The Games Politicians Play In Ghana

Politics in Ghana is very interesting these days and a visitor in Ghana might think that there is a sort of competition going on amongst our politicians to see who can make the best promises to the citizens. I will call it a game full of tricks where it later turns out to be an illusion. Our politicians have perfected their political tricks to the extent that when they are reminded of the promises they made to the people while seeking their votes, they deny making such promises, forgetting that we are now in a technological world where events and activities can be easily recorded and played back. But the most interesting aspect of their tricks is that, the moment the tape is played back for them to listen to, they use the mantra “this is not my voice, this tape has been doctored”, and if you ask them to produce the original tape, they fail to do so.

We are all witnesses to how Ghanaian politicians go about promising heaven on earth during election time. So many citizens fall prey to these empty promises to the extent that, they tend to believe those promises would be fulfilled once that politician comes to power, so no critical analysis is done to ascertain the truth in the promises being made to them. Politicians will give money to the electorate (some of them) just to influence them to get their votes. Other politicians will also share bags of rice, vegetable oil, party t-shirts etc etc. There was a typical example where in a coastal community, a politician lined up the fisher folk and started sharing perfumed rice, sewing machines and cloths when he realized at the last minute that he was going to loose his parliamentary seat. The people collected the items and never voted for him.

When they are voted for and assume the reigns of power, the people start calling on them to fulfill their promises, but these politicians ask for more time to settle. They always attribute their inability to fulfill the promises made to the people to the “bad economy” left behind by their predecessors. When the pressure becomes too much for them, they start appointing party members into sensitive positions just to please their supporters. By so doing, acts of corruption perpetuated by party members within the government are left unpunished. The worst they can do to these corrupt officials is to reassign them to different positions and their corrupt acts die a natural death. I will define the Ghanaian politician as “a trickster in suit going about promising heaven and earth to the people just to get their votes”.

We the electorate must open our eyes and scrutinize every promise made by politicians before we vote for them. We must also make sure we do not vote based on emotions and tribal sentiments. The questions we should ask ourselves is that, ” can i trust this person to fulfill his promise based on this and that”? “Can this person do the work”? When we start asking such questions we will not fall prey to the tricks of the politicians. God bless Ghana, God bless you all.