PILOT to BOMBARDIER:
A Storyboard to the Drawn-up Incidents & Accidents
Amidst the ‘Demographics’ of Democracy in Ghana.
(By K.K. Amamu Amua et al.*)
Basically, the idea is that
with everyone striving
to be revolutionary, you
will be most revolutionary
if you [appear] to be ordinary
(Denise Scott Brown)
And I’ll answer you that reality may avoid
the obligation to be interesting, but
hypothesis may not
(Jorge Luis Borges)
Preface & ‘Postmortem’:
Jerry John Rawlings was the revolutionary—though perhaps not evolutionary enough, but yet still the fittest survivalist—in Ghana’s political, economic and social stations in life. Ghana’s station as of now (Friday, the 13th 2020), reportedly, is that it may be on the precipice of a Covid-19 tsunami (let’s pray and hope not). So virulent has this virus been that it has felled Ghana’s Strong Man, so conjected. A two-time coup leader with nine political lives, one of which—and we cannot be certain which life—comes due in the December elections of 2020, Rawlings steered the affairs of this continually promising but not yet wholly reassuring country towards coup-riddled stasis before ceding—and wisely at that—to the forces of multi-party democracy, something his forebear, who goes by the name of Kwame Nkrumah, stifled himself by. Ghanaians lived through the life of Jerry John Rawlings; or was it vice versa?
May the souls of his victims as that of his self Rest in Peace.
——-0——-
An intelligent, though not intelligence-derived, summary of the Ghanaian political economy, circa the 2016 elections and onwards, may be surmised as follows: Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings has been and will be the kingmaker and the drama queen of Ghana’s democratic demographics for the next (how many?) election cycle[s] to come.
Here’s the what, when, where and why of this supposition. The who has already been identified and the how might remain shrouded in mystery, though the secret will be in plain view but not in plain sight. Look; but you may not see. And that is what needs discerning; such that the following aphorism may be offered: As VIEW is [not] to SIGHT so is FIND [not] to DISCOVER.
—–THE WHAT —–
Supposedly, Jerry John Rawlings sent John Dramani Mahama to a cartoon graveyard in the 2016 elections, for in 2019 up pops a lively Mahama as the designated flagbearer for the NDC, never-dying as a cartoon character would. Once again, as was the case in the 2016 elections, Mahama will battle Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in 2020. When a “thanks” and a “no thanks” will be due—and unto whom and from whom—remains to be determined.
What appears plausible above all else and others is that Jerry John Rawlings seems to be the one with 20/20 vision, more so than Kwame Nkrumah ever had, at least as regards his political survival. Where Kwame Nkrumah was erring and errant in key ways, Jerry John Rawlings has hardly erred to his utmost detriment or demise; rather so, he survives and has thrived.
2016’s Round 1 election’s margins between Mahama and Akufo Addo were ever so slim, so-much-so they occasioned a visit to Ghana’s Supreme Court (and through it all, Ghanaians demonstrated political maturity of the highest order). These slim margins—may it be supposed—were not graced by the benevolence of Ghana’s prefect of the perfect to the benefit of Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo. Ghana’s penultimate leader—for the country needs another chance with another—who goes by the name of Rawlings might have been reeling, though not recoiling, as an ungrateful Mahama—as Rawlings would have seen and continues to see him—appeared to be further burgeoning amidst the rank-and-file of the NDC.
In Round 2, Akufo Addo won with an impressive margin (Round 1’s results got multiplied by 3). This was a victory margin which did not necessitate a visit with Ghana’s Justices. The indelible impression from those decisive Round 2 results—may it, again, be so supposed—was made by Rawlings’ soul, it practically being the stomp of his foot upside the head of Mahama’s political fortunes. Rawlings, in effect, took ‘taken’ to its ultimate level when it came to all things Mahama. But not for long; and going forward, for how long (given Mahama’s reemergence, if not resurgence)?
What makes Rawlings ever more relevant and clearly resonant and resounding started—and will continue, if only—because of the truce and tryst he has been having with Akufo Addo, with the Akufo Addo essentially saying to the former: “…if you’ll be my bodyguard, I’ll be your long-lost pal…”. Rawlings is the ‘Simon’ in this equation, and the soothe to their co-parenting of the Ghana political economy is as lulling as Jobim’s “Children’s Games” to all but their ardent detractors. For any and all, yet still, their ignorance or their ‘trolling’ may prove to be infantile per their lack of insight. The only command played between the two which may never reign true is: “Simon says; ‘stand tall’”. Many an international observer, however, might concur with this particular Simon command, as they might surmise it to be his feat, succeeded. The varied surmising of the country’s macroeconomy may be summarized as such: hopeful, though perhaps, not promising, inviting, and perhaps—but not yet?— rewarding.
