By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong,Ottawa.
Like the wives United States presidential candidates, the wives of
Ghanaian presidential candidates are front-and-centre in the on-going
electoral campaigns for the December 7 general elections.
They are giving
interviews, speeches, appearing on newspaper covers, television and Web
sites.
This is in contrast to Canada where most of the wives of the
political leaders in the just ended general elections were really seen at campaign trails.
The increasing political activities of the First Ladies of the
presidential candidates are bringing balance to normally patriarchic
playgrounds that do not tout women’s concerns openly.
Current Ghanaian
wives of political leaders are in contrast to the high profile days of
first President Kwame Nkrumah where his Egyptian wife, Fatiah, was more
family backdrop and was really seen in political campaigning.
The spouses of the presidential candidates are enjoying and enriching
Ghana’s democracy so much that even the former First Lady, Nana Konadu
Agyeman Rawlings, wife of former President Jerry Rawlings, perhaps the
most high-flying and driven First Lady Ghana has seen, not wanting to be
left out of the contemporary First Ladies showcase, is on the campaign
trail for the largest opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Ironically, incumbent First Lady, Mrs. Theresa Kufour, wife of President
John Kufour, has not been seen on the campaign trail as Mrs. Rawlings and
other leading wives.
It is amazing to see pictures of Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, wife of the
ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo,
at various Ghanaian Web sites campaigning and dancing the party’s
signature campaign “kangaroo dance.”
At the minority Convention People’s
Party (CPP) oriented web site ghanaianjournal.com, Mrs. Yvonne Nduom, wife
of the CPP flagbearer, Paa Kawsi Nduom, is a regular feature. Like other
wives of the presidential candidates, Mrs. Nduom is occassionally seen
donating food items to various charities, making policy statements, and
seeking votes for her husband and the CPP.
While Mrs. Akufo-Addo, Mrs. Rawlings and Mrs. Nduom are having significant
roles of their husbands’ parties and have had key note roles of their
parties’ conventions; others remain in the background.
Mrs. Naadu
Atta-Mills, a retired educationist and wife of the NDC presidential
candidate John Atta-Mills, is one such wife - she is really seen at
campaign stops. Mrs. Atta-Mills, like Mrs. Edward Mahama, wife of minority
People’s National Congress (PNC), remain primarily as a family backdrop
unlike the beautiful Mrs. Nduom who typically show up at campaign stops
waving and smiling.
None of the First Ladies are standing as parliamentary candidates unlike
Canada where Olivia Chow, wife of the leader of the minority National
Democratic Party, Jack Layton, stood as a parliamentary candidate at the
just ended elections and was re-elected.
While normally wives of vice presidential candidates are really seen in
ads, Web sites, and campaign stops waving and smiling, Mrs. Samira
Bawumia, the lovely and beautiful wife of Mahamadu Bawumia, the running
mate of Nana Akufo-Addo, is an exception.
Mrs. Bawumia is seen gracing
newspaper covers, Web sites and campaigning for her husband’s party.
Marginally, Mrs. Lordina Mahama, wife of the NDC vice presidential
candidate, John Mahama, has shown up at some campaign stops, playing
hardball politics and promising good omen for Ghana if the NDC is elected.
With the trail blazed by Mrs. Rawlings during the almost 20-year-rule by
her husband, wives of presidential candidates have come to be part of
their husbands’ work, complimenting their jobs as advocates for women’s
development in a culture where certain aspects of its values stifle
women’s progress.
In Brong Ahafo, Mrs. Akufo-Addo called on women to vote
for her husband to improve their living conditions, as build-up to the
work of what Mrs. Kufour and her husband have done. Politics aside, Mrs.
Rawlings actually set the women’s development matters rolling in
contemporary Ghana.
Like most wives of presidential candidates elsewhere in the world, nearly
all of the wives of the Ghanaian presidential candidates are well
educated, with higher university degrees. Among others, NPP’s Mrs. Bawumia
has degree in sociology and Mrs. Atta-Mills is educationist. Such
background has made the leading wives discuss Ghanaian women’s issues in
particular and broader Ghanaian development challenges insightfully.
These entirely aside, the tough Ghanaian political campaign make the
December 7, 2008 campaigns still paternalistic and a man’s job. This makes
the leaders’ wives lonely on weekends when their lovely husbands are out
in the campaign trail.
But the loneliness is worth it for the larger
progress of Ghana, especially in opening women’s issues for broader
progress against the backdrop that some aspects of the Ghanaian culture
suppresses women’s development and need to be refined for progress.
Photo: President Kufuor of Ghana signing the Guest Book at Buckingham Palace during his visit to London with his Wife, Theresa Kufuor (first from left) looking on.
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