Not too long ago, The Ghanaian Observer, a paper to which I enjoyed a brief
but rewarding association as a columnist, started publishing the profiles
and achievements of some important Ghanaian women under the caption
‘Women of Distinction.’ The column, which was written by a lady
journalist, did lively exposés on some popular national characters,
such as former GJA boss and presently member of the council of state,
Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, as well as other relatively ‘unpopular’ but
hardworking women in the regions. There was the revealing and most impressive
work on an educationist in the Volta region, whose travails, as was
reported, were nearly heroic.   

I don’t remember
if the series featured Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of former NDC minister
and Kumbungu MP, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu; but I am almost certain Nana
Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, ex President Rawlings’ sweetheart, was not
featured. In many ways, she is a woman of distinction: First lady for
20 years, president of a good NGO and mother of four lovely children,
including daddy boy Kimathi Rawlings.    

There are women;
and there are women: those who had won before they got their men. In
politics, if you need anything said ask a man; if you need anything
done ask a woman. These were the words of Premier Margaret Thatcher.
And if you look around the world, women are doing a lot these days.
Germany has a woman chancellor, Liberia has a woman president and the
USA may get her first woman president next year, if Mrs Clinton does
better than the charismatic Barack Obama. Britain may have a woman deputy
Prime Minister soon if Labour Party chairman, Hazel Blears, wins the
deputy leadership contest. If she doesn’t, another woman, Harriet
Harman could slip through. And Mrs Sogelene Royal narrowly missed her
chance to become France’s first woman President in a keenly contested
election, only recently.        

Things are
changing for women in many areas of national life that were hitherto,
a male preserve; and they are for the better. So The Point newspaper’s
prediction  Ghanaweb(14/06/07) that NDC flagbearer, Prof Mills,
would choose Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, to partner him as vice president
for the 2008 presidential elections, was refreshing as it was interesting.
If Mills becomes president, Ghana will also taste female power at the
highest level of national decision making. And it is about time.   

So, Betty it
would be, and not Nana Konadu Rawlings or the well-liked former communications
minister, John Dramani Mahama. But who exactly is Betty Mould Iddrisu? 
Fortunately or perhaps most unfortunately, in our kind of politics,
where you don’t need to spend time pruning metaphors and platitudes
to define people, it is not very difficult to attempt a characterisation
of political personages. It becomes even easier when the fellow you
are defining has not written any book. That saves you the trouble of
deciding between what they have written and the principle they really
stand for. And as you know, politicians in our part of the world prefer
writing cheques to books. Well, who will read the books anyway, even
if they bothered to write?  

As a former
lecturer of intellectual property law, Mrs Iddrisu may have written
a thing or two. Well, if she did, we did not see them. Instead, what
we see is gorgeousness and ‘gorgeousity’ made flesh: a smooth, beautiful
and intelligent statement encased in a manicured carapace of liberal
feminism. If you will fall for her beauty, you would be enchanted by
her brains.  She has made her mark as a respected senior civil
servant at the Attorney General’s department, and also belongs to
some important national and international legal think-thanks. A fine
legal brain with a warm demeanour, Betty is at once a good prospect
for any important political office. You are not likely to find a lot
of skeletons, even if you are able to spot cobwebs in her cupboard. 

Usually, women
who make it to the top are the fiery feminism fanatics, or so we have
always wanted them to appear. On the political plane, Margaret Thatcher
was a woman not made for turning, as one of her speeches went: The lady
is not for turning, but at home, she turned around very much for Dennis
Thatcher, her husband, who was dubbed the buffoon by the British media.
So, less than two months after her defeat in the French presidential
elections, Sogelene Royal has dumped her partner, Monsieur Hollande.
But Betty is not a fiery feminist; she is a toned version of triumphant
feminism: assertive but feminine enough to be moulded by a man. 

But, why Betty,
does Mills really believe in her or she is the Prof’s last resort?
A painter can only succeed in depicting a type of beauty which he has
loved in a real human being. If he doesn’t see absolute beauty is
an object, he cannot paint a beautiful picture; he would end up making
a caricature of a cartoon.  It is also true in politics: if a political
partnership in not based on admiration or talent, but on pure strategy
or expediency, it fails. If it doesn’t fail, it stinks like putrid.
That is exactly what happened to the relationship between Rawlings and
veep Arkaah.  He was kicked in the groin and his jacket was torn
with a punch. He did not believe in him, needless to say.   He
wouldn’t have had him for a vice, if he had the choice.   

