The Deputy Finance Minister, for example, fails to explain why during each of the three presidential elections between 2000 and 2008, a different northern Ghanaian was fielded as the running-mate of Tarkwa-Atta while, on the other hand, the now-President John Evans Atta-Mills, who had been on a losing streak, was not logically replaced.
In other words, if Mr. Kwetey feels so self-assured in his immutably vacuous allegation that former Vice-President Aliu Mahama was just rascally used by President Kufuor to garner the northern vote, and thus was a strategically expendable “good” in the greater scheme of the New Patriotic Party’s campaign efforts, then the Deputy Finance Minister needs to explain precisely why President Kufuor twice fielded an electorally unwinsome Mr. Mahama, while the supposedly more consistent and well-meaning Candidate Mills had to keep changing running-mates every four years.
More significantly, Mr. Kwetey needs to explain why Messrs. Amidu and Mumuni, two northern Muslims, had to be replaced with the now-Vice President John Dramani Mahama, a northern Christian. Deviously claiming that Vice-President Mahama’s “family is virtually 100-percent Islamic” is patently non-sequitur and an arrant nonsensicality, since, as already noted above, the former Gonja-West Member of Parliament is himself a practicing Christian.
Needless to say, it ought to be clear to those Ghanaian voters who have been expecting economic wonders from the Mills-Mahama administration, by now, why such a miracle will never happen. The fact of the matter is that we have a Deputy Finance Minister who is constantly being sent abroad to conduct our nation’s business who is pathologically innumerate, much less be able to put a sound financial management package together. It would also be quite interesting to learn of Mr. Kwetey’s college grades in Mathematics and Statistics.
At any rate, what does the fact of Vice-President Mahama’s hailing from a predominantly “Islamic” family have to do with the glaring fact of the Rawlings posse’s inveterate resentment of the possibility of a Muslim presidency occurring on the ticket of the so-called National Democratic Congress? Then also, isn’t it rather insulting for Mr. Kwetey to facilely claim that the family of Vice-President Mahama is “virtually 100-percent Islamic,” without specifically telling readers the total number of Mahama family members who are Muslims and those who are Christians?
His analysis of the supposed consistency in the changing of the proverbial guard, as reflected in the recent political cultures of Ghana, South Africa and the United States has absolutely no merit whatsoever. For while, indeed, George Bush, Sr., took over from Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle did not succeed the former, although he had vigorously contested his party’s presidential nomination.
In sum, while both Ghana’s National Democratic Congress and South Africa’s African National Congress are run like Communist parties, with outgoing premiers literally handpicking their successors, here, in the United States, the process of presidential succession is largely democratic and merit-based.
Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of 22 books, including “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008).
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
The opinions expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com