Victory Smiles At Mills

With only one week left to go for the much-touted NDC Congress scheduled to be held in Sunyani from 8th to 10th July 2011, several indications point to a clear victory of the incumbent President Fiifi Atta Mills over his rival Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in the electoral contest that will be held during that period. Indeed, political logic that can be drawn from in-depth analysis of certain circumstances and events leading to the elections in the congress can show an overlapping edge of Atta Mills over Nana Konadu. Yes, � no two ways about that? Let me cite only three relevant areas for analysis- moral charisma, hard work, and incumbency factors. In the first place, in any campaign hustings preceding any voting, each contestant will have to exhibit or demonstrate some moral charisma that should go along with him or her to make the electorate appreciate his interactions and speeches in order to make up their minds, positively or negatively. And this moral charisma subsists in history, something past which the contestant has done or said to give the clue that the contestant has moral integrity which involves honesty, kind-heartedness, truthfulness, incorruptibility, non-misuse of funds, humility, concern for the well-being of the underdogs etc. All these ingredients impact on the moral charisma of the contestant. Well, the consensus of lots people in Ghana is that Atta Mills has a stronger and more brilliant moral charisma than Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, particularly in his show of humility, honesty, and sympathetic attitude as opposed to Nana Konadu�s inordinate ambition to be a leader all the while and her non-sympathetic attitude as evidenced by her appreciation of the maltreatment of the boy Jantu whose hair was grazed down by some soldiers with broken bottle scraps. This occurred during her husband Rawlings�s administration as President. Jantu was said to be the then boy-friend of the Rawlingses� daughter. This �identification hair-cut� issue has since then continued to dip down the moral charisma of Nana Konadu, branding her as hard-hearted and a cruel personality. And this feeling against her has been worsened by the cruelty exhibited by her husband, Jerry Rawlings, especially in regard to his whipping of traders and killings of politicians! Wherever she stands to campaign, people see her in this negative light- the �identification hair-cut� praises and her husband�s killings, and this will badly affect her standing in the voting process, whereas Atta Mills has no negativity to warp the beauty of his moral charisma! As regards the requirement of political hard work which is essential for victory, both Atta Mills and Nana Konadu have their pluses. In fact, the two contestants have orchestrated the �grace of interpersonal contacts�, appealing to the electorate in their various constituencies in all the regions. The two contestants adopted seemingly different ways of reaching the NDC electorate in the regions and constituencies. President Atta Mills used two modus operandi- firstly, the commissioning of various projects which his administration has completed or is working on or is about to be prosecuted; and secondly, seminars or meetings with regional and constituency executives, during which he formally appealed to them to vote for him. Nana Konadu is using only this method. Even though the two modus operandi have definitely benefitted President Atta Mills, it appears that the commissioning of projects has had greater impact on the electorate and Ghanaians as a whole. Such project exhibitionism has shown Ghanaians that he is doing well in developing various areas of Ghana and that he is after all not the �lame duck� who has done nothing, as ex-President Rawlings has often condemned him to be. The undertaking of two university projects in the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions (indicating that he intends to prosecute Dr Kwame Nkrumah�s agenda of building at least a university in every region), the putting up of new basic and secondary school buildings and markets and libraries and hospitals which the media have shown on the TV and radio and in the newspapers, all attest to the hard work Atta Mills is doing, and has done, within the two and a half years of his administration. Most of us never knew that President Mills is doing such great works or is accomplishing such astounding feats, until such project exhibitionism took place only recently. And this underlines the words of Jesus saying ���let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven� (Matthew 5:16). The question that readily comes to the mind is: if within two and a half years such projects have been undertaken, then what will be achieved within eight years, if Atta Mills wins the national elections? Certainly, JJ Rawlings must feel ashamed of his frequent castigations of Atta Mills that he is a go-slow President, and that he is doing nothing for Ghana. Can a go-slow President accomplish or embark upon such projects which his regional tours have revealed? On the contrary, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has only a little to show about her accomplishments, vis-�-vis the 31st Women�s projects, within the 19 years of her husband, Rawlings�s rulership. However, credit can be given to her for embarking on serious campaign tours in various areas. Her messages to the regional and constituency executives (most of whom form the electorate) are well primed to move them to vote for her. But they are not likely to exact any positive reaction, since these executives don�t like her ambition to truncate the administration of the sitting President who is doing so much for their areas, and who must remain unchallenged, just as her husband remained unchallenged after his first four years. The feelings of most of the delegates are summed up by a cadre in the Volta Region who, on behalf the Volta United Cadres. Front, told some delegates at a meeting that: �It is too early to change a sitting President and that no matter the acrimonies in the party, the NDC cannot risk losing power to the NPP after just a term in the office. A vote for President Mills is in the best interest of the NDC and for that matter it is important that all delegates vote in that direction� (Daily Guide of June 27, 2011 pages 3-4). Truly, the marketability ratings for Atta Mills are seen by the delegates as higher than those for Nana Konadu whom they consider as comparatively a newcomer to the flagbearership contest and to the Ghanaian electorate. The third factor, which boosts up Atta Mills�s image and chances of winning the flagbearership race, is that of- incumbency charisma. Atta Mills is the current President who has appointed several of the delegates to higher positions to enjoy some good perquisites. Which delegate is a fool to vote for a new person who may not appoint him or her to an executive position? The contention or the belief of most of the delegates is that: �the devil you know is better than an angel you don�t know.� This incumbency advantage alone of President Mills surely shoots him up higher to grab victory in the upcoming flagbearership race. And if this is coupled with his moral charisma which exquisitely overshadows that of Nana Konadu, and his accomplishments which have been revealed by the media, there can be no doubt that victory smiles at President Atta-Mills in the flagbearership race next week. But what must be borne in mind is that even though President Atta Mills will win, there can be confusion and commotion ending in bloodshed at the Sunyani Coronation Park, where the Congress will be held. Fact is that the FONKAR group backing Nana Konadu will not readily accept defeat; and if security at the place is not well tightened up, the ensuing scuffles will end up in bloodshed. On the other hand, the GAME group supporting President Atta Mills will also not easily accept defeat and thus will cause commotion, resulting in bloodshed. The allegations in the Daily Guide newspaper that some elements of the GAME faction have planned to pelt Rawlings with sachets of pure water and additionally make high, deliberate noise to drown the speeches of ex-President Rawlings can spark off dangerous troubles. Therefore, GAME must be advised to desist from such behavior, for after all victory will be theirs. Lastly, it must be said that the alleged threats by Rawlings to form his party from his grouping in the NDC can be true. This is because he considers Atta Mills to be a real Nkrumaist who is heading the NDC to the Nkrumaist (or, if you like, the CPP orbit); thus if he fails to grab the flagbearership diadem for his wife, he has to go his own way of forming his own party, exclusive of any Nkrumaist elements whose political ideology he abhors and frowns upon. Whatever the outcome of the elections will be, patience and peace should be maintained all along.