Accra – Until his recent election as President of Ghana, President Nana Akufo Ado made three unsuccessful attempts at attaining state power.
Charles Walker Brumskine, the political leader of the opposition Liberty Party in Liberia will be hoping that his third time is the charm when Liberians head to the polls in October.
On Tuesday, Cllr. Brumskine en route to a business trip in Europe stopped in Accra where he paid a courtesy call on long-time friend.
Aides have been mum on what was discussed between the two but a spokeswoman for the Liberty Party leader describe the meeting as warm and mutual.
“Cllr. Brumskine visit with President nana while on a stopover in Accra shows the level of warm and cordial brotherly relationship between the President and the cllr.
And we are confident that will continue upon cllr. Brumskine election as President of liberia.” A spokeswoman said.
The pair have been acquaintances since 2003 when they met as young budding politicians during the Accra Peace Talks.
As Foreign Minister, Mr. Ado was involved in the successful Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peace efforts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Guinea Bissau, and was chairman of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council in 2003.
Like Cllr. Brumskine, Akufo-Addo is also a lawyer. He has practiced in France and New York. Addo returned to Accra in 1975 to continue his legal career and co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co.
Prior to his election, Addo has been involved in championing the causes of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy. He was well known for giving free legal assistance to the poor and fought for the rights and liberties of the Ghanaian people.
Indeed, many of the important constitutional cases of the modern era, which, inter alia, protected the independence of the judiciary, the right of the citizen to demonstrate without Police permit, and the right of equal access of all political parties to the State-owned media, were undertaken by him. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant advocates in the history of the Ghanaian Bar.
“Cllr. Brumskine’s visit with President Nana Akufo Ado while on a stopover in Accra shows the level of warm and cordial brotherly relationship between the President and the Counselor and we are confident that will continue upon Cllr. Brumskine’s election as President of Liberia” – A Spokeswoman
As a member of the opposition, Ado in 1995, led the famous “Kume Preko” demonstrations of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a broad-based political pressure group, which mobilised millions of people onto the streets of Ghana to protest the harsh economic conditions of the Rawlings era.
In October 1998, Nana Akufo-Addo competed for the Presidential candidacy of the NPP and lost to John Kufuor, the man who eventually won the December 2000 Presidential election and assumed office as President of Ghana in January 2001.
Akufo-Addo was the chief campaigner for candidate Kufuor in the 2000 election and became the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Kufuor era.
Akufo-Addo resigned from the Kufuor government in July 2007 to contest for the position of Presidential candidate of his party, the NPP, for the 2008 elections.
Competing against 16 others, he won 48% of the votes in the first round of that election, but was given a unanimous endorsement in the second round, making him the party’s Presidential candidate.
In the December 7, 2008 Presidential race, he received, in the first round, more votes than John Atta Mills, the eventual winner.
In the first round, Akufo-Addo received 4,159,439 votes, representing 49.13% of the votes cast, placing him first, but not enough for the 50% needed for an outright victory.
It was the best-ever performance for a first-time Presidential candidate in the Fourth Republic.
In the run-off, Mills received 4,521,032 votes, representing 50.23%, thus beating Akufo-Addo by the smallest margin in Ghana’s, and, indeed, in Africa’s political history.
Akufo-Addo accepted the results without calling even for a recount, thereby helping to preserve the peace, freedom and stability of Ghana.
Akufo-Addo again contested in the 2012 national elections against the NDC candidate, the late Mills’ successor as President, John Mahama, and lost.
That election generated considerable controversy, and was finally decided by the Supreme Court in a narrow 5/4 decision in favour of John Mahama.
In March 2014, Akufo-Addo announced his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the third time ahead of the 2016 election.
He secured an unprecedented, landslide victory of 94.35% of the votes in the party’s Presidential primary in October 2014, in a contest with seven competitors.
Akufo-Addo also served as Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the South African elections in 2014.
He was elected President of Ghana in the December 7 elections, after obtaining 53.85% of the total valid votes cast, as announced by the Electoral Commission.
In contrast, Cllr. Brumskine is making his third quest for the Liberian presidency.
When Taylor became President in 1997, Brumskine served as President Pro Temp of the Senate.
The pair fell apart in 1999 forcing Brumskine to flee the country after being threatened by Taylor’s supporters.
He returned to Liberia in 2003 with plans to run in the scheduled 2003 Presidential election.
However, Taylor’s resignation that year and the installment of a two-year transitional government led to the elections being cancelled.
In 2004, Brumskine campaigned for the Presidency as a member of the Liberty Party, pledging to reconcile the country after years of civil war. He received nearly 14% of the vote, 6% less than the second-place candidate, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, forcing him out of the runoff.
Brumskine contested the 2011 elections, but failed to match his performance in 2015, finishing a distant fourth with only five percent of the vote.
This time around, the party appears confident of a much better performance following the recent selection of Harrison Karnwea, former head of the Forestry Development Authority as Brumskine’s running mate although concerns over the impact of the Code of Conduct on Mr. Karnwea and several others could threaten that ticket.
For now, Brumskine and other leading contenders are making regional plays in hopes of solidifying their standings in the West African sub-region.
Quite recently, Alexander Cummings of the opposition Alternative National Congress met with Ivorian President Alhassan Ouattarra and former Nigerian head of state Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Benoni Urey, head of the All Liberia Party met with Nana Ado’s predecessor John Mahama.