The 2012 presidential candidate of Ghana's largest opposition, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo delivered this year's Oppenheimer Lecture a fortnight ago at the International Institute of Strategic Studies - IISS, on a broad topic of "The future of Africa's democracy and the Arab spring". In his usually erudite manner, he presented his views on the future of a democratic Africa embracing the North African nations that have for decades dreamt of democracy but have only recently seen parches of it in elections held in Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab spring. He submitted that the democratic path is one that today's Africa, in all confidence, has embraced as the ideal path towards development, one on which hinges the market system which he defends strongly and promotes as workable for developing countries. He touched on the need for credible leadership for Africa to create new opportunities for growth to achieve the social and economic aspirations of the people. He recounted the sad suicide case of Mohamed Boazizi of Tunisia to underscore the desperation that can persist in a system where freedom has become an expensive commodity often purchased with blood, with the backdrop of acute poverty and deprivation. It is his firm belief, that the era of the 'African strong man' has long passed, and where such men attempt to subvert the democratic will of the people expressed through the ballot, it behoves on the leaders of the continent, through the African Union, to act in concert and speak with a unified voice to condemn such adventurers. Touching on the African Union specifically, he advocated for a new paradigm and an institutional reconstruction of the African Union to become a regional force with bite. To quote him at length, he states: "The impotence of the AU in the face of the crisis that erupted in Libya and Cote d'Ivoire leaves much to be desired. A new African security architecture has to be urgently rebuilt. To that end, I believe that the AU must move away from automatic membership earned by geography and insist on strict adherence on membership eligibility based on certain fundamental democratic principles." He added, "AU members should demonstrate a commitment to strengthening and protecting the institutions and culture of democratic governance........" This might seem a very radical and gargantuan task, given the lack of political agreement among African governments that have brought us (Africa) this low in international affairs. Yet they are ideals previously expressed by the 'new' AU but never seen the light of day, for example their resolutions to expel countries taken over by military or unconstitutional regimes. As a reformist minded statesman, this task, were he to lead it as the elected leader of Ghana and not the mere opposition leader would be made much easier by adopting an incremental approach, starting with the sub regional grouping of ECOWAS of which Ghana is a founding member. The Anglo-Franco African divide is one that has always produced needless friction that defeats even the most noble ideas and objectives. That divide was played out most recently at the African Union summit in the Equatorial Guinea where the members failed to agree on who should lead the AU commission. It is my belief that such laudable and radical institutional reforms could be implemented with greater success at the sub regional level. Even if faced with opposition or a rift that leads to rupture of the grouping, it should be welcome so long as the 'progressive nations of good' gather on one side and work together to achieve admirable results that draws in others. West Africa for example has experienced the most military interventions that have stagnated development, with Ghana and Nigeria leading the pack, albeit of distant memory. Memories of the horrific civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone have recently been awakened by the intransigence of incumbency played out in the Ivorian strife. Ghana can continue to shine the light to the rest of Africa, not by merely holding periodic elections and claiming to have a free press, but by continuing to lift the mass of her people out of poverty and beat the MDG targets. The time has come where the nation’s wealth is seen to be put to the most productive use that plugs the hole into which some of today's youth appear to be falling. They say the devil finds work for idle hands, and the mass production of unskilled, semi-literate JHS graduates who cannot be absorbed by neither the increasingly specialised industrial sector nor the fast declining labour intensive ones should be sounding loud alarm bells to policy makers. And it is in that vein that the New Patriotic Party's policy of free higher education should be welcomed. I would prefer to view the promise as a specific policy aimed at shifting the termination point in our educational system to 18 years minimum, just what the Anamuah-Mensah Committee had envisaged. The 4 year SHS is/was only a policy to help achieve that, also based on what I understand to be advice from the National Development Planning Commission. The corresponding capital expenditures required to make possible the NPP pledge is one capable of expanding the economy, with its positive externalities including job creation, matters best left to professional economists. (I still think the valid questions of IMANI Ghana will be best answered when a policy paper is presented ahead of the party's manifesto launch). The one issue I would have entreated his further comment - but never got the opportunity - is on what the role of the African diaspora in contributing to and sustaining the new democracies on the continent should be. To be more specific, what are his views on Ghana setting another benchmark by allowing her citizens abroad to vote in elections, or at least allowing them to register for participation? Is it ‘ok’ for our government to exclude her nationals abroad by refusing to implement the Representation Of The People (Amendment) Act 2006? There were 227,956 Ghanaians arriving at the Kotoka International Airport in 2010 (GIS Annual Report) with an estimated 40,000 Ghanaians travelling home for Christmas between Nov-Dec. As things stand, anyone willing to exercise their civic right by voting in the December elections would have to expend no less than £1000 on airline tickets to Accra this March-May registration period. Needless! How about a potential £20,000,000 extra inward remittances into the economy from those Ghanaians for some productive projects or family support, assuming half of those arrivals are Ghanaians domiciled outside of Ghana? Or rather the Ghanaian prison population has become a more important electoral constituency than 'Papa Samo'? I can only wonder.