In many ways,
the vice president portfolio is an important thing. A vice president
is as good as the president: They are usually presidents in waiting,
and the office is supposed to prepare them to take over when the president
finishes his term. It means that, the qualities we look for in a president
must be present in the vice. Is it about time we voted to select our
vice presidents at party elections, the same way we campaign for flagbearership
positions, as the people of Britain are doing presently? The office
of the vice president, we must understand, is not a ceremonial obligation;
it is an important political function. The vice should not necessarily
be the president’s idea; s/he must be the party’s idea. It would
be refreshing to see any of our presidential hopefuls for 2008 submit
their vice presidential candidates to congress for a decision. Well,
it will take us another century to think about this luxury.         

Seven years
ago, candidate Mills tested the presidential waters with Mr Martin Amidu
as vice president. They lost to Kufour and vice president Aliu Mahama. 
In 2004, Prof Mills’ vice was Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, when they lost
again to Kufour.  In 2008, the NDC flagbearer would settle, hopefully,
for Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of a political dinosaur. Do we see a typical
trend in these appointments? Have we lost the plot somewhere?  

Not that I
want to revisit an old unspeakable problem; but it is got to be said
somehow. Are we about accepting that a politician has a winnable formula
only if he selects an assistant from the northern part of Ghana? In
1992, Prof. Adu Boahen chose Alhaji Roland Alhassan, as his vice. Mr
Kow Nkensen Arkaah was Kufour’s vice in 1996, because of the great
alliance, which gave the NPP no other choice for a running mate. When
he became president, J.A Kufour hid under regional balance to reward
rich-man-party financier Aliu Mahama with the vice president position.
With the NNP flagbeareship elections scheduled to hold soon, talk is
going on that many of the candidates are looking north for a political
master plan. At least, it was almost meant to happen that Mr Dan Botwe
would have settled on Hawa Yakubu, or so it seemed.                                                  

Well, Betty
is not from the north; she hails from Ejuratia, Ashanti region, and
she speaks fluent fante. But her husband Hon. Mahama Iddrisu is a northner.
So Betty’s northern side, apart from her rather impressive personal
and professional qualities, may have appealed to the NDC flagbearer. 
If it wasn’t going to be Betty, it would have been the Bole Bamboi
MP, fine boy John Mahama: a gold in triplicate, anyhow you look at him.
Of course, not pure gold; but a very likable person, who will not disappoint
any day, because he is a treasure everyday.  He would have done
the Prof. a lot of good. He is the only NDC face who can pull votes
from NPP strongholds. If it is strategic to look north for running mates,
then we must look north for presidents, too. President Aliu Mahama?
Or we could turn to Odumase for Boakye Agyarko.            

But for now,
we would trust a professor’s instincts. Those I have spoken to, who
know Betty’s sort very well, wonder if the spotless beauty will accept
the honour. The reasons have been that, it is most unlikely Mills would
win the 2008 presidential elections, even if the votes are counted in
the Akosombo darkness. It would only be an act of political buffoonery
for any person to be partner, decidedly, to such an unpromising prospect.
Besides, she has never been desperate for political honours, the ‘civil
servant-lawyer-academic’ that she is. She seems to be pretty content
with what she is doing with the Commonwealth Secretariat presently.                                     

Friends of
the lawyer also reckon she is not the type made for the insult-peddling
poetry that African politicians have come to accept. She cares about
her image and her lavishly toned skin; she would not have time explaining
why her skin looks Jacuzzi pampered, or why her hair styles have changed
rapidly over time. And if the Prof chose her over John Mahama, because
the latter lacks the power and the no-nonsense uncivil tongue to trade
in invectives, then he has made a terrible mistake in Betty. For, that
is exactly what Betty Mould Iddrisu is not.  Tony Aidoo may be
a better Veep.         

The NDC is
not bound to lose the 2008 elections. And it is simply because the NPP
is not bound to win. An NPP presidential hopeful, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
has acknowledged this reality. Kufour’s 2004 victory (52%) over Mills,
was not a landslide; it was an uncomfortable win, and the discomfort
is showing through the number of gentlemen vying for the party’s flagbearership
position.  Nothing is certain in 2008; what is certain is that,
Mills will be a veritable political debit if he loses again;
that would banish the Prof and his vice from the politics of Ghana for
good. 

What if Prof
Mills wins? It will be a very deserving win, because the Prof has fought
hard over the years, and he hasn’t won because Ghanaians are not sure
of his party; not his person.  For, he looks very capable for the
office, and he could win this time if voters decide that the NPP has
done a bad job with the electricity situation. And if he wins, we would
be happy to smile to a woman vice president. But, he would not win. 

The feminist
that I am (in Ama Atta Aidoo’s definition), I would be happy to see
a woman vice president. In fact, I am looking forward to when we would
have a woman president in Ghana. May be, that is what will save a continent
that has been going back in development over the past forty years, in
the words of Tony Blair.   

God created
women out of men; and he created men out of nothing. It seems the nothingness
is showing through men; that is why we have nothing. Let’s try women.