Voting Is Not Just A Right, It Is A Huge Responsibility

It is another hectic political season in my school, the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ). The frenzy that characterizes this period is amazing. Students cling to political aspirants like that is what pays their fees or even ensures their success in end of semester exams.

Now, this will be the second time I am witnessing a political season at GIJ and it is a hell of an experience. But the experiences I have gathered over the seasons have raised some indelible questions on my mind.

Some students before office holder aspirants even declare what really their intentions, aims, visions, and strategies that will underlie the achievement of their goals when elected, begin to make alliances.

Some of the things that compromise Ghana’s

political system and its development are inadequate information, no strategic plans and blind uninformed political following. One of the major solutions to these challenges as I see it is the gradual growing level of education among the youth of today. But the teething problems of a future journalist who will be holding public and even private office holders accountable blindly following student politicians makes me wonder about the future of this country.

Ask some students why they advocate for a particular student politician and they begin to stammer which is an insult to God because He didn’t create them that way. So many students follow student political actors for reasons that must not be encouraged. Some of such reasons include friendship, allegiances for some good done in the past and so many other reasons that really do not feed into the real basis for elections.

I have been approached by a number of current student politicians seeking the mandates of students to be one of their campaign personnel. When I asked them about their plans for the student body and why they want to be student leaders and the strategies for achieving same, they said that they are still working on that. This baffled me. How do you declare your intention to vie for any position without knowing what really you want to do and how you will do them when given the nod? And yet I have seen and heard many students rooting for some these aspirants.

This is what leads some students to make unwarranted comments and engage in banal arguments because they don’t actually know what they stand for. Politics is a battle of ideas, not brawls. Almost all student WhatsApp groups I belong to are full of flyers of aspirants and their accompanying arguments that are most often than not, personal views, opinions and to some extent sweeping statements that even generate insults.

I don’t know what happens in other universities but if this is how we will go on, then this country cannot rely on any future generation to free it from the bondage it is suffering now. Ghana has seen uncountable future generations since independence and look how that turned out for her. We continue to engage in the very things our past and current leaders did and are still doing which we complain about. Instead of while demanding the best treatment from our leaders, we contribute our quota, we do otherwise.

Leadership is not for fun. You don’t become a leader just because you fancy the idea of it but because you have something good to offer and also ready to serve the people instead of yourself.

And to root for any leader, you must know his plans in terms of what he will do when he assumes office and how he will do it.

Our politicians and even other office holders will always take us for a ride because we fail to question them. We allow them to function the way they see fit which shouldn’t be the case.

Blindly following politicians should be a thing of the past. Even if still in existence, it should not characterize our student body. We are intellectuals and we must act like it. We continue to advocate for the Right to Information Bill to be passed into law. What good would that do if we continue to blindly follow political leaders without asking the right questions? Information alone is nothing until its essence is utilized by the people.

I urge all students to not just follow political actors without asking the right questions. Don’t follow them based on reasons that will not inure to the greater good. Our personal good is nothing if the collective good continues to suffocate.

Voting is as much a right as it a responsibility of citizens not just to themselves but to the entire country. Let us all endeavour to never compromise on this very important responsibility.

GIJ deserves better. Ghana deserves better.

YUSSIF AHMED

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GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM