The first shock I experienced in my Politcal Science class at Legon sprang from the explanation J. R. A. Ayee rendered about the essence of politics. The respected professor of Public Administration stressed that politics offers a mechanism through which ideas are exchanged and decisions that serve the interest of the wider community are made.
I’m convinced that many Ghanaian politicians do not know this. To them, politics is about winning elections. It’s about denigrating opponents. It’s about opposing policies simply because they are being professed by other political parties. Why do I say so? The facts will speak for themselves.
In the late 1990s, government of Ghana under the leadership of Jerry Rawlings made a decision to purchase a Gulfstream to facilitate the travels of the president and other officials of government. Hell broke lose! “Ghanaians are hungry,” “This is not a priority,” “The President doesn’t care about the masses,” “The government is insensitive,” “Why should we buy a jet when people are hungry?” These were some of the statements made by the opponents of the Rawlings administration. Guess what! A few years later, these opponents found themselves in power under John Kufuor. President Kufuor never used the aircraft and eventually traded it away for some military equipment from Russia. Oh la laa! At the tail end of Kufuor’s government, his government also made an order for two (not one) aircrafts for executive use. On this occasion, Kufuor and his people argued that the jet would facilitate executive travels. Rawlings and his NDC colleagues barked at Kufuor and his men that they were being ostentatious and insensitive to the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians. Now NDC gets back to power and realising that executive travel is hampered by the lack of a presidential jet, they are arguing in favour of one of the aircrafts Kufuor ordered. This is what I call 180⁰ politics. It is politics that is not premised on the objective principles of human development but it is characterised by power-centeredness, geocentricism and narrow-mindedness.
Look at the economy. Kufuor’s government prided itself with macroeconomic stability; reduced inflation, relatively stable currency, lower interest rates, on and on. And what did the NDC folks say? “It does not reflect in our pockets,” I recall. NDC wins elections under John Mills. Almost 18 months down the road and the NDC boys are singing the same macroeconomic song Kufuor and his boys sang when they were in power. And today, Kufuor’s boys and girls are saying, “Ghanaians can’t feel it.” Is this a situation of same script different casts? Is it a game of musical chairs? Do these guys know what they are about? I’ll keep my answers to myself.
In Ghana when a politician says something that is below the belt, we hear things like, “Oh don’t mind him he’s just doing politics.” Is politics about making despicable statements? If a President comes out to accuse someone for plotting to overthrow him without any substantiation, should we brush it aside and say “it’s politics.” Why can’t we say that improving the economy, expanding educational opportunities as well as facilities, making healthcare delivery mechanisms efficient are the real politics? Is road construction not politics? What about water, electricity, human rights, security, etc? Are these not the real issues of politics? Why then is it that when we are dealing with issues of national interest, we make statements like “Let’s not politicise the issue,” “This is a national issue, let’s not do politics with it.” In the light of these statements, I ask, “What is politics?” Does it mean that politics is about making irresponsible statements, lying to the electorate, ignoring our intellectual capabilities? I guess I’ll need a politician to explain it to me. I don’t see what my professor taught me in the class room being practised on Ghana’s political platform. Or is there a difference between textbook politics and field politics?
Did I hear the NPP parliamentarians demand that the erstwhile Kufuor administration should be given credit by the Mills government for projects executed by Kufuor when he was in office? And oh! The Information Minister comes out to say that, “we will not give you any credit because when you were in power, you also did not give Rawlings any credit.” Woaa hwe! This is how we used to behave when we were in lower primary; “If you don’t give me some of the groundnut, I won’t let you ride my bicycle.”
There is the need for a new paradigm. Somebody must teach our politicians that politics is not about bickering or winning elections but it’s a tool for fulfilling our national aspirations.
