State of Affairs Pt 1

Ghana's Independence Arch

I try as much as possible to stay away from publicly commenting on political issues but sometimes, no matter how hard you try to see life through rose coloured glasses, reality must be faced. I never cease to mention how beautiful a country Ghana is. I am proud of my country, her people and the slow but sure progress she's making in the midst of major infrastructural and other seemingly insurmountable setbacks. Ghana is a developing country which is wholeheartedly embracing or attempting to embrace democracy. It's great that people have the freedom to openly support whichever political party they want without fear of persecution. However, with freedom always comes responsibility. I feel that the political parties and their supporters in the quest for democracy have forgotten a fundamental truth: The Republic of Ghana is bigger than any individual in this country.

In attempting to fulfill their individual agendas, these parties are creating an unnecessary division. I say unnecessary because being on different ends of the political spectrum does not mean these parties should never agree on anything. The norm in Ghanaian politics is that when one party says something whether right or wrong, the other party says the exact opposite. This immature approach to politics is the reason why this country's growth is stagnated and Ghana is not where it should be despite how blessed she is with natural resources and well educated minds. A government comes into power and starts projects which come to a halt when that government is out of power, never to be continued until that government comes back into power. So if a government starts a good project that will propel the nation forward and it goes out of power for 20 years, must that project simply come to a halt because a new government is in power? Granted, all political parties have their own ideologies; centrist, liberal democrat, social democrat, centre right, Nkrumahist etc, but don't all these ideologies have one end result? That a country and its people should thrive and prosper after all is said and done? If Ghana should mature in politicking, we cannot continue to go about politics the way we are going about it now because it is not in the interest of anyone concerned: we will all lose in the end. Politicians and us the people, must always remember that in spite of our differences, Ghana is our home; our past, our present and should we put her interests ahead of our personal interests, our bright and prosperous future.

For political parties, it's always a competition to win power so maybe they cannot see the damage this competition is causing. Thing is, sometimes, winning isn't everything.