To be ruled by an illegal military-civilian PNDC regime of drug-takers is one thing. To democratically elect eyes wide open in a regime of drug-takers in a free and fair election is something else. No Muslim, Christian or Traditionalist can justify this in Koranic, biblical or African proverbial terms. And yet almost 50% of Voters on December 7th voted for Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo. The voters were certainly either Christians, Muslims or Traditionalists. Ghana in 2008 may show the world that it is incapable of making a righteous decision as to who should lead it. Democracy requires a new type of African to succeed. Clearly, contrary to Christian, Koranic and Traditionalist teachings, righteousness counts little in Ghana. And yet Christians especially, the most arrogant of all religious groups in Ghana, are forever screaming “He Leads Us in the Paths of Righteousness for His Names Sake”. Since 1966 when the Danquah-Dombo-Tradition led Ghana into unconstitutionality, there was always hope yet that somehow Ghana may recover from the damage to her national psyche of the light of self-determination, the love of unity and the power of progressive development. But after that fateful coup the nation went through one psychological trauma after the other as liberal and conservative forces battled with progressives who sought to restore the dignity and honour of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana. The liberals, having abandoned the love of unity, were encouraged by ethnicity against the leadership of the PNP to combine with the conservatives, lovers of national disunity, again forgetting vital lessons in the post-1966 election when the conservatives ensured that the liberals were denied effective political participation in the 2nd Republic. These liberals threw in their lot with conservatives in the PNDC and wrecked further psychological trauma on the nation as Ghanaians violated the human, civil, political, economic and legal rights of their fellow Ghanaians. The celebrated capacity of Rawlings to spill blood has yet to be properly told. The progressive forces further lost some with their lives as the liberals combined with conservatives within The New Right PNDC illegal Project to later form their respective parties. The liberals formed NDC and the conservatives formed NPP. Both claimed to believe in the Free Market while denying legal existence to CPP at the time. The earlier 1979 intervention of progressive forces from The Ghana Armed Forces’ Free Africa Movement in the successful Armed Rebellion against their conservative Senior Officers who were secretly bent on handing over power to the civilian conservatives did not stop the progressive slide of Ghana. By then they had no progressive plan for political power based on civilian political organisation. But then even if the autocratic leadership of the Liberal-Conservative PNDC took illicit drugs, our consolation from national humiliation was that, at least they were unelected. We did not elect them. We never elected Rawlings, Kufour and PNDC. They besieged us using the very arms we bought them to defend the territorial integrity of the nation. They did not represent us from free and fair elections. They could be said to have taken drugs to drown out the loud voices of their conscience. The nation could not have been accused of deliberately choosing drug-takers as leaders. The liberals went on to combine with the conservatives and sought to destroy the progressive tradition in Ghana which was rooted in the CPP using diverse methods including funding fragmented Nkrumaist parties. The result was that the progressive tradition was further weakened. The progressives thus came to see the liberals as their political enemies. In their political hatred for the liberals, the Kwame Nkrumah Political Family including progressives also made the error of thinking that the conservatives were their friends. The truth was that the Liberal-Conservative Establishment both indigenous and foreign was the enemy of the progressives, who suffered most. And yet the progressives combined with the conservatives in a great alliance to successfully remove the liberals from office. So, when it came to the 2000 election, it was clear to the Liberals that the nation was in no mood to continue to live under liberal free market economic policies that had kept the majority in poverty. But the Liberals could only propose the same liberal free market politics which the people essentially rejected. It was clear however to the liberal leadership that the conservative hold on power could only further destroy the national psyche. But few imagined that 77 parcels of cocaine can simply vanish into thin air. And few still imagined that a drug taker can look us straight in the eye and ask us to elect him the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. These are what has happened. That economic, political and psychological shock which was wrecked on Ghana by the illegal PNDC regime is so deep that the Ghanaian majority cannot bring themselves to give power to an autocratically nominated Swedru Liberal the liberal NDC only rubber-stamps after hounding out any and all opposition. It was first the Tanohs; then the Asamoahs. So Ghana our beloved nation is divided in the political free market over money, ethnicity, personalities and religion. Ghana has no progressive choice and is being forced to choose either a liberal or a conservative both over whom there is no national consensus over. Ghana is unable to decide between two liberal-conservative evils with the same Illegal PNDC origin. But will Ghanaians – Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists amongst others - choose to hand over political power to an alleged drug addict who has failed to show us he has certificates? Ghana thus is today on the verge of being led by a drug addict. To be ruled by an illegal PNDC regime of drug-takers is one thing. To democratically elect a regime of led by a drug-taker in a free and fair election is something else. No Muslim, Christian or Traditionalist can justify this. Ghana our beloved nation is on the verge of losing the respect of Africa and inviting the Wrath of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful, God the Father of all spirits and all our Ewe, Nzema, Ashanti and Dagomba Ancestors. Credit: Kwami Agbodza Note of Writer: Kwami Agbodza is a member of Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP)