Dr.Nkrumah would have been a capitalist today

Dr Nkrumah would have been a capitalist todayIf Dr. Kwame Nkrumah were alive, he would be a capitalist much to the surprise of many political novices, Dr. Kwesi Aning, Head of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Department of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Accra argues.According to him, Dr. Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister of Ghana who laid the foundations of this country on socialist principles, was a dynamic, intelligent and wise leader who was always in tune with the times and would have employed capitalist tools to build a social welfare State in his efforts to develop a very solid and sound economy.“Dr. Nkrumah was a wise, intelligent and dynamic leader who would employ capitalist tools to build a welfare society if were to be alive. The leadership of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has misunderstood him and this is regrettable,” he declared. Speaking in an interview with the Public Agenda after he delivered an illuminating paper on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Democratic Governance: Best Practices at the Third Daily Graphic Governance Dialogue in Accra last Wednesday, Dr. Aning explained that Dr. Nkrumah moved in tandem with the times and pursuant to his progressive philosophy would have acted in accordance with the exigencies of the time.He said the CPP has failed to grasp the thinking of Nkrumah and many of what they are propagating today are at variance with what Dr. Nkrumah would have done.The highly patronized two-day Governance Dialogue was on the theme “Effective Democratic Governance: The Role of Stakeholders” and brought together governance experts, politicians, academics, media, bankers, civil servants, the security services, students, Minister and MPs and civil society groups. In his paper, Dr Aning stressed that democratic governance is about conflict management and not resolution, and that until recently Africa was known as a continent of conflict where blatant disregard for existing laws and the use of institutional prerogatives for private goals is considered not only as justified but an indicator of power.He however admits that, “there are increasingly positive signs of the ways prudent democratic governance measures, institutional processes and strategies, governance mechanisms are serving as core vehicle for conflict management.”He also notes that democratic governance plays a vital role in preventing violent conflict and that legitimate and democratic state institutions are key conditions favourable to approaching conflict prevention. “Democratic governance programming that is blind to conflict and peace may have negative, though unintended impacts on development, progress and peace.”Dr. Aning stresses that democratic governance depends on the establishment of a national consensus on norms, the enforcement of those norms and values as a legitimizing regime, and the establishment of new institutions principles as a replacement regime if the former values and institutions are inadequate.“Politics is only useful if values, principles are premised on norms. But I doubt whether those who want to lead us have imbibed these values. Parties have failed us and lessons have not been learnt from the past events. There are no democratic values and if even there are, they only remain rhetorical. What happened in places such as Tamale and Ejura-Sekyedumase are ample evidence that our politicians have not imbibed any lessons”. Commenting on the aberrations that have bedeviled the registration exercise, he said the registration of minors and foreigners is undermining the trust we have reposed in our Constitutional leaders. According to him, many African leaders have signed unto many conventions and documents of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which spelt out in clear terms some of these values but they have failed to adhere to them. In his view, “the world does not owe Africa anything but we Africans owe ourselves”.The Security Expert submits that claims by Ghanaians that we are tolerant, religious and peace-loving people and therefore election mishaps may not degenerate into full-blown violence is false in the face of evidence.“When there are bad roads, the politicians buy four-wheel drives, if the public schools are performing poorly, they send their children to private schools, if there are poor hospitals, they go to private hospitals but if elections go wrong, they cannot privatize it and citizens will always fight back,” he observes. He therefore envisages a competent and non-partisan electoral body, an impartial judiciary to adjudicate electoral disputes, a viable media, non-partisan security services, establishment of rules and procedures for the elections, and transparency in the balloting and ballot-counting and declaration of results. Author: Ebenezer Hanson & Nyadudzi Aseye