Ghana’s independence was a great milestone

Where did you spend March 6 2007, Ghana’s 50th anniversary? If you were not at a celebration party you must have joined by remote through the television stations, radio and other media in the national celebrations in Accra.
So powerful is Ghana as a metaphor for Africa’s confidence in herself, its peoples and our indomitable desire to be free, in dignity and assertive of our equality with all of humanity that everywhere globally they knew that it was Ghana’s Independence anniversary.
It was not an occasion for Ghana alone but a re-affirmation of the possibilities of Africa taking responsibility for its own destiny. I would have loved to be in Accra on that day but a previous commitment to participate in a conference on ‘Sustaining Africa’s Democratic Momentum’ found me in Johannesburg.
The conference was organised by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, the African Union and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Ghana’s milestone was not far from the minds of all participants because without the independence struggles we all would probably have remained colonial subjects till today.
The anti-colonial struggles probably represent the most historic opportunity for popular mass movement for liberty, freedom and democracy across this continent and among all colonised peoples whether in Asia or Latin America. The movement united priests and peasants, leaders and lumpen proletariat, the elite and the masses in a shared quest for freedom.
Of course after independence many of the countries had o face the challenges of building a nation out of the artificial colonial states they inherited from the colonialists. The alliance between the masses and the leaders fell apart in many countries giving way to military dictatorships, one- party states and other forms of authoritarian rule which provoked protests, rebellions and even revolutions in some countries.
The challenges that faced many of these countries were not only internal because externally the cold war, neo-colonialist policies of former colonial powers and imperialism in general militated against them.
Sometimes they tried to play the powers against each other but mostly they became proxies, tools and agents for other people’s wars and agendas in the looting of their countries and the degradation of their peoples.
However, Africans were not just victims because they continue to struggle against dictatorship in many forms, directly and indirectly. In the past two decades, Africa has seen a renewal in spite of all the dooms day scenarios from all kinds of people (African and non-Africans ) who bad-mouth this continent and are paid or derive huge sums of money from doing so. The Johannesburg conference could not have come at a better time coinciding as it is with Ghana’s 50th anniversary, the first Black country to do so, and taking place in South Africa, the last country on the continent to be liberated from racist minority rule.
Ghana was inspiring to Africa in the nationalist struggles and today South Africa, despite its own challenges of giving real power and prosperity to its majority population, represent the spirit Afro-optimism, African responsibility and leadership in its affairs.
The conference was an opportunity to audit the state of democracy not only in Africa but comparable assessment of other regions of the world. It brought together the Electoral commissioners of most African countries (including Uganda’s Electoral Commission’s chairman, Dr Badru Kiggundu), democracy activists, scholars, private sector, multilateral institutions and agencies and politicians of all hues and colours.
There were many topics discussed under the broad theme of Sustained Democratic Momentum in Africa including: Representation and participation; the role of electoral systems in enhancing or limiting participation; the role of political parties, constitutional frameworks and constitutionalism, the nexus between democracy and development, the capacity, integrity and legitimacy of electoral management bodies as umpires of the democratic space, the role of civil society and other stakeholders both national and international in deepening and expanding the democratic spaces or limiting them; and other topics.
The topic that interested me most was “enhancing the capacity of political parties as agents of democratisation: towards creating Political Parties that are Democratic, Representative and trusted by voters”. Political parties are the vehicles for bringing alternative public policy in dynamic confrontation for support of the citizens through their vote.
No competitive democratic political system can endure without a viable party system. The independence struggles were led by political parties with difference strategies and tactics on how to get rid of colonialism and they mobilised the public who voluntarily funded, supported and voted for them accordingly.
In many countries, the colonialists directly or indirectly intervened to control, manipulate, compromise or subvert the processes but still the nationalists won without writing proposals for funding to any foreign power. The masses ‘supported and funded the struggles and actively participated in the parties. Today we have political parties that present no alternative, value, ideological or policy platforms to the masses but resort to least common denominators such as ethnicity, region, religion and race to mobilise support. Many of them are no better than family businesses, personal kiosks or convenient mechanism for rolling out voters to be easily discarded after the election. For instance, in Kenya today, the members of parliament, from the President to the last backbencher most of them are no longer members of the party or alliance on whose platform they ‘won’ their seats.
If parties matter, why would it be that simple for people to cross carpet without apparent sanctions? If elected members can change their allegiances so capriciously, why should people vote for parties at all?
It is the ultimate privatisation of politics to have MPs who are neither accountable to a party nor to the people who voted them. Kenya today represents Uganda’s NRM ‘No Party Democracy’ while Uganda is struggling to evolve into a viable multiparty democracy with a reluctant president and ruling political clique.
Fortunately for Ugandans, the NRM has scored an own goal by calling itself NRM (O) the opposition just need to reorganise and score (1) whereas in neighbouring Kenya it is still ‘0 0’.
But the biggest challenge to democracy in Africa is our trying to develop a democratic society without democrats whether in government or opposition, at home or in the workplace.
However, democracy is a work in progress renewed from one generation to the other but the main engine remains political parties. therefore citizens have a duty to join them, be active in them in order to produce leaders that will serve their interests.