NELSON INSTITUTE DIRECTOR CALLS ATTENTION TO GHANA’S CRITICAL MOMENT

January 2, 2009

HARRISONBURG— Today in a commentary for National Interest online, the web edition of the foreign policy journal The National Interest, Dr. J. Peter Pham, Director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University, focuses on the final voting in the tight run-off election to succeed Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor, whose term of office expires next week .

Noting the West African country’s sustained economic growth, what up to now have been its democratic politics, and its contributions to regional and international peacekeeping, Dr. Pham expressed concerns that “ may well be critically undermined before this weekend is over” if the two candidates, former attorney-general and foreign minister Nana Akufo-Addo of the governing New Patriotic Party and former vice president John Atta-Mills of the National Democratic Congress, do not exercise restraint, their partisans unleashing “a repeat of the sort of violence that followed Kenya’s contested election results this time last year.” According to Dr. Pham:

 Anything but a peaceful and lawful transition would not only be a tragedy for Ghana, but also a challenge for the international community. With Ghana’s three immediate neighbors to the west—Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—barely recovering from civil wars; the next country over, Guinea, just coming to terms with the death of its longtime despot last week and a subsequent military takeover; and Nigeria struggling to cope with continued violence in its oil-rich Delta region, the last thing west Africa needs is another failed state. Having one of its rare successes go bad would be a significant blow to Africa—and certainly would not be in the interests of the United States to have one of its most important diplomatic, economic and security partners on an increasingly strategic continent simply descend into chaos.

If there is ever a time, in America’s national interests as well as in conformity with her ideals, for President Bush to redeem some of the capital he has built up from his administration’s extensive engagement with Africa and/or for President-elect Barack Obama to make use of his extraordinary popularity among Africans (both contenders featured Obama’s image on their campaign posters), it is now, as Ghana dangles at the edge of the precipice and its leaders seem in need of a reminder about what will happen if they lose their balance. Ultimately, however, it will be the decisions made in the next hours and days by Ghanaians—including the lame duck President Kufuor, whose very legacy is at stake—which will determine whether the country which led Africa down the path of independence half a century ago continues to blaze a trail for others by demonstrating the benefits of peaceful democratic politics and vibrant free markets, or whether Africa’s showpiece is exposed as really a Potemkin village.

The full text of Dr. Pham’s commentary, “Besieged in Accra,” can be accessed by clicking here.