Feature Article : "The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com."

Occasionally, the odd journalist makes the news for a change: There was the story this week about a news reporter in Tamale, who scurried about in the metropolis all smeared with goat blood reportedly scooped from a downtown abattoir and doing the kangaroo dance. Absolutely wacky, Jomo.

The kangaroo dance is an election campaign caper which the New Patriotic Party appropriated from the antics of young Ghanaian football players who executed it on the turf in celebration of goals during the last African Nations Cup tournament.

It has been alleged that the journalist had tried to please some politicians and make a buck or two on the side, by having pictures of himself soaked in blood printed in the newspapers.

The objective? To portray opposition elements as perpetrators of violence who set upon and mauled journalists who covered the recent voter registration exercise.

You can see from this news reporter's weird expedition, that politics can be injurious to your sanity and especially in an election year.

Why would any politician condone such conduct even if it served a propaganda purpose?  Repeat the question..!

Early this week, I typed the word “diogenic” in an office computer, certain that the darned machine would throw back the word, underlined with the usual red mark indicating a misspelling.

Sure enough it did, but that has not stopped me from insisting that there should have been such a word in the dictionary.

I coined the word from the name of Diogenes. That was the Kofi Jack character who spent much of his lifetime walking about in the streets of Athens in ancient Greece with a lantern in broad daylight, saying he was searching for an honest man?

Given the strange happenings of the election season, we need to apply the diogenic principle in our scrutiny and assessment of the presidential candidates :

We need to determine the real motivation behind each candidate's quest to occupy the presidency.

In the second instance, we need to gauge from what we see and know about each candidate, how he is likely to manage the very awesome power he wants us to entrust to him, see?

We are at a stage of our development where we stand the risk of having some character get behind the wheel of nationhood and drive us clear off the cliff overhanging socio-economic progress, and straight into an era of national retardation  or ruination.

History does not say whether Diogenes found the man Ghanaians are today looking for. Who is an honest man?

He is the man who admits and speaks the truth and let every spin fetish priest spare us Pilate's hackneyed query about truth. I have never been a fan of relativism, Jomo.

In the mean time, some people want Dr Afari Gyan's skull on a pole. Let the man take an overdue walk into the sun set they say. Make no mistake:

There appears to be a consensus that Dr Gyan has been a competent chief of the Electoral Commission.  Continued    Source: DAILY GRAPHIC - Daily Graphic

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