Is Dan Lartey’s “Domestication” Also Dead?

Ghana, once again woke up to swallow another bitter news of inevitable death laying his icy hands on one of her illustrious sons, Daniel Augustus Lartey, affectionately called “Uncle Dan” or better still “Domestication”.

The death of Dan Lartey has come at a time Ghanaians are recalling to mind what transpired during the 2008 general election. During the period, he played key roles as one of the mushroom political parties, eventhough his party, the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), was disqualified for late submission of documents to the Electoral Commission. This was at a time that he has managed to raise the stipulated GH5, 000 nomination fees to beat a dead line on 17TH October, 2008 only for him to be told that due to some inconsistencies in his documents, his name could not appear on the ballot paper for the election.

But that notwithstanding, the document and the money were returned to him, something only the character Dan Lartey seems to have achieved against the commission’s law of non-refundable of fee payment.

Uncle Dan, at the time, was seen with much life and in good health. He was at every time in the news preaching his domestication ideas which he had said was his vision to lead him to become president of Ghana. This vision also led him to break away from his once staunch membership of the Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People Party (CPP).

Dan Lartey’s ideology of Domestication which stood to be “growing what we eat and eating what we grow” as a national political policy though, was viewed as a good developmental plan for a developing country like Ghana and hence made him popular, but it was not accepted. And his party could not received the support it needed so it became more or less like one man show with him as the Founder, Chairman, and Flagbearer. May be the load was just too much for the Octogenarian. So report says, he took ill soon after the elections.

A former publisher and labour unionist, Uncle Dan became virtually a household name after the 2000 and 2004 electioneering campaign following his mantra of domestication. Interestingly, such a laudable idealist was considered as a clown where his views were mostly considered as a comic relief. On more than one occasion his voice was played on radio stations as a teaser! Well that is Ghana for you.

So on a lighter note; he elicited laughter from everyone who cared to listen to him. This later became his hallmark rather than the great idea of domestication he was championing.

Today he is no more. Who knows, maybe he is one of the few messiahs of our time who was sent to redeem Ghana from economic dependence on the Breton Woods Institutions just like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who led the country to political independence and freedom?

So I ask, Is Dan Lartey Dead with Domestication?

Source: Maame Efua Koomson/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana