AGBOKA: Government Is Not Being Unfair to Ex-President Kufuor BUT…

Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor are Ghana's only surviving former presidents

By: Godwin J. Y. Agboka
Published: July 26, 2009 5:51 PM CDT

Witch-hunting! Witch-hunting! Witch-hunting! That is the rejuvenated term in Ghanaian political circles. Under the NPP administration, the NDC faulted and accused the Kufuor-led government of harassing and falsely prosecuting its members for crimes, it claimed, its officials did not commit. The NPP has lately found solace in the term to also make the case that its members are being hounded by the Mills-led government. Interesting times!

We have all been witnesses to the recent cases involving Asamoah Boateng, Kwadwo Mpiani, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, among a host of others, all of whom have made similar cases of political harassment. Given what we know, we can make the case that the game has just started. Many NPP officials will cry foul in this game of “you-do-me-I do-you” politics that has engulfed our young political process—that is not to say that some of the reasons for which opposition elements have been brought before state institutions or for which they have been prosecuted have not been legitimate. If you asked me, many have been legitimate and many others have been calculated to politically humiliate opposition elements.

I have argued once—and I still do—that people have to be made accountable for their actions either during or after their services to the nation; more so, I have said elsewhere that just because some action(s) was/were right or wrong under the NPP administration does not make it right or wrong under the NDC era. Societies make progress and they learn from the mistakes of the past. That, however, is the ideal situation. Politicians will get their pound of flesh, so I don’t think the NDC will do any less than what the NPP did—at least former president Kufuor can attest to that!

The case of former president Kufuor intrigues me. He wins my sympathy, in a way! He should be enjoying his ESB somewhere. Unfortunately, like many other former African presidents, he is suffering from a negative political process he has helped to build. Mr. Kufuor, notwithstanding his unequaled legacy, set a bad precedent which has, all too soon, caught up with him. Currently, in addition to his many foreign engagements, he has been busy accusing the new government of mistreating him. In an interview he granted to the BBC Network Africa program, Mr. Kufuor expressed his displeasure at the treatment he is getting from the NDC government.

That is not what you will think a former president should be doing. I don’t mean he cannot complain, but conditions should not be created for him to complain. He should be relaxing somewhere in his backyard, playing chess or some “oware.” The man has contributed a lot to the development of the nation, but even if he contributed nothing, he should get what the constitution or any other legal document mandates a former president to get. We may disagree on how much he should get, but he should get what he should get! For purposes of argument, in spite of the campaign waged by then candidate and now President Barack Obama against Bush’s (Jnr) administration, there has never been a time, after he left office, that Bush has complained about the treatment he is getting from the current administration and, I believe, we can say the same about other countries. Sadly, though, Mr. Kufuor has been forced to take his fight outside the shores of Ghana, because he is obviously not happy. It is a shame!

Is Mr. Kufuor a victim of political vendetta? If you asked me, I will say yes! He is in a political battle with the NDC. It is clear that the NDC, given the events of the last eight years, wants to return the favor—albeit negatively. It is a flip of the coin. The new government wants to embarrass and humiliate Mr. Kufuor by making him feel uncomfortable, knowing very well that Mr. Kufuor will give them the perfect response. Thus, what Mr. Kufuor is doing is the perfect response that the NDC expected. It’s a case of “let’s re-enact the Rawlings drama.” Some of this is about Rawlings, trust me. Even though the NDC government ran a campaign that promised not to settle scores with its political opponents, there is no doubt that there has been a subtle attempt, on the part of the NDC, to intimidate its opponents, mainly NPP operatives, even if for legitimate reasons.

Is Mr. Kufuor being treated unfairly? YES and NO! The issue about what a former president deserves or gets after his/her term of office should not be up for public debate. It should be enshrined somewhere in some document. It simply should be a constitutional matter. What does the constitution say he should get at the end of his term? Does any other document speak to this issue, if the constitution doesn’t have such a provision? The country will be setting a very bad precedent if uneducated public debate takes over what a legal or constitutional provision should stipulate. Thus, argued on this front, Mr. Kufuor has been the subject of a democratic political system that should know what to do.

Unfortunately, however, legality runs into ethics and morality sometimes—taking the debate on a fussy tangent that becomes interesting as well. The injection of morality in this debate introduces the historical condition, which gets into many comparative issues. It is sad to say that even though Mr. Kufuor is upset about his new condition,—requiring him to make some adjustments—the case can be made that the country has made tremendous progress in how it treats its former presidents. It is a strange point to make, but it is the fact! On a historical continuum, Mr. Kufuor seems to be enjoying a relatively peaceful retirement together with a bountiful booty, compared to what Hilla Limann got under the Rawlings era or relative to the treatment he (Mr. Kufuor) gave to Rawlings.

On moral grounds Mr. Kufuor had (and still has) no justification to talk (or whine) about the issues that came up during the interview. I am surprised that Kufuor is surprised that this is happening. Why is he complaining? That he wants six cars, but he can only get four cars? That currently he is granted full courtesies in Ghana’s missions abroad, when he didn’t do same for his predecessor? In his own words: “When you look at the situation, it begins to look like there has been a coup d’état. It wasn’t a coup d’état that changed government. People went to ballot and the votes were almost split equally.” Interesting! So, Mr. Kufuor never thought he presided over a dictatorial regime when he mistreated his predecessor? What was Mr. Kufuor thinking when he withdrew privileges constitutionally sanctioned to be enjoyed by former President Rawlings? Was it legally and morally appropriate for the Kufuor-led government to endorse the practice where Ghanaian embassies abroad refused to extend courtesies to Mr. Rawlings?

In spite of his many achievements as president of Ghana—and his government did better, in my view, than the NDC (1992-2000)—but the NPP took politics to a new low with such decisions that should never be repeated. That chapter on this issue should be closed and should be treated as one of the “never happened” events of the country. I can’t say enough about Mr. Rawlings’ dishonorable behavior at various points since he left office in 2000; he has said things unbecoming of a former president; he has taunted Mr. Kufuor; he has acted indecorously, but when someone behaves in such a manner in a democratic regime, you don’t behave unconstitutionally towards him. Apply the law and leave out personal issues that are dictated by your whims and caprices.

To decide to strip Rawlings of his constitutionally mandated privileges, because the government believed he was speaking evil about it on his foreign travels was the most childish decision any democratic government could take—especially when that government came to power through a campaign that promised to respect the rule of law. On that score, in addition to many happenings that strike the moral chord, Mr. Kufour is not being treated unfairly! Maybe both Rawlings and Kufuor don’t deserve any good treatments from the state, because of the poor treatments they meted out to their predecessors.

As I have hinted, in our march to the top, we need to look back, see what we’ve done right, see what we’ve done wrong, and close the door that took us in the wrong direction. We should do better than that! In our journey to political maturation, we need to end the vicious cycle of settling unnecessary political scores that threaten to injure opponents, but which might come back to hit the very same people who began the process. We need to be able to separate personal issues from national issues that are grounded or firmly rooted in law. We need to close the chapter on the “you-did-it-to-me-so-I will-do-it-to-you” politics.” It takes us nowhere. I will be surprised if the NDC doesn’t learn any lessons from this. The wheel of misfortune may strike them “BIG TIME.”

We need to begin an educated debate about what our former presidents should enjoy after they leave office, and such benefits should not be subject to change by the personal concerns of any one person or government. We should avoid the situation where anybody can wake up on the wrong side of his/her bed and decide to do what s/he wants. It’s a shame that 50 years of nationhood, a former president will grant an interview to a media organization and be forced to talk about the poor treatment he is being given by a current government. We should clearly delineate what we mean by accountability from what we mean by witch-hunting. Today, it’s the NPP that is at the receiving end, and tomorrow it might be the NDC, again, if the current practice continues. It becomes a never-ending vicious cycle!

Godwing J.Y Agboka is a PhD candidate in English at Illinois State University