The 2016 election results and the public cozying-up between Nana and J.J., including the naming of a university after the latter by the former—whereby the J.J. halfheartedly declined the Nana’s honor so that his daughter may extend that courtesy (and we’ll get to that detail later)—bespeak to each one’s acumen for political gamesmanship of the highest order. Politicos in the NDC can only hold on to hints and allegations as well as overly bemoan the incidents and accidents of Rawlings’ past. Those politicos also back-bench comment on Akufo Addo’s economic gait and his political gab, their self-ascribed disjoints between and amongst the gait and the gab being their repartee, their solace. Too can play this game, as they squawk at these political hawks, they whose gazes are the eyes in the sky such that they’d be the maker of rules.
—– THE WHEN —–
The ‘When’ came to pass when Mahama failed to realize that his first term, begotten of his 2012 victory, was indeed his second term. The tenure was Atta-Mill’s unfulfilled and the tract was Mahama’s, lapsed. The discernment lost on Mahama was that this all-too temporal hold on the presidency was an NDC term which was not blessed by Rawlings and whose transpiration was treated by the populace as a time for turnover, to the fortunes of the NPP and the misfortunes of Mahama, and not necessarily the NDC in the long term. It was now “Nana’s” ‘right’ and the NPP’s privilege given the populace’s seeming intolerance for the imbalance they felt, when, at minimum, they’d would have tolerated stasis.
When Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, the spouse to Jerry John, was given free reign to vent at the impudence of the Atta Mills Boys, they who felt that J.J. Rawlings could be set aside, and they feeling that they owed nary a political pesewa of their ascendancy to him,—perhaps, they going so far as to giggle at the nitpickiness of her Highness as regards the NDC logo/flag—they failed to realize that Rawlings is the perennial presence in Ghana, as Nkrumah is the perennial idea. Rawlings Inc., so many thought, is now an ember and no longer a flame. Unbeknownst to all but one (Nana), Rawlings, it turns out, is a flame thrower with a javelin thrower’s arm.
The Ides of March (perhaps concocted in March, 2016? Who knows??) came in December of this aforementioned year for John Mahama, courtesy of Jerry John Rawlings. Nana’s pesky ‘John’ problem was solved by none other than a John who is surnamed Rawlings. (Please be apprised that Nana lost voting contests to John Agyekum Kuffour, John Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama in his bids for the Presidency).
The thrones are necessarily consolidating, and not necessarily coalescing. Each apart and yet still together form part-and-parcel of the geopolitical Snakes & Ladders game in Ghana, winners and losers casting their die to venom and virtue, vivacious and not so vivid, respectively. The thing of it all is that whereas many play chance in Snakes-and-Ladders the 20/20 visionaries are playing Chess amidst a spate of contingencies. Furthermore…
In 2016, Rawlings and Akufo Addo, in effect, distributed seeds into houses as one would in an Oware game.
And ought it be surmised that Ghana’s 2016 voting pattern was not accidental; it was incidental, by design (and that’s a hint and not an allegation, by the way).
—– THE WHERE —–
Hailing from a royal house, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo and his Akyem folk have had historical distrusts with the venerable royal house of the Ashanti Kingdom which date back at least a couple of centuries. The lines between his folk and the Ashanti are politically distinct yet geographical contiguous. Let it even be said that there is a thin line between love and hate when it comes to the generalized relations between the Akyem and the Ashanti (the recently transpired marking of Ghana’s Independence Day in Kumasi notwithstanding, though as a move in political gamesmanship it was outstanding; non?).
Any lackluster numbers of Akufo Addo’s in the Ashanti Region may, partly, be attributed to this historical dynamic. Then also, Rawlings is no slouch within the confines of the Ashanti Region. His wife is Ashanti and he has allies of his persuasion in that region. Therefore, NDC numbers in the Ashanti Region would have disproportionally been his, not Mahama’s. Given these variables, vagaries and variations, Nana’s less than strong numbers ought not surprise anyone.
In the Volta Region, Mahama’s numbers were reportedly dismal even though the region is an NDC stronghold. The Volta Region is a stronghold of the NDC’s mostly because of their native son; the one who goes by the name Jerry John Rawlings. A discontented Rawlings, as the holder of the political keys to the Volta Region, would mean a disenfranchised Mahama in the Volta Region. This a bare-knuckle factoid when it comes to the truth and consequences of wrangling with and/or rankling the flight lieutenant, as Mahama did in the 2016 election.
