What’s the situation of Tain that gave us a President?

A BRIDGE OVER RIVER TAIN

Lest we forget who gave Ghana the third President of the Fourth Republic! Fact: Tain crowned Professor Evans Atta Mills as President of Ghana. So therefore what happens to Tain happens to us all. We should never forget the Tain Constituency. Meanwhile, a bridge over River Tain gives the constituency the appearance of a large zit on the nose of the Mills administration.


Here is a short trip down memory lane. Once upon a time in recent years, when Ketu, Keta, Bantama, Manhyia, Weija and the other beloved “World Banks” and “strongholds” of the NPP and NDC could not deliver a President in the double-run 2008 elections, a little known constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, 40 miles in the neighbourhood of Wenchi came into the limelight. Never in Ghana’s history has any one constituency held the highest stake in deciding on our presidency.


The only other parallel is Broward County in the USA which became the decider for George Walker Bush as its 43rd President after a highly-contested election that seemed to lean toward former Vice President and climate change advocate, Al Gore.


So on December 30th, 2008, the then candidate Professor Atta Mills and the able former Flight Lieutenant and President Jerry John Rawlings rushed to the Tain Constituency as the last battle-field in the canvassing of votes. With that, Ghana celebrated the New Year with a run-off presidential election on January 2, 2009. For four full days, Tain was under siege. A modern-day election war was staged on the grounds of the land around the Tain River in response to Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s pronouncement that Tain will be the vote clincher since the December 28 Presidential run-off results indicated a tie. Immediately, all political roads led to Tain to resolve the statistical dead-heat of an election for the presidency.


King- (and queen-) makers are special people. They must be because they are princes and princesses. So to tread the path of the many who stampeded the Tain Constituency soon after the announcement, I decided to drive through this historic constituency with the same speed as the vote-grabbers. I had the urge to retrace the steps of the politicians. I went in wondering to see if the constituency looks and feels like a place of princes and princesses of Ghana.


Here is what I saw. Truly, the constituency is a sleepy farming community with people who are predominantly farmers, said to cultivate mostly food crops, especially maize and yams. At Tainso, heading toward the constituency capital of Nsawkaw through Yabraso and Attakrom on a bridge over River Tain, I wondered what promises were made to these folks to have informed the casting of their precious votes.


On a perfectly good road is a god-forsaken bridge. As seen in the photograph on this page, the bridge is made of wooden planks, unevenly arranged. At best, the planks give the bridge a look of a weak set of teeth with some rotten and others about to fall out. The bridge is so narrow that only one vehicle can drive on it at a time. Clearly, the bridge is crying for repairs, no – the bridge is demanding reconstruction. That bridge must not be the lot of the king/queen-makers of Ghana’s presidency. It is unthinkable to imagine that the numerous modern-day metal-rimmed horses, the quintessential four-wheel drive vehicles with shiny horns, stampeded over this bridge to get to voters. Those vehicles might have caused further damage to that bridge. Now that the election has been over for one year and two months, at the least, the bridge must be repaired for the people of Tain. River Tain needs some respect.


The King-makers of Ghana election 2008 are due to be thanked. From what I witnessed during my drive-through of the Tain Constituency a week ago, I pray that these noble people have not just been left to honker down and hold their hands together to sing kumbaya far into the 2012 elections.


That every election season, towns and villages scattered throughout the armpits of Ghana become destinations of choice to vote-seeking candidates is an undisputable fact. But in Ghana’s political history, no other place have been the target of the heaviest treading in the shortest time span like the then unknown tranquil constituency of Tain.


Easter symbolizes the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ and the redemption of man. If creation is crying for redemption, then without a doubt, Ghana needs redemption too. Tain is crying for redemption too! The streets of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and rural areas display a parade of idle youth who are unemployed, under-employed or unemployable. Our teeming youth are therefore fair game for anyone to use them – for drugs, crime and all.


Enduring questions: What’s the situation with the youth of Tain? To what extent were they used during the elections? How many of the youth of Tain were foot soldiers during the high-drama 2008 elections? What were their expectations for their lives regardless of whoever won? When would those expectations be fulfilled? And if their expectations are not fulfilled, what options are available to them? What are the prospects for their lives five to ten years from now?


How many of the youth of Tain are roaming the streets of Accra, Sunyani and Kumasi selling whatever they can lay hands on? How many are operating as Area Boys in their home-towns, idle and hoping for redemption?


Have NDC foot soldiers of Tain Constituency taken matters into their own youthful hands and seized toilets in their neck of the wood? Are they also experiencing a sense of hopelessness? How many of them have been lucky enough to grab some of the estimated one million and six hundred jobs that the government has bragged for creating? Yes, what’s the matter with the youth of Tain?


Tain is the microcosm of Ghana. The government has declared this year as the year of the youth. One would expect and hope that the test of the success or failure of the Mills administration would be measured by the improvement or non-improvement of the human condition of Tain. How come that since the elections, not much has been heard of Tain? Has Tain been forgotten so soon? Was it just a pawn in our democracy, raped, used and abused just for votes and then we moved on?


At least, Tain should deserve something, a pay-back or thank-you of some sort for the inconvenience and trampling and pressure and excessive attention it suffered to give us a president. If Tain has been a human being, it would still be suffering from a deep depression and would need extensive professional counselling to recover.


So what would be the lot of Tain by 2012? Would it be the same story as pre-2008? Would anything change? Tain must smile. Tain must laugh. Tain must experience joy. Tain must see development. If no constituency in Ghana experience development by 2012, at least the human condition of the people of Tain must improve.