Ghana has gone through its voting phase successfully and maintained its title as the doorway to democracy in Africa.
Although it took longer than expected for the Electoral Commission to finally be able to announce the certified Presidential results, Ghanaians kept the peace and waited patiently for the EC’s declaration.
By 06:15pm yesterday, the EC had declared sitting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party as the president-elect and immediately, ‘soloku’ mood was activated in town.
All NPP headquarters around the country were in massive jubilation spirits even though most of them claimed that they already knew the results of the election and that the wild party mood in town was not even the genesis of their celebration.
From the NPP Headquarters in Asylum Down, party members and supporters danced and sang, while others threw cash and blew their vuvuzelas. All amidst this, there were still patrol teams keeping watch and making sure that everywhere and everyone remained peaceful. People danced from the party headquarters to the President’s residence in Nima to join the jubilation there and back.
As if the roads being choked with people dancing in jubilation was not enough, cars and motors drove at full speed where there was no traffic, with their NPP flags suspended high in the air and loud speakers playing the campaign songs of the winning party. Places that had regular traffic were even more choked and the streets of Accra were literally submerged in the red, white and blue colors of the elephant.
Now, barely 24hours after the declaration of the results and all the jubilation, scenes from town do not even look like people have a win to celebrate. Although a few party flags still hang on people’s driving mirrors, traffic conditions have gone back to normal, no loud music is being played around town and only a few people are still spotted wearing their NPP branded shirts.
Has this been our normal way of celebrating election wins over the years or did the mood die down fast this year? If it did die fast, could it be because there has been no change hence, it feels to Ghanaians like it’s just one president continuing his allocated term in presidency? What is your take?
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye