GHANA ,GUINEA AND MY FEARS

Today,Ghanians return to the pollS to vote in the run-off of the December 7 Presidential elections,which pitches Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) against John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).Either men will succeed President John Kuffor.Going by the way election observers have hailed the earlier attempt,we are looking forward to a smooth election devoid of the fraud a.k.a wuru-wuru, mago-mago that has become the trade-mark of Nigerian elections.I wish Ghanians well and hoping that Nigeria and her electoral commision will learn some valuable lessons from this experience.

The junta in Guinea is talking tough and consolidating its hold on government.Capt. Moussa Camara has even pledged holding elections in two years time.Guineans are happy.Some African leaders are already embracing him.ECOWAS,AU and some other countries are condeming the coup.The more they talk,Camara bluffs.

Lets not be deceived.Guineans are happy with the junta because they were frustrated with Lansana Conte's government which for 24 years suffocated them down with poverty and oppression.They yearned for fresh air.In stepped Camara.Lansana came into power in 1984 via a military coup.

Camara is only threading a farmiliar path.Sieze power,the whole world will condemn you.You promise to conduct elections in the soonest possible time.The world relaxes its pressure.Two years time you conduct a 'democratic' election with you as the main or only candidate.You win a landslide.We know this song too well.

My fear now is that any group of ambitious military officers might just borrowing a leaf from the Guinean coupist and with ease truncate existing democratic structures.The already misruled,disenchanted,frustrated and hopeless citizenry will definately support such an intrusion.

The only thing I like in the Guinean is that Camara tends to remind me of the late Burkinabe's Thomas Sankara.I sure know that Camara has heard so much about him.I hope he gets to act like Sankara whose humility,dynamism and purposefulness still remain a benchmark in African leadership.