral Commission to congratulate his opponent, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo on winning the election. There was no room for dispute. The results were as clear as the difference between night and day.
John Mahama garnered 44.23 per cent of the total votes cast. Nana Addo had 53.93 per cent of the total number of electorate voting for him.
Whereas it is rare to have a peaceful transition of power from one government to another across the continent, it is increasingly becoming something that Ghanaians can take for granted. That no matter who won the election, the losing party would either have to make way or not stand in the way of the victorious party. And we have been at it for the past three decades.
Commentators have been left astounded with the election results. Prior to the election, many Ghanaians thought it was going to be a close race. There was uncertainty in the air as to who was going to win. But one thing that was clear was that the race was going to be tight.
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The outcome showed one thing - Ghanaians had completely rejected the ruling government. But why?
President John Mahama, until becoming President, was one of the coolest politicians the country could boast of. He was calm. He was gentle. He was not the kind of person who would descend into the gutter. He had a deep cloud of respectability around him.
He became President after the death of a former President under whom he served as Vice-President. He served out the remainder of the first term and went on to win another election. There was a lot expectation on him.
He had to deal with the expectations that confront every President by default. He had to deal with the expectations that he generated himself.
He had an election petition to wait out. He had to turn around the wheels of the economy. He had to find a fix to the perennial energy crisis that was hurting businesses. He had to deal with his own promises of constructing 200 community day senior high schools. He had to complete a myriad of other things.
But the weight of the expectations that awaited him by default and those that he generated himself was more than he could bear. It was certain he could not achieve a significant part of the things that he had set out to achieve – especially within the four-year term.
There were external shocks as well. The slump in prices of commodities was bad news for a net exporter of commodities. The spectacular drop in oil prices meant the government had to borrow money to finance the massive infrastructure drive it was pursuing.
The opposition would often remind Ghanaians of their debt to GDP ratio; and go ahead to criticise the government for its reckless spending and borrowing.
The ruling government entered into the election with the successes it had chalked in the building of infrastructure in the country. But that also was its Achilles heel.
The siting of a road interchange in one part of the country and not another meant that there were grumblings and widespread dissatisfactions, especially in regions which previously had given unrestrained support to the ruling government.
Now they were grumbling. “The President has built a market in the next town and neglected us” was the message that was being passed around. President John Mahama and his government were helpless in the face of these allegations.
For the very first time, the Volta Region, which used to be its “powerhouse” or “world bank”, was stricken with apathy. They compared their stadium to that built in the Central Region. They could not simply be bothered.
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It is far fetched to say the Volta Region has fallen out of love with the NDC; but as one commentator rightly pointed out “the Volta Region had shown the government some tough love.” But the election were not all about economics.
It was about the government’s commitment to fight corruption. Many Ghanaians were repulsed by the consistent and persistent tales of corruption that had become commonplace in the assertive Ghanaian media space.
The mammoth of such corruption scandals was the payment of a US$51.8 million judgement debt to a party financier who had no contractual relation with the government.
Many considered the government as not committed to the recovery of the amount from its party comrade. And many vowed that the government would pay for that.
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Then there were the battles that the President fought which he ought not to have involved himself in the first place – the outcome of which enraged Ghanaians. The classic of such battles was when he decided to grant pardon to some party loyalists who had been sentenced to four months in prison after threatening some Supreme Court judges.
For the opposition party NPP, it is party time. And they have been having a lot of it. But such times do not last for long. Soon they would have to start delivering on the tough promises that they made to the Ghanaian.
And just like the NDC, the Akufo-Addo led government must live up to the regular expectations of being in government, as well as the self-generated expectations.
It would have to prove that it is able to provide jobs. It would have to live up to the promise to build a dam in every village in the northern part of Ghana. It will also have to live up to its promise of building a factory in every district in Ghana. And it will also have to deliver on its US$1 million dollar fund for Ghana’s 275 constituencies every year.
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For the NDC, it is time for greater introspection and reflection. The Ghanaian voter has shown that she cannot be taken for granted. Perhaps, the voter is beginning to come to terms with the fact that it is essential to have permanent interests and weaker allegiances.