In hindsight—for a novice is expectantly latent—and of foresight, as Jerry and Nana were, Mahama, a Northerner, did not even have the Northern Region and its neighbors, namely the Upper East and Upper West Regions, fully in his camp. (The majority of Ghana’s politically demarcated regions are no longer geographically intact as of election year 2020 (as per the ingenious designs of Akufo Addo and Rawlings?)). Mahama ought to have had a better chance, back then, in the Upper East and West partly because he is a Christian. Those regions are sizably Christian in their numbers. His formidable opponent in the Northern Region[s] was not Akufo Addo. Mahamudu Bawumia, a fellow Northerner, was Mahama’s Achilles Heel. Geopolitically, Bawumia is kinfolk to the populace of the three regions but geo-culturally he is a native son of the epicenter of the Northern Region political machinery. Many a short-sighted observer assumes that Northerners are NDC-addicted; nary so. May the same thing be judged of Mahama?
Mahama assumed that he was running against Akufo Addo in the Northern Regions, where and when, rather, he was running against Bawumia this time around. The last time around Northern voters did not have Rawlings disquietly standing up yet quietly sitting down. Then also, the NDC’s sure-fire bet, in the form of the Volta Region, was not Mahama’s to have and hold; it was fully Rawlings’. By misidentifying the geo-specific target within the Northern Region[s], with Tamale as the bull’s eye—that regional capital is Bawumia’s birthplace and home, after all—Mahama’s house of cards fell in. Then also, Mahama (a Gonja) and Bawumia (a Dagomba) are from somewhat-equal but not necessarily opposing, though opposite sides, of the Northern Region. Bearing this in mind, Bawumia has deeper political roots than Mahama. Then again, Bawumia served in the Council of State during Rawlings’ presidential tenure. A-Tisket, A-Tasket, anyone?
—– THE WHY —–
Whereas many others are trying to build political muscle, Rawlings and perhaps Nana included, are striving to build bone. Being part of the skeletal form of a Nation State is what they appear to be after.
Why else would such opposites merrily co-exist when before they were drunkenly-acerbic to one another. Rawlings tip-toes over party lines, seemingly in the nation’s interest, and quite certainly in his own as well, so that his legacy is assured, if not secure. Akufo Addo, who one may consider as Ghana’s ‘Midnight’s Child’, has similar aims. He is the continuation of a dynasty, starting with Ofori-Atta and Danquah tradition of the United Gold Coast Convention era; and then on to his father of the Second Republic’s brief years; and now on to him, the fifth president of the Fourth Republic. Akufo Addo’s waltz with Rawlings earned him an election victory, and will perhaps earn him another one in 2020, “…if and betting on an if, and if that if might have a chance to survive..’—to quote Attrel Cordes—Rawlings can perform another hat trick, come 2020; and if also Mahama is, yet still, none-the-wiser about the immaculate hidden truths about and consequences of dynasty building.
Rawlings and Akufo Addo are busy playing an adult’s game whereas others are wastefully accusing them of political adultery; when rather they ought to catch up to the savviness of one needing not being rhetorically bed-ridden whilst also incestuously bed-riding in party politics.
On the surface it appears Rawlings’ trump card—the one to whom he is passing on the baton—is his daughter Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings (and who is to say whose is John Dumelo’s). A medical doctor with armed forces training, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings is a standing Member of Parliament. It is a no-brainer that she may become a Minister of Health in an NDC government and might one day go on to contest for the presidency. Rawlings’ other daughters are no slouches either and the same may be conjectured of his son. Nkrumah’s kids, in contrast, seem dispossessed and disenfranchised.
What’s Akufo Addo’s game plan above and beyond himself and what is Mahama’s, he who, relative to Akufo Addo and Rawlings—and besides using the largesse of his brother’s wealth—is a soliloquy unbeknownst to himself?
Friends of Ghana, its countrymen, as of yourselves, as Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (a political genius)—and he who is the demographer of democracy in Ghana—is lifting up Akufo Addo (he who is exhibiting ingenuity so far) whilst suppressing Mahama (a relative ingenue), what is each one of ‘our leaders doing for the fortunes of this country and/or those political country clubs which go by the names NDC and NPP? What-all is par for the course and cause?
——-0——-
As a rule, men worry about what they can’t see, more so than about what they can.
Cast the die to the prospects of others’ causes which are destined to die.
Won’t you see what they can’t see?
For immortal gamesmanship is about immortality and the trick is to
put your angels in the architecture of your Nation State.
Mother-Merry-of-oh-My-God, may it be your archangel’s name;
and that archangel is you, and can forever be none other than you;
and given that, the dream of the archangel and what was dreamt of, naturally of its self,
and in place of you, but as you, which may never go to sleep,
who, then, shall it so be said, has ever had a daydream within a night’s sleep’s dream?
Drawn out would such a drawn up dream be, for in a cartoon death is immortal.
(K.K. Amamu Amua et al.)
(*In the construction of this article, here’s to giving credit where credit is due:
Et al. are Paul Simon, Jorge Luis Borges, Shakespeare, Attrel Cordes and Salmon Rushdie)
