Ghana is often regarded as West Africa’s best-governed country, with a relatively well established system of democratic rule. However, we battle with a lot of problems including endless poverty, over-dependence on international aid, the rich subaltern mindset (need to define and illustrate its role) etcetera, among which politics of division and ethnocentrism cannot be left out.
Even though we have had numerous speeches, calls and admonitions by organizations, religious bodies and even from our politicians themselves, it is still worth sharing my two pennies on what may now be considered an old and tired cliche, about the sharp division in Ghanaian politics and the ethnocentrism that engulfs it. Upon a deep and sober reflection of our political system, one would have come to the realization, that our style of politics in Ghana has sharply divided us as a country. This is gradually gnawing at our reputation as a people of peace and unity.
Let’s have a brief retrospection of our political history zooming into modern politics to determine and appreciate the dynamics of how positively or negatively it has affected us as a people.
After the struggle for independence, the very reasons for the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah were the same plaques that bedeviled the subsequent regimes which virtually brought the country on its knees, until Flt. Lieutenant J. J. Rawlings was democratically elected and sworn into office in 1993. It bears recalling that when Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown on February 24, 1966, the military that took the reins of power abolished the celebration of Founder’s Day and tried to outlaw and criminalize everything Nkrumah did and stood for as a President of Ghana. It was a serious offense for anyone to be seen with anything that bore the name Nkrumah, his books or even effigy. The CPP, as a party, was disbanded. It was not until the collapse of the Second Republic following the overthrow of the Progress Party led by Dr. K. A. Busia on January 13, 1972, that followers of Nkrumah and the CPP had some respite. Prof. John Atta Mills would later reinstitute Founder’s Day to honor the man who led Ghana to nationhood in 1957.
I have deliberately gone in the historical tangent to drum home, among other things, how our division as a country began, setting aside the role of different political ideologies. It is obvious that the Danquah Dombo-Busia tradition and the Nkrumahists were divided and this has translated into our division today. This, for over fifty years now, has eaten into our social fabric so much so that we seem to have lost our sense of unity as a people with a common destiny. I must be quick to add that belonging to different political spectra is not a problem per se, but the disdain with which we look upon our political opponents is what calls for us all to be worried.
Politicians should campaign and let the electorates decide which political party takes the reins of power. As a people, we must put aside our political colorations and develop our nation. But it appears to me that the politician, most of the time, cunningly applies the concept of ‘divide and rule’ to cause rivalries and foment discord among the people to escape their (the people’s) wrath if were to unite and demand righteous action from politicians. From the overthrow of Nkrumah through to the NDC, and to the current government, each regime had its weaknesses but corruption is one that has bedeviled every government and yet, the mistakes of each regime are replicated by subsequent ones, who do not hesitate to repeat, rather mindlessly, that the previous government had done same!! Is it in vain, therefore, that we go to the polls every four years since 1992?? In a bid to cover up the stinking corrupt deals, they engage in divisiveness, cozenage and polarization of the citizenry in order to avoid accountability.
But all hope is not lost. The day is surely at hand when the very people that the politician seeks to divide and rule shall unite and hold them to account for their political promises.
By: Gabriel Amologu
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0249042313
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