Election 2024 – Ghana Must Not and Will Not Burn
Ghanaians face a crucial moment in their nation’s history as they go to the polls to select a new government and a new parliament for the next four years on December 7 this year.
The political climate is so taut and saturated with political rhetoric between the two main parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), that the atmosphere may be easily sliced with a butter knife.
The rest, in the mix of independent presidential and parliamentarian candidates, are prodding on in earnest.
Since the dawn of the 4th Republic the political climate of the nation has been dominated essentially by two parties – the NPP and the NDC. Both parties have had four terms each from 1993 to 2024.
The NDC’s presidential candidate and former president John Dramani Mahama is the only leader in the 4th Republic who reigned for one term only.
All others – with the exception of late President Mills who passed in office – served their constitutionally mandated two four-year terms. Former President Mahama is vying to come back to complete his “unfinished business.”
The NPP, on the other hand, is vigorously fighting to break the proverbial tradition by “breaking the eight” and to continue to be at the helm of affairs. Opinion on who will perform better than the other depends on whom one asks.
Exploiting incumbency advantage, the NPP has been hammering home its achievements, particularly its free Senior High School (SHS) program and other infrastructural developments.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s presidential candidate and current vice president of the Republic of Ghana, has been honing home on his digitalization policies throughout the campaign. He has been dubbed “Mr. Digital” by both the local and international press.
Former president John Dramani Mahama, on the other hand, has been explaining his “24-hour economy” policy at campaign rallies. Crowd pulling at political campaigns and events for the two major parties has been phenomenal.
But mammoth crowds at rallies as well as development projects do not always win elections. Strategies do.
Elections are generally dicey, especially in a country such as Ghana and other African countries where gifting, vote-buying, arm twisting, and anything that seeks to influence voters and voting patterns are part of the process.
In times like this, utterances and pronouncements of and from politicians at times portend prospective security breaches that do not inure to a hitherto calm political climate in the country.
Some are not only acerbic in nature, but plain, straight insults that would otherwise not have been made in the normal scheme of things in Ghana’s cultural dispensation.
The two leading political parties and some of the minor ones, as well as some independent presidential candidates, are all guilty in this respect.
In contemporary Ghana, it has become a norm in the heat of political campaigns for civil societies and labor unions to embark on demonstrations against unpopular decisions by government, which has the potential to erode and/or ransack political fortunes of a ruling party.
This has become a political tool of both the NPP and the NDC to cash in on the drawbacks and misfortunes of the ruling government since the birth of the 4th Republic.
And then there are the eggheads and self-styled political pundits and armchair pollsters funded by various political parties and individual stakeholders.
Taking advantage of the unsophisticated nature and other parameters of the average Ghanaian voter, and with minimal to no scientific basis, they publish unsubstantiated surveys with the hope of impacting elections in their candidates’ favor.
Individualized one-man churches are not left out of the fray of “political prostitution.” For some so-called men of God, personal dreams and visions have become prophecies from the Most High, who seems most active, engaging, and enabling at election times. They would prophecy at the expense of their lives or anything in between.
Probably, the most impactful institution on a populace during election is the penmanship fraternity. Words, written or spoken, are more indelible than wounds of a knife. At elections times, people are glued to their trusted media platforms, especially radio and television.
The media must therefore exercise restraint and demonstrate maturity in their reportages. Competition among the media is understandably keen, but a (media) winner is not necessarily the one to first announce a result. The Akan says, “The hen knows daybreak (daylight), but it leaves the announcement to the rooster.”
In this vein, Amandla is calling on the security, stakeholders (including the media) to hold a crunch meeting on the role of the media in this month’s elections.
Political expediency, sworn fealty, and other methods may be employed at political campaigns, but Amandla reminds Ghanaian voters that in the final analysis, the power of democracy arises from the thumbs of the people.
Those who plan and expect violence should bow their heads in shame. Ghana must not, and will not burn.
Tofiakwa!!!