It’s not for nothing that a conversation emerged across our country and within the West African sub-region after Ghana held its general elections last weekend. Much of the discourse dwelt on the substantial success of the polls marked by an insignificant record of violence, prompt release of the results, and subsequent concession by the loser to the winner. It’s historic as the Ghanaian election enriches its credential as an exception to the periodic legitimised chaos that passes off as general elections in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s understandable why the discussion on Ghana is more animated in some circles of Nigeria. Our country and Ghana have had a remarkably shared history, good neighbourliness and closeness despite the absence of geographical contiguity. We have come a long way indeed; so whatever happens in Ghana, either positive or negative, tends to reverberate in our country and vice versa. Those of us in our 50s and above need not go into an exploration of the paths that both countries have trodden from the colonial times of the late 1950s through the 1970s to this day to validate this viewpoint.
That Ghana’s seasonal elections offer a lot is not lost on the discerning among democracy watchers who often look forward as each electoral cycle helps to consolidate the country’s democratic growth, especially since 1992 when the Fourth Republic began. One of the most remarkable features of Ghana’s civilian rule is the alternation of power between the two dominant political parties; the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The election under reference is the eighth general election conducted so far, with each party winning some and losing others without the peculiar uproar in Nigeria.
The relatively beautiful scenario had been possible all these years because of the commitment of its political class to foster a culture of a transparent electoral process that has helped to advance the country’s democratic growth. So, what we have seen in two intervening decades is a country where the political elite volitionally subsumed their aspirations to the larger interest of the country. Without that, former President Jerry Rawlings would not have allowed NPP’s John Kuffuor to be declared the winner against NDC’s John Attah Mills in the 2000 elections. The same scenario emblematised the change of guard in 2008 when the late Attah Mills defeated Nana Akufo Addoh, the then NPP’s presidential flag bearer.
That’s Ghana, their own Ghana!
Without disparaging my beloved country, Ghana seems to have performed better than us, comparatively speaking. We are not to blame, however. Our inter-generational hindrances are rooted in Nigeria’s congenital factors, its extreme diversity and forced unification of disparate ethnicities, an amalgam of an undisciplined, desperate political elite, a gullible and unquestioning citizenry, and above all, the pervasive Nigerian factor that makes ineffectual policies or models that have worked perfectly in other climes.
Before 1992 and 1999, when Ghana and Nigeria instituted the Fourth Republic respectively, both countries had had some differences in the variant of military dictatorship. Reflecting the two types of leprous affliction, Nigeria had the worst compared to Ghana’s experience. Given the pestilential impact of the long drawn-out military rule, ours was a leprosy that chopped off the fingers unlike the skin version, which Ghana’s revolution under the then Ft. Lt. J.J. Rawlings represented, as it considerably transformed the social and political economy of the country. The ethos of that era is discernible from the comportment and conduct of Ghana’s political elite, unlike their Nigerian counterparts whose only inheritance of the avaricious virus from their military predecessors has kept Nigeria in a sorry state of affairs.
Despite our frustration with the growing badness of the democratic dispensation worsened by the seeming incorrigibility of the political actors, we cannot give up on our country. Yes, a critical analysis of the deterioration of the recent off-season governorship elections might make an individual foresee doom ahead of the 2027 general elections, but there is still room to lift Nigeria from the abyss in which it’s currently enmeshed. Quite remarkably, Nigeria has over the years shown a capacity for self-regeneration besides boundless providential favour that causes its healing after an occasional affliction.
All that’s required is a comprehensive reform of the electoral process in such a way that election results would reflect the will of the people as captured in the recent Ghana election. Since result declaration is the most contentious of the electoral system, a holistic approach is needed to address that aspect. If we can get the result of elections at the units and transmit same via electronic means without undue human interference as witnessed in Ghana, then we would make a giant leap in our democratic journey. This is one of the lessons we can learn from our Ghanaian brothers and neighbours.
