Where Are Our Wise Men?

We should have gone long past the toddler stage of democracy yet the traits being exhibited on the political terrain leave much to be desired.

Elections have been turned into battlefields; our security agencies adding to the tension with unnecessary parading of military hardware on the streets of the nation's capital as though the country next-door is threatening our territorial integrity.

We do better at such display of equipment than quelling disorders triggered by persons associated with ruling governments and managing simple special voting.

There is so much rhetoric about their readiness to perform statutory functions yet little to show for the quality of output by state institutions paid from the sweat of the taxpayer to serve the people.

Those voted into power by the people use state resources rather than their performance as baits for re-election. Where such baits do not yield the expected dividend, the bad politicians turn to the bizarre and crude method of physically manipulating the electoral process through dangerous connivance with equally malicious election officials. Why such persons would seek to undermine the integrity of the electoral process is not far-fetched. The fear of their tracks being exposed after their exit has always been the reason those at the helm of the ship of state would use the crudest of means to hang on to power; the fallouts notwithstanding.

Thankfully the days of such manouvres are numbered as ploys used previously are no longer proving effective. The Gambian experience, as we pointed out in an earlier commentary, offers great lessons for those who seek to toy with the intelligence of the people all the time.

We long for the day when politicians at the helm would allow the election machinery to grind at its own pace with no interference from the assigns of the President who faces a referendum over his performance.

It is reprehensible especially when state players are behind a grand design to turn the Ashanti Regional capital into a bedlam on Election Day as a means of attracting electoral leverage.

Majority of our military and police would rather their country stays tranquil than dance to the tune of wicked politicians who think their project of hanging on to power supersedes the national interest.

Why should we entertain the idea of jamming radio signals in this day and age? Even the Yahya Jammehs who shut down social media and severed the country from the rest of the world on Election Day could not stop the wind of change which swept across the Gambia.

The will of the people like water when it is interrupted would find alternative course with inclement consequences. Let nobody think such shutdowns or even jamming of the airwaves of radio stations perceived to be anti-government can inure to the interest of those who have lost favour with the people.

Let us allow the people to decide what they want without ado. The periodic election in every civilized society is to allow choices to be made by the people.

Frantic efforts by government players should be limited to verbal campaigns and not the distribution of expensive items including vehicles as has become a practice in our body-politics – it is injurious to our democratic growth.

Our wise men and women, where are thou? Speak out about the worrying situation our country is in today. Information yet to be confirmed has it that a top official of the intelligence community attached to one of the foreign missions has been declared persona non grata and deported. It is a piece of information whose details the political establishment would guard jealously the Bugri Naabu episode still fresh on the political terrain. Don't we require deliverance and the immediate intervention of our wise persons who should not care whose ox is gored as they wade into the ailments of Ghana?