When President Obama said, during a speech he gave when he visited Ghana, that what Africa needed were strong institutions, not strongmen, he got the loud approval of his gathered audience - consisting mainly of members of Ghana's ruling elites.
Ghanaian democracy has now reached a stage where the nation's institutions are working (after a fashion!) - and civil society is ensuring that the rule of law prevails.
Today, aggrieved Ghanaians are quick to take even the government to court, if they feel that their rights have been infringed upon, in any way.
The buga-buga strong-arm tactics of the Rawlings-era Osu Castle security crowd, for example, would land their Mills-era colleagues in the law courts instantly, if they repeated same today. So "softly-softly go-catch-monkey" is the name of the game, for them today.
It is quite clear that former President Rawlings has, unfortunately, not yet understood that bald fact of life, about the Ghana of today. In that sense he still lives in the past - when if he woke up on the wrong side of his pillow, a hotel belonging to a businessperson deemed to be funding the opposition, could be bulldozed to the ground, in a matter of a few hours: to teach that stubborn-cat who owned it, a lesson or two.
However, in contrast, President Mills, being a lawyer, understands perfectly that that governance-style is out of question for him - as his powers are prescribed by limits placed on it by constitutional edicts.
Like President Rawlings, I too want all the Kufuor-era crooks investigated, prosecuted and jailed for their many crimes against Mother Ghana. I am pretty sure President Mills too would concur to that.
However, unlike President Rawlings, on a purely human level, I do not want them persecuted in the interim - simply because I feel frustrated by the unpleasant fact that they have been so successful in covering their tracks and apparently outwitting the authorities, thus far. And I am sure that that is exactly how President Mills feels about the situation too.
Indeed, it is most likely that no amount of investigations will uncover the unimaginable wealth salted away in the many offshore entities the crooks of yesteryear set up specifically to hide the proceeds of their egregious corruption.
Perhaps one ought to point out an incidence from the past to President Rawlings, by way of illustration, to show him how democracy has now taken root in the Ghana of today - and how it demands that those who lead the country, proceed with caution, at all material times: if they do not want egg on their collective face.
Perhaps the question one must pose to President Rawlings, in order to get him thinking about the new realities of life in today's Ghana, is: has it ever occurred to him that they would be in very serious trouble, if President Mills' bodyguards were to follow the example of his bodyguards - who once upon a time during his tenure as president, crossed a taxi to bring it to a screeching halt: got out of their vehicles and proceeded to overturn it, apparently because the driver had somehow shown some form of disrespect to Rawlings?
With respect, for the information of President Rawlings, were that outrage to occur today, that taxi driver would be in the law courts in a flash - with his lawyers demanding a hefty sum as compensation for the abuse of his fundamental human rights: and the sanctioning of those bodyguards too, by the security agency chiefs.
Today, listening to the parliament of the airwaves that FM radio station phone-in current affairs discussion programmes represent, it is obvious that democracy is seen by many ordinary Ghanaians, not just as being about institutions of state, but also a way of life based on tolerance. It is a useful life-lesson President Rawlings will do well to learn from the ordinary people of Ghana, who are ahead of him in the curve on that one, so to speak - and perhaps adopt as a personal philosophy that guides his words and actions, henceforth. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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