Ghana: Swift Transition to New Leadership

Ghana’s new president has been sworn in just hours after the death of his predecessor John Atta Mills. Elizabeth Ohene, a journalist, and a former government minister in Ghana explains how the country has managed to stay on an even keel throughout the transition.

“It was so smooth it was as though we had practice in it,” Ohene says. “It told me that our democracy must be healthier than some of us had dared hope.”

She adds, “We have decided that we would much rather stick with trying out the constitutional form of government, rather than allow any liberators or saviors to take our destiny in their hands again.”

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Aaron Schacter: On the other side of the continent, citizens of the west African nation of Ghana are mourning the death of their president, John Atta Mills. Mills died yesterday. Just a few hours later his successor, John Mahama, was sworn in as the new leader. Elizabeth Ohene is a Ghanaian journalist and a former government minister. Ohene says in a region where the transfer of power is often accompanied by violence, the smooth handover was welcome.

Elizbeth Ohene: Yesterday after he died, I kind of, after you got over the sadness and all, I felt very proud as a Ghanaian. In the way in which we managed the succession, it was so smooth, it was as though we’d had practice in it. And this is the first time it had ever happened. Okay, it says in the constitution what you should do when a president dies in office. But, it never happened before, and it told me that our democracy must be healthier than some of us had dared hope. It seems to be if we continue on this skill and we are due to have elections in December, once we go through this, we are, with every passing set of elections, we make progress. And I’m currently feeling rather optimistic about Ghana I must say. I think that we will make it.

Schacter: Now, it wasn’t that long ago, just about 30 years, that the leader of Ghana was a coup leader. What do you think accounts for the fact that a mere 30 or so years later, the country is exhibiting this democratic maturity.

Ohene: I think we just had enough, you know? These successive coup d’etats, successive military leaders, each one will come and say they are saving us, they are liberating us from corrupt politicians, from this and that, and they will mess with us. And we found that the soldiers were as equally corrupt, sometimes even more corrupt than the politicians. So I think the people of Ghana just decided that they’d had enough. And don’t get me wrong, the unemployment situation is rough. But, we can see that every year we are making progress and we have decided that we would much rather stick with trying out the constitutional form of government, rather than allow any liberators or saviors to take our destiny in their hands again.

Schacter: Journalist Elizabeth Ohene spoke to us about the death of Ghanaian leader John Atta Mills. Thank you for speaking with us.

Ohene: Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.