It was the idealism of the founding fathers of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, that brought to reality the idea that African nations would one day become independent and be able to govern themselves. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of political independence,” Said the Osagyefo. Although in between things got bloody messy – with Nkrumah’s failed presidency and the ensuing chaos that lasted until Rawlings brought some semblance of calm and then handed over to the largely successful Kufuor – Ghana has re-emerged to be one of the few countries in Africa with  a functional pluralist liberal democracy.

With the elections over this past weekend, it seems likely that the incumbent party’s Akufo-Addo will win with more than 50% to obviate the need for a run-off. Regardless of the outcome, Ghana’s election was impressive, coming after the madness that marked the Nigerian, Kenyan and Zimbabwean elections. I am still not too happy with Ghana for its dismal performance on the modernizatin front. But I am happy that I am watching news which show that an African country held peaceful and fair elections and that there is no specter of violence and chaos as the country awaits the final results.

I hope that with the scheduled production of oil in the next few months Ghana will embark on a serious development plan to make it not just an exporter of cocoa but an industrialised nation in its own right.

And may this be a lesson to crazies who run elections in places like Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

ps: why are we being held hostage by Kivuitu and his gang? This is a group of men and women whose incompetence nearly plunged our country into civil war. If anything they deserve to be charged with gross negligence and slapped with heavy fines.