Credibility

Na waa o… this great motherland of ours! You see the devil and realise this devil you know can never be better than the angel you don't know. You get to know the angel a bit and trust its credibility to do better than the devil you have known for so long. Then you discover what makes you belief permanently the devil can never be better than the angel is creeping up in the angel. That shakes the confidence in the angel and its credibility. You see the devil busily chiseling away to open a gap between credibility and believability in the angel and thus, the trust that will win it votes.

Credibility is closely connected to “winnability” in elections. It is about trust. People will vote for you when they trust you. But trust cannot be absolute and your opponents will aggressively chip off at your credibility to shift trust to their favour.

Congress people have been talking 'state capture' in the PDS saga as if the phenomenon is a joke. They forget under their watch someone carried a whole bank including its vault on his shoulders away to cannibalise and reassemble. And when that same individual hijacked our commonly owned dredging equipment asset; and from there appropriated an entire field of bauxite deposit, they didn't know state capture. All because in their books, brother of head of the state can loot state assets and that will not be state capture because he is one of them.

Sometime ago during the depressing onaapo years, I remember former security operative named “land of our birth man” somehow calling for an uprising. These days, I have heard a few people repeat that. Some compatriots have even dared talk the abomination of coup as if they have forgotten its retrogressing nation wrecking consequences. Some peddle Gyato return because his conversion of our motherland into house of horror is lost on the minds of who knows and never on the mind of the never told.

As at the beginning of year 2017, credibility, by colleague septuagenarians' measure, centred on taking the GH¢51 million plus back, making all the young people and their older accomplices pay for creating, looting and sharing stolen state proceeds, while dumsɔ reigned. The septuagenarian corps still grieves, yearning for accountability.

Unlike JH Mensah's 'By the time we finish with you …,' and BMI's '40 ministers to go to jail …' toothless barking which resulted in no jailing for looters, septuagenarians want prosecution of the double salary takers and the babies with sharp teeth who illegally bit off more of the national cake than they were entitled. The stolen GH¢51 million is eluding recovery. Compatriots hope the Deputy Attorney General would deliver on his promised criminal prosecution of the culprit.

The donnish septuagenarians, however, believe the double salary thing is simple and straightforward to expect swift action on. Rot seemed too deep, widespread and nauseating that the olus expect lots more beyond the SSNIT, COCOBOD and NCA prosecutions. Bus branding, from the horse's own mouth, appeared obvious admission of wrongdoing; so if there's no trial, it chips at the incumbent's credibility.

Railway reconstruction is happening as are entrepreneurial schemes for the youth, afforestation, and the job creation fronts such as the NACOB transition jobs (something of a repeat of NYEP). Free SHS is steaming. And there are roads, constructed and under construction. Let us not forget, however, that the impressive social intervention programmes in 2008 didn't seem to have impressed in deciding to cast votes. There doesn't seem to have been an appreciation for the discovery of oil and the benefits to the people in its exploitation. Voters miscalculated the greed with which congress people would appropriate it to their selfish selves.

What drivers saw as incessant arrests, peeved teachers, high fuel price and perceived generally high cost of living chipped away the credibility established through the year 2000 “Hwɛ wo asetena mu na to aba” slogan. The chipping was so bad that Oguaa people forgot their fixed water problem which had persisted for aeons and flatly played down their reconstructed Cape Coast-Accra road with the spiting: “Ekwan wɔ nnwe” (You don't eat road).'

Thus, 2008 lessons abound to inform the present and guide the 2020 future. There have been monumental achievements: railway restoration; successful creation of regions and resolution of the Ya Na decades-old debacle; factories and dams have been built alongside the usual schools and health facilities multiplication. The challenge is identifying what is chipping away at credibility to ensure the trust and hope that deliver votes are sufficiently maintained. If you are working for the president, ask yourself if you are pursuing his value for money agenda. Chipping by chopping is most harmfully effective there. I can hear some footsoldier say: 'Don't mind him. It's elitist talk.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh