GHANAIAN POLITICS; THE POLITICS OF LIES AND DECEIT

No news, they say is good news and so, people love the news! Society loves to listen to bad news! Bad news sells! Journalism has now been spurred in this direction and so, every journalist wants to be first at the scene of a crime, accident, hot gossip, among others. When it comes to our politics in Ghana and perhaps beyond, people love to listen to lies! Lies are juicy! For some people, it is humorous listening to people making promises that we know they will be unable to fulfill. And yet, we listen! We have heard these same messages repeatedly for decades. And yet, it fills us with the same humour each time we hear these promises. Perhaps, a part of us is still hopeful. Hopeful for a future where a politician would be able to achieve all that he promised!

Rather sadly, any politician who sets out to speak the truth is immediately labeled as a failure and in the end, becomes unpopular however practical he might sound! The human animal loves complications and so, we love to give complex solutions to simple problems! Our politicians offer that, and just like that, they have our votes! The liars of course have the most number of followers! They are more popular and well loved! It is all in the past! It is all in our records! For most people, they have won over our admiration! Sadly however, we should be ashamed for endorsing this! For this reason, our country suffers! For this reason, we live in poverty and deprivation! And yet, we still cannot see this truth! The politics of lies and deceit!

In this country today, a lot of people live in hopelessness! The poor is becoming poorer! For most people in this country, and rather sadly, the millennium development growth has not been achieved. The masses live in poverty! A lot of people cannot afford a decent meal, accommodation, clothing, drinking water, education, jobs, healthcare, to mention but a few. Education is expensive, and so is healthcare! And yet, our politicians gloat. They surround themselves with gluttony! Bellies become potted immediately after going into politics! Our politicians through their lifestyles paint a picture that all is well in Ghana. That is the story of the African politics and leaders! Parading themselves in the cloak of nakedness! Our leaders love to speak big English, huge and expensive suits and in the end, have nothing to show for it! The truth however is that, things are not right! Things are going bad! Other countries see this but our own leaders seem not to notice. Perhaps, it would have been much better to still live in the colonial days! Our country would have perhaps seen much improvement and development than we have in the past decades!

These days on our airwaves, we listen to our politicians as they battle themselves. During these interviews, we listen in complete disbelief as these people expose themselves. This country has lost huge sums of money and continues to do so. People cannot afford a decent meal but our politicians are wasting our money. The ordinary citizen labours hard to make ends meet and also pay their taxes. These are monies that should be channeled towards the development of the nation and yet, our politicians rather spend these monies on mansions, luxurious vehicles, fatty meals, vacations and all sorts of ungodly and questionable lifestyles. The ordinary man turns into something else as soon as he ventures into politics! The country's wealth is being sold off. Over the past years, several questionable deals have been made by governments. Today, we are all bearing the consequences. Rather sadly, these politicians do not seem to care! They show no remorse for their actions and inactions but rather prefer to blame others in making all sorts of unprofitable analysis and comparisons on our airwaves. Our politicians give meaning to libel and defamation each day! Our eardrums are bleeding! Lies and deceit!

The politics being practiced in Ghana today is that of lies and deceit! In the Ghanaian politics, it seems that the phrase 'may the best man win' has been conveniently replaced the phrase 'may the best liar win!'Our politicians are failing to tell us the truth. This is because, we cannot bear this truth. They promise us heaven, when in truth, they cannot even afford hell! They formulate policies that cannot be enforced! The politics of lies and deceit!

Politics is only a game! In our tertiary institutions and even in our senior high school education, politics is a subject! People study programmes like political science, government, history, among others. People are being trained to become politicians! Subsequently they acquire the requisite skills and knowledge for this adventure of their lives because to several politicians, it is mainly for the fame and fun. Consequently in their training, they learn and polish the art of deception! They learn to talk like politicians by mastering the art of lies and deceit!

Ironically in our Ghanaian society, we easily attack armed-robbers and thieves whiles our politicians go scot-free! Our politicians are robbing our country dry each passing day and yet, they go free! In fact, we again give them more room to operate by re-electing them for more terms in office. The armed-robbers are doing so with weapons and ammunitions whiles our politicians do so with lies and deceit, wrapped up with big grammar! We ought to devise stringent means that would hold our politicians accountable! Whenever there is an issue, we make noise about it for a few weeks and in the end, forget about it. The perpetuators walk free! And yet, a common thief rots in jail!

