ARE GHANAIAN ELECTORATES IGNORANT?

Are Ghanaian people communally ignorant as a nation? I try as much as possible as I wrote this article to come up with a reasonably no, but I just can't. In a nation of nearly 22 million electorates' people, only a third of us vote. The foremost right in a democratic nation is the ability to choose our own leaders, and two-thirds of us don't even participate. I think that's ignorant.

Then there are those who do vote. But the reality on the ground is the fact that many can't provide a coherent answer as to why they voted for a particular candidate. They have no opinions beyond what they hear on the radio or TV. They aren't informed voters. They aren't aware of the issues. They haven't compared the positions of opposing candidates on the issues that matter to them. They vote on looks or personality or race. Essentially, they abuse the right to vote by voting irresponsibly.

The motto of most Ghanaian people seems to be "what can I get my country to give me?" But they forget that the more your country gives you, the less freedom you have. Then also the electorates do not make sure that the ruling government delivers their campaign promises. A typical example is the Mills campaign promise that the National Health Insurance payment would be once a year, but various Health Consultants I have spoken to, believe the government will go “broke” before they finished their first term in office. These programs were horribly mismanaged by the Kuffour government. They were never supposed to go broke. Nevertheless the NHIS are in arrears now, so I wonder how the Mills government would succeed.

That's why we are collectively ignorant; because we always want our free lunch and expect to be able to pick what it will be from a menu. But it doesn't work that way. When voters give the government the okay to give the people something free, the government decides what, when, where, and how much. The decision-making power of the people is forfeited. That decision-making power is called freedom, and it's what our founding fathers worked so hard to build for us, and what our military fights so hard to preserve.

Government should not be so big as to impact your daily lives. A Presidential candidate who promises to help pay your fuel, electricity or erase your educational debt, or even reduce your health care costs is a candidate who supports massive government spending without considering the implication, simply because he seeks power. Power comes in the form of convincing the voters to let him make decisions for them. We've let our government come so far into our lives that it now touches us in some way almost daily. That is not how government was intended in this country.

This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. So where are the people? If government inserts itself into our lives, it is only right that the people insert themselves into government. We the people need to speak up. We need to get smart, strive to understand the issues and their consequences. Watch, listen and read. Don't limit yourself to one-sided news sources. Don't let the government take your rights away. Once gone, they will likely never come back.

Author: Paul Rex Danquah
East London
Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com