The Way Politics Is Done In Ghana Is Not Congenial To Our Aspired Prosperity

To be frank with my fellow discerning Ghanaians and the wider reading public, after days of thoughtful deliberations, I have come to the conclusion that the way we do politics in Ghana indeed sucks. Both our political parties and their supporters depict attitudes that clearly go against our anticipations to develop as a nation and a people. Such negative attitudes of ours are dictated by our selfish, myopic and insatiable quest to be in the limelight, standing taller than anyone else, but all for stupid reasons.

When I compare the way the Whites in the Western civilized world do politics to that of Ghana, I can see how Ghanaians are the enemies of themselves hence their stagnation or retrogression in their otherwise desire for socio-economic emancipation. In the Western democratic world, we have equally a number of different political parties with different ideologies same as we do have in Ghana.

However, whether in government or in opposition, there are times that their members of Parliament, Congress (House of Senate), House of Lords or whatnot, do agree and adopt certain policies coming from the ruling government or the opposition party when they realise that it is for the common good of the citizenry.

They always place the collective interests of the citizens above their political party’s interests. It could be that the government or the ruling party’s policies or propositions if agreed may enhance their chances while putting the opposition party in a more difficult situation as regards their future chance of winning a general election but as long as the implementation of such policies will benefit the populace, they will all embrace them wholeheartedly. However in Ghana, the reverse is always the obvious case.

When the government comes up with a policy that is intended for the common good of the citizens, the opposition party or parties instead of supporting it knowing in their heart of hearts that the policy is credible, they will purposely maliciously choose to sabotage it. They do so to make the government become unpopular in the eyes of the public with intent to enhance their own chances of getting the government voted out of power in the next general election to take over from them. What an evil mind-set of the Ghana politician!

A classic example is the introduced free Senior High School education by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government. With any new policy or project, despite how extensive the feasibility studies undertaken or the risk assessments carried out, there are bound to be certain minor challenges or mistakes that could not be captured. Such challenges when cropped up in the course of the project’s execution, are to be dealt with. The challenges are not to be wielded as effective weapons to sabotage the entire project just with the malicious intent to make whoever introduced it to become unpopular so that the person or the party can easily be given the boot out of office.

How often do Ghanaian politicians across the various political divides agree on certain policies which are vital to the welfare of the general public and also, are in the best interest of mother Ghana? When a problem comes up, do all the parties seek a common solution to calm tempers when the people have become highly infuriated? No, the opposition party will choose to escalate the problem by throwing more fuel on to the fiery anger of the people.

This Ghanaian or African mentality of doing politics is harmful to the anticipatory prosperity of Ghanaians or Africans. Both the government and the opposition parties are to learn to take suggestions and advice from one another when such initiatives are seen to augur well for Ghanaians, but not only intended to satisfy the selfish interest of a few individuals or their political party.

Should we learn and uphold the philosophy of “in all that we do, Ghana comes first”, there will not be many problems on our hands to solve because whatever we do will be based on love for one another and where there is a true love, there is no space for the devil to lay its mat.

Ghanaians, please do not allow our greedy politicians who seek only the satisfaction of their personal interests to use you as a political football only to dump you when you are deflated.

Let us help the government to overcome its problems. Let us help the government to overcome the current problems of insecurity in the nation by tipping off the security agents to any suspected armed robber. With concerted efforts, we can make Ghana greener same as the Whiteman’s pastures that we love to undertake any risk to proceed to graze on, if not to fleece them.

I am doing my part to get things into correct shapes. What are you also doing, fellow Ghanaian, especially Mr Kyei Boateng, a Consultant overflowing with ideas capable of redeeming Ghana from her socio-economic doldrums? Are you going to keep the ideas to yourself until you are taken to your death with them or you will publish them to benefit mother Ghana?

How I wish one Mr Edward Adusei Pianim, a former School Prefect at then Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School, now Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School, could share his then views expressed that had the potential to help with the development of Ghana. He was such a selfless and farsighted individual. We need the contributions of such persons if we really want to see Ghana emerged from her decrepit status made possible by the infatuation with corruption by her politicians.

Rockson Adofo