As the word implies, politics means many blood sucking insects (ticks) and so are our politicians! They are only interested in sucking us dry! And yet, we allow them to do so! They go unpunished! Politics is a game. The truth of which is that, this game demands a lot of prowess in the art of seduction! Each day, we get seduced by a politician! This seduction lies mainly in their ability to persuade, dissuade, convince and charm us of their credibility and abilities. They make us feel so good about ourselves and in the end, hit us hard in the face! They make us believe that they are the most suited for the job and in the end, leave us hanging! They make us believe they can make things far better but in the end, they leave things far worse than before! In our various constituencies, we all have stories to share. These are stories of warm and friendly men and women who came down to us to solicit for our votes but in the end, they were replaced by arrogant politicians! Politics corrupts! Even the most well-meaning person changes in the end! Each day, compromises are made, negatively or positively!

As if they have not done us enough harm, these same leaders are the brains behind the recent upheavals in some parts of the country. The youth of this nation, the future leaders, and most importantly, the invaluable resources of this nation are being incited as combatants. The youth of this nation are being poisoned to use conflict as a resolution to the issue of political ideologies and perhaps other mundane issues. Where would these very leaders be tomorrow, should there be a war? Will they stand firm to fight themselves? Of course not! They will quickly fly out their families and leave us all behind to face their music! The politician sends off his children to foreign lands for better education and so-called greener pastures and yet, incites other people's children for his selfish interests! Arise the youth of Ghana! Awake from your slumber! Be wise! Be not deceived!

Already, several people have been wounded this year in the course of the voter's registration exercise on grounds of politics. Our politicians have failed us and continue to do so. Should there not be a system that would put them in check? Several people have called for the drafting of a national agenda. In the past, governments have abandoned on-going projects by previous governments in order to carry out their manifesto, propagated during their presidential campaigns. This has always been the problem mainly because, every new government wants to execute its own mandate as stated in their manifesto. Failure to do so would mean failure on their part by the electorate. For these reasons, several projects have been abandoned! Every government wants to boast about fulfilling their manifesto. Completion of a project by a previous government was a deviation! For these reasons, the introduction of a national agenda would ensure that our political leaders carry out projects noted in the national agenda as agreed by government for the people of Ghana. No manifesto, only a national agenda! This would put governments in check. Failure on the part of any government to comply with this national agenda would them mean a sack from office! With this system, the interest of the nation would always be put first!

On our airwaves, our politicians keep attacking each other shamelessly. Our politicians seem not to mind discrediting others in order to look good in the eyes of the electorate. They easily discredit their colleagues because, the reverse would mean them not gaining the votes of the electorate. For this and many more, our country has lost worthy and talented leaders! Several competent and capable minds are afraid of stepping forward to serve the nation because they cannot bear the attacks and tarnishing of their image and that of their families on the basis of politics. They are afraid to expose their families to the ugliness of politics.

Our news media is not being left out of this canker. Politicians are paying off journalists to make them look good to the electorate. Our journalists have become propagandists overnight and only seem more interested in spreading lies and deceit! Instead of broadcasting news about development and growth, it is all about the secret life of a politician! It is all about what one politician said somewhere! Who cares? Instead of ensuring that governments carry out their mandates, our journalists only seem interested in being paid to look the other way. They are failing to report the news just as they are! The reality is being idealized! Lies are being sold and reported as the truth! We are receiving wrong information all the time and so, our politicians go unpunished!

Be not deceived ye citizens of Ghana! No politician can make your dreams come true. We have to work in order to realize our own dreams. For that politician, politics is perhaps a dream come true. Let us not allow ourselves to be used by others in fulfilling their personal dreams. We vote with the hope of selecting competent and devoted leaders who truly have the nation at heart. We are only hopeful! For this reason, some succeed whiles others disappoint us. They are human like us all and hence, their personal desires sometimes overshadow the national interest. Politicians have failed us and still would but in the end, we still need to vote. We always vote with the hope that something good might come out of it. For our politicians who have lost their voices, we implore them to go back to the drawing table. Most people begin their political journeys with great dreams but in the end, they succumb to the pleasures and the power. Power makes people drunk. Let us beware! We need not wait for our politicians before we make a move. The country is ours and not theirs. In the coming elections, let us all vote wisely because in the end, we shall bear the full consequences. Let us do away with our political affiliations, tribal sentiments and other personal sentiments. Let us be objective in the choices we make today. Mother Ghana first!

Anna Esi Hanson ([email protected]), Takoradi.