Friday, November 25, 2011

The President’s Peace Council is classic machismo

Certain stories just hit you and make you exclaim – W-H-A-T!! Last Thursday, November 10, one news story that got my full attention to which I exclaimed a double W-H-A-T!! W-H-A-T!! was the inauguration of the newly constituted Board of the National Peace Council by his very truly Excellency President John Evans Atta-Mills.

To quote the GNA source, the Council has legal backing, with a mandate ‘to use the law to protect national peace and deal with elements that had the tendency to destroy society or foment trouble.’ What a noble mandate considering the fact that Ghana is warming up for the 2012 Crude Oil Election.
But, there is one big problem with the composition of this august body. The membership is machismo with an assumption that peace is only a product of hard, tough masculine power with no recognition of the dexpth, usefulness and pricelessness of soft feminine power.

Of the thirteen-member Council, there is one (lonely?) female – 7.7 per cent. By the simplest arithmetic, this means that there are twelve men, constituting the remaining 92.3 per cent – against the obvious backdrop of the 51 plus percentage female population. This is odd. This act makes the Mills Peace Council one of the leading male clubs in Ghana, with one single woman to add a touch of lipstick.
With this appointment, the President has taken the art of female tokenism to an impressive but troubling height. He has even boldly outdone himself in the failed 2008 campaign promise of appointing 40 or so per cent females into his administration. Granted that he couldn’t find that ideal number from the only pot he stirred – the NDC pool, because he, most probably unintentionally, forgot the ‘Father for all’ intention.

If you missed this news item last week, here is the composition of the Council, the national architecture for peace. The list comprises of the who-is-who of Christian and Muslim holiness in Ghana. The message is clear: religious leaders, specifically of the manly order, hold the key to whipping up peace.
The list constitutes the folks who have the responsibility to calm us down, talk us out of foolishness and ultimately, speak PEACE to Ghana if God forbid (Tofiakwa!), we the people, with strong motivation from our politicians, decide to behave basabasa chakachaka sakasaka in the next election cycle. Meet them.

The Board comprises of five title-wielding leaders from Christendom (38.46 per cent). It is chaired by the Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana. The other Christian leadership members are: Apostle Dr Opoku Onyinah, President of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, the Most Rev. Dr Joseph Osei-Bonsu, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and Rev. Gideon Titi-Ofei, General Secretary of the National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches and Rev. Dr Nii Amoo Darko, Counsellor and member of the Council of State.
There are three Muslim leaders (23 per cent). They are Maulvi Dr Wahab Adam, Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Sheikh Mahmoud Gedel and Alhaji Adam Abubakar, representing the Office of the National Chief Imam.

Beyond the heavy religious representation comes a medley of members. There is one representative (7.7 per cent) from our Chieftaincy institution – the institution that holds the very soul of our culture and the essence of who we are as a people. The Nananom’s sole representative is Nana Susubribi Krobea Asante, representative of the National House of Chiefs.
And then, there is Nii Otokunor Sampah, elder of the Afrikania Mission, an institution that is probably an amalgamation of religion and culture – of some not-so-well-defined sort. One person who has ‘peace building’ in his curriculum vitae made it onto the list. He is Shaibu Abubakar, chairman of the Ghana Network for Peace Building. There is a Mumuni Abudu Seidu, an educationist.

To top it all up with a fine touch of lipstick – almost an afterthought, there is one Mrs Florence Mangwe, a human resource consultant. That is the point at which I can’t help but exclaim – W-H-A-T!! W-H-A-T!!
My President’s Patriarchal lenses:

In the matter of identifying and selecting Ghanaians who have what it takes to speak peace to our country, our President has betrayed his deep-seated patriarchal posture. Patriarchy literally means rule by fathers – the patriarchs. Was the President unable to find women who fit into his definition of peace makers? Anyone who selects 13 out of the 24 million plus Ghanaians and zooms in on only one woman must undoubtedly be wearing thick patriarchal lenses.
Where are the “Old Wise Women” of our country, the ones who interject and inject peace into the very fabric of our national life throughout our many jagged domestic fronts? I’ve watched my mother Beatrice Ansah Israel of Obosomase age and grow to become a peace-maker extraordinaire. On the surface, women might not look like much because after all, they operate in the domestic space where their leadership is not visible, valued, recognized and acknowledged as tangible and important.

But in our neighbourhood Liberia, it was women who won the peace after men had staged two brutal civil wars – back-to-back, for 13 years. Ordinary women did extraordinary things. Using soft power, they staged demonstrations, sit-ins, prayer crusades and demanded that enough was enough, and that the men (yes, men!) should stop fighting. At the final point, the women threatened to strip naked if the men did not stop the war and make peace. At the mention of displaying grown women nakedness, sense returned, and with sense, peace began to flow like a river.
The way forward:
So what? The gender composition of the National Peace Council must be revisited. Since I’m not the type of person who would for any reason pour sand into the fine garri of any of the 12 men, I suggest that the membership should be increased to – say, 20. This means that seven proven wise women should be selected and added to the current 13. With that, the gender composition will come up to eight (40 per cent) women and twelve (60 per cent) men. Tolerable!

Such a change will constitute a gender shift from using a patriarchal lens to applying a gendered lens – a lens that acknowledges that women also matter in Ghana, that women are not just limited to the domestic front – where they cook and clean, and then clean and cook some more.
Dear reader, if we allow this matter to slide, like many other things in our society are left to slide, the enduring message for both girls and boys would be that the female is not of substance beyond the domestic space – if at all.

Grand Plans for a reincarnated woman:
My state of shock over the macho make-up of the Mills Peace Council has caused me to look beyond this life-time if (when?) I reincarnate. Although I’ll still persuade my maker to send me back to Ghana as a female, I’ll plead to come in a form that will get me closely in touch with my masculine side. I’m thinking of reincarnating with a beard and a deep voice to confuse people about my gender.

But I want to remain a pint-sized woman who loves high-heeled shoes without any apologies whatsoever! In my new and improved state, I and other ‘improved’ women may then be taken more seriously in Ghana our Motherland and Fatherland!