According to the Daily Graphic, President Kufuor is very worried by a news story which appeared in a recent edition of the Palaver newspaper. The paper had suggested that the President might dismiss the Army Commander, Major-General S.A. Odotei because he was not prepared to sanction a State of Emergency planned for this September. The State of Emergency would have averted the President’s party’s imminent defeat in the General Election. Odotei’s failure to support this dastardly plan meant that the President intended to retire him prematurely and replace him with the presumably more compliant, Major-General Ayiku, Commander of the Northern Command. The Graphic reported the President’s denial of the story and pointed out Ayiku, the intended replacement, died in March 2007 and was buried the following month.
The story neatly draws attention to two issues concerning the Ghanaian Press – its freedom and the implications that brings and its current preoccupation with the forthcoming presidential election. I’ll probably look at some of the more bizarre stories which emerge from the free, and by the looks of it, largely, if not entirely, unregulated Ghanaian press on another occasion. The election is a more topical issue at present.
Progress towards the election really began around the time I arrived in Ghana, last autumn. The main parties were in the throes of nominating their presidential candidates or ‘flagbearers’. President John Kufuor is approaching the end of his second presidential term and the rules do not permit him to stand again. Nearly all the senior members of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) appeared to decide they wanted a shot at the top job. The rank and file membership must have faced a lengthy ballot paper at their conference before Christmas. Fortunately for them Nana Akufo-Addo emerged as a clear victor. Many received barely a handful of votes. As one of Koforidua’s local MPs ruefully pointed out on the morning of the count, he would not have bothered to spend so much money if he had known how poorly he was to fare. Over the past few months Akufo-Addo has been rebranded. In his pictures, he started off looking like a serious, but slightly grumpy statesman. He popped up regularly during the commercial breaks in the Africa Cup, pledging his undying support for the Blackstars. His photographs now show a very jolly figure, a cross between Father Christmas and your favourite uncle. He is on the verge of selecting a running mate and the debate over whether it will be a representative of one of Ghana’s main minority groups - women, Muslims or northerners, is fierce.
The main opposition party – National Democratic Congress (NDC) has significant support but has a couple of major issues with which to contend. Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings first came to power in a coup in 1979 and ran Ghana in one way or another for most of the period up until Kufuor’s election. No longer a candidate, now a professional loose cannon, he remains a vocal and controversial figure looming over the NDC. The NDC’s candidate is his former Vice-President, Professor John Atta-Mills. Unsuccessful on both occasions against Kufuor, Atta-Mills is flagbearer again and hopes it will be third time lucky.
Of the remaining smaller parties, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has the distinction of being a rehabilitated version of the party founded by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The party was outlawed following Nkrumah’s fall from favour and the name was banned from use for a time.
The papers are full of reports of the candidates’ various campaign trails. These are complimented by a slew of editorial essays and comment features. The press is manufacturing huge concern over whether the elections will be peaceful or not. Zimbabwe and Kenya have provided unwelcome reminders that Africans cannot be guaranteed peaceful transitions or that now unpopular or time barred leaders will leave with good grace. Nearer to home, in West Africa there are still examples of presidents prepared to change rules to allow them to stay in office longer or postpone elections for their own benefit. Westerly neighbour, Togo recently had peaceful elections and was rewarded with European funding. Easterly neighbour, Côte d’Ivoire hopes to have elections soon following a lengthy civil war.
In Ghana there is serious unrest around the community of Bawku in the far north-west with continuing nightly curfews. (A VSO volunteer was removed from a neighbouring town and has now been found work elsewhere in Ghana.) Other than that there are currently no apparent signs for concern. Nobody I talk to is particularly worried. Unless we are to believe the Palaver, Kufuor is showing no sign that he will not step down after the election. His biggest crime of late, appears to have been his possibly ill judged decision to create an award for Presidents of Ghana, of which he was the first recipient. This certainly wound up the other parties particularly as the actual medals used were not manufactured in Ghana but came from overseas at apparently great expense.
The President says that in the past he has not been concerned about some of the more scurrilous stories which appear in the press, leaving it up to the reader to determine whether they are true or not. However, he now feels that such writing could undermine the security and stability of the state and he has asked that the Palaver’s article be fully investigated. He probably has a point.
The story neatly draws attention to two issues concerning the Ghanaian Press – its freedom and the implications that brings and its current preoccupation with the forthcoming presidential election. I’ll probably look at some of the more bizarre stories which emerge from the free, and by the looks of it, largely, if not entirely, unregulated Ghanaian press on another occasion. The election is a more topical issue at present.
Progress towards the election really began around the time I arrived in Ghana, last autumn. The main parties were in the throes of nominating their presidential candidates or ‘flagbearers’. President John Kufuor is approaching the end of his second presidential term and the rules do not permit him to stand again. Nearly all the senior members of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) appeared to decide they wanted a shot at the top job. The rank and file membership must have faced a lengthy ballot paper at their conference before Christmas. Fortunately for them Nana Akufo-Addo emerged as a clear victor. Many received barely a handful of votes. As one of Koforidua’s local MPs ruefully pointed out on the morning of the count, he would not have bothered to spend so much money if he had known how poorly he was to fare. Over the past few months Akufo-Addo has been rebranded. In his pictures, he started off looking like a serious, but slightly grumpy statesman. He popped up regularly during the commercial breaks in the Africa Cup, pledging his undying support for the Blackstars. His photographs now show a very jolly figure, a cross between Father Christmas and your favourite uncle. He is on the verge of selecting a running mate and the debate over whether it will be a representative of one of Ghana’s main minority groups - women, Muslims or northerners, is fierce.
The main opposition party – National Democratic Congress (NDC) has significant support but has a couple of major issues with which to contend. Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings first came to power in a coup in 1979 and ran Ghana in one way or another for most of the period up until Kufuor’s election. No longer a candidate, now a professional loose cannon, he remains a vocal and controversial figure looming over the NDC. The NDC’s candidate is his former Vice-President, Professor John Atta-Mills. Unsuccessful on both occasions against Kufuor, Atta-Mills is flagbearer again and hopes it will be third time lucky.
Of the remaining smaller parties, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has the distinction of being a rehabilitated version of the party founded by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The party was outlawed following Nkrumah’s fall from favour and the name was banned from use for a time.
The papers are full of reports of the candidates’ various campaign trails. These are complimented by a slew of editorial essays and comment features. The press is manufacturing huge concern over whether the elections will be peaceful or not. Zimbabwe and Kenya have provided unwelcome reminders that Africans cannot be guaranteed peaceful transitions or that now unpopular or time barred leaders will leave with good grace. Nearer to home, in West Africa there are still examples of presidents prepared to change rules to allow them to stay in office longer or postpone elections for their own benefit. Westerly neighbour, Togo recently had peaceful elections and was rewarded with European funding. Easterly neighbour, Côte d’Ivoire hopes to have elections soon following a lengthy civil war.
In Ghana there is serious unrest around the community of Bawku in the far north-west with continuing nightly curfews. (A VSO volunteer was removed from a neighbouring town and has now been found work elsewhere in Ghana.) Other than that there are currently no apparent signs for concern. Nobody I talk to is particularly worried. Unless we are to believe the Palaver, Kufuor is showing no sign that he will not step down after the election. His biggest crime of late, appears to have been his possibly ill judged decision to create an award for Presidents of Ghana, of which he was the first recipient. This certainly wound up the other parties particularly as the actual medals used were not manufactured in Ghana but came from overseas at apparently great expense.
The President says that in the past he has not been concerned about some of the more scurrilous stories which appear in the press, leaving it up to the reader to determine whether they are true or not. However, he now feels that such writing could undermine the security and stability of the state and he has asked that the Palaver’s article be fully investigated. He probably has a point.
