George Kweifio-okai

Inside Ghana's Democracy George Kweifio-okai

2001 to 2004 was arguably the most turbulent period of competitive democratic politics in Ghana's history. It was the period the author Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh was General Secretary of the largest Opposition Party, the National Democratic Congress. McCarthyist intrigue was directed toward NDC and its predecessor PNDC which had ruled Ghana for 19 of the 44 years of independence, with Flt Lt Rawlings as leader. Rawlings now constitutionally ineligible to stand, the NDC was defeated at the 2000 elections. Remarkably, Western powers so desperate to remove Rawlings, sat back to witness events that could easily have derailed their long cherished dream. Besieged by Government and its agencies, the author also had to contend with the ruthless, ambitious NDC Chairman Dr Obed Asamoah who, after being overlooked for NDC Presidential candidacy post Rawlings, had locked horns with factions even remotely identified with Rawlings. The eve of the 2004 elections saw the author caught in a Sting orchestrated by the Government, whereby a conversation with functionaries was doctored to indicate he would accept favours in exchange for resignation. INSIDE GHANA'S DEMOCRACY is the author's gripping account of that bombshell and Obed's war against the NDC. With undisputed integrity, the author reveals the heart of darkness of Ghana politics, both of ruthless NDC internal machinations as well as the antidemocratic intrigue of the ruling NPP. The book beats a path-blazing genre in Ghanaian political autobiography while painting a captivating cultural landscape of Ghana. It would attract a worldwide audience interested in knowing the trying conditions of democracy in developing countries. And those fascinated with Ghana, a country both careful and careless in self management, but which manages to keep afloat under adversity while her neighbours seem not quite able to achieve similar stability under lesser rancour.