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Two sides of the same coin
01/12/17, Kayode Soyinka
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The stories coming out of The Gambia and Ghana after both countries' presidential polls toward the end of last year have left us all in a state of confusion and begging the question again: What's wrong with Africa?

It was The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal in west Africa that went to the polls first. The process seemed to have gone on smoothly and fairly well too and when the result came out, it was confirmed that the incumbent President Yahya Jammeh lost! There lies the problem or so we all thought, because autocratic and unpredictable rulers in Africa such as Jammeh don't give up power easily and willingly, even when they have clearly lost an election. Africa is replete with many of such examples - until the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria when the gentleman incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan did what was unexpected by conceding defeat to his opponent retired General Muhammadu Buhari, even when the votes were still being counted, and he was under serious pressure from some powerful forces in his party not to throw in the towel but do something to scupper the result of the election. What Jonathan did in Nigeria received world acclaim. It demonstrated to other sit-tight African leaders that there can be life after the state house. In fact, that feat, the Nigerian example, was immediately replicated in Tanzania. And the world was now starting to take more interest in the process of political transfer of power in Africa as if a new wind of change has started blowing across the continent, which will bring democracy to the same level and standard we are accustomed to in advance countries of the world. What raised our hope was the surprise of all surprises - how President Jammeh went on air, surrounded by his party associates and in the full glare of television dramatically conceded defeat to his political opponent Adama Barrow. He conceded, and everyone around the world could see him grabbing his telephone to call Barrow to congratulate him for defeating him at the polls. Jammeh told Barrow in that phone conversation that he would be retiring to his farm and even said he would be available if his advice was needed when Barrow eventually took over the reins of power. Up to that point, Jammeh was getting praises from across Africa and around the world until the second unthinkable happened and he suddenly did a U-turn and announced to the world that he was no longer accepting the result of the elections because, according to him, the result had been tampered with. In short, he said he was no longer handing over to Barrow as planned on January 19 and was calling for a new election to be conducted and supervised by people "with the fear of God." That is the real Jammeh, the proverbial leopard that will never change the colour of his skin and the African president who announced to the world that he had found the cure for HIV/AIDs. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has sent a powerful delegation of his peers to him to appeal to him to abide by the result of the election and vacate office as planned. The appeal, by the time of going to press, has not yielded any good or positive result. ECOWAS has now set up a formal mediating committee to follow up and see to it that Jammeh leaves power. It will be very interesting to see how The Gambia's and Jammeh's situation would end


ECOWAS-leaders-sent-to-mediate-with-The-Gambia’s-President-Yahya-Jammeh.jpg
ECOWAS leaders sent to mediate with The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh

However, while we are waiting for that, it is the opposite of the situation in The Gambia that has taken place in neighbouring Ghana. Ghana has lived up to its expectation and reputation as an African leader and a true "Black Star" of Africa. The incumbent President John Mahama lost to his perennial opponent Nana Akufo-Addo and immediately conceded defeat and has been helping with the transition process. It is in fact ironic that Mahama, who has just lost an election and accepted defeat like Jammeh initially did, was part of the ECOWAS delegation that went to Banjul to appeal to Jammeh to leave office. One would have thought that he would have been encouraged by Mahama's good example. Unfortunately that was not the case. The Ghanaians are lucky to have elected Akufo-Addo as president this time. He had been slugging it out to become president three times before his eventual victory this time. And from indications, he seems to be the right person that Ghana needs now to lead the country. He is a well-exposed person who lived in the United Kingdom in the 1980's. And he is someone with a political pedigree that trumps that of his would-be predecessor in office. He is a son of a former Supreme Court judge and Chief Justice in the country. His father, Edward Akufo-Addo, was sacked as a supreme court judge by President Kwame Nkrumah when he gave a judgement that the founding father and first president of Ghana did not like after a treason trial in which some of the accused were acquitted. In a twist of irony, the same Justice Edward Akufo-Addo that President Nkrumah fired from the Supreme Court eventually became President of Ghana himself (1970-1972) under Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia. So it is this pedigree that the Ghanaian president-elect will be bringing into office. He was someone who grew up in the Nkrumah years. He saw how development was progressing but he didn't like the authoritarian underpinning of that progress, particularly when he saw the way his father was unceremoniously sacked by Nkrumah because he gave a judgement that the president didn't like. Those who know him well and are close to him have said to us at Africa Today that they expect him to rule in a far more intelligent manner than the man Ghana has lost - Mahama. "He knows the world, he has an open mind, and he does not dismiss anything," someone close to him told Africa Today. With Akufo-Addo, Ghana may now have a good chance of turning the corner, turning a new leaf, particularly turning the economy round, because the team he has surrounded himself with has been around in the wilderness, so to say, for eight good years fighting and preparing to capture power and assume leadership. Now they have their turn and chance. It is noteworthy and of strategic importance that the first country he visited after winning was Nigeria where he met with President Buhari. We congratulate the people of Ghana. And praise them for continuing to be Africa's shining example.

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