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10th August, 2010
ZERO BALLOTS! HOW COME?
Listening on radio to results of last Saturday’s NPP flag-bearer race as they trickled in, and reading the cold figures in print this morning a fact of Ghana’s recent political life does not fail to hit the careful analyst.
We of the Times have agreed to label it, the “Grandest deception of all time”, and so far, we have not had any contrary evidence to convince us to change our minds.
How on earth can a candidate score zero in any constituency where he had a handful of representatives or members of his campaign team there? It is either a paradox or a riddle to which only the proverbial Kweku Ananse can find an answer.
(We are careful to declare from the outset that this opinion piece does not set out to analyse the character of NPP candidates, per se, recognizing, as we do, that it may well be a phenomenon that characterizes all primaries in all parties.)
The Times is interested in the phenomenon because we fear that it could well be the character of the nation. Is this is how low politics has brought all of us? Must one be a liar to qualify to be called a politician?
Or is it a symptom of the alienation of the average Ghanaian voter? Do the people feel so helpless in the face of what they perceive to be the untruthfulness of the politician? Have the people lost so much confidence in politicians that they are prepared to fleece them, lie to them just to get even?
At the heart of the matter is the conclusion by many Ghanaian voters that the politician will talk sweet on campaign platforms, shake hands with the people, put an arm around the people’s shoulder and engage in bellyful pantomimic laughter with the ordinary people only to develop – after the elections - into a “wiper” when he gets into Parliament, Assembly or lands a juicy board appointment.
By “wiper” is meant the politician’s style of waving back when the enthusiastic crowds wave expectantly as their new MP or Minister or DCE or Assemblyman zooms past in their air-conditioned limousine.
According to an observation by the “masses”, the newly arrived politician waves back with one finger, with a tired, boring look in the air conditioned car with all glasses rolled up.
The Ghanaian Times did not cook-up this scenario. We heard it said in town, by the ordinary folks in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Koforidua. According to the people, this is what accounted for why many politicians did not win their seats in the last election.
Are primaries and district-level/parliamentary elections, therefore, the pay-back time? We are told that the politician himself/herself has began to wise up to the game; that is why they give out the money on oath – often the receiver is made to swear on a river god to vote as promised.
The Ghanaian Times is not enthused about this conduct. It smacks of a people whose philosophy is to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.
It is not a good profile to paint of the Ghanaian because it reduces us to the lowest levels of opportunism. We are not able to look in the other person’s eyes and tell them as it is.
For us, that could be the more positive way to effect change in the other person, be he/she a politician or a business partner; our children or parents.
This is only food for thought. Let us chew on it.
We of the Times have agreed to label it, the “Grandest deception of all time”, and so far, we have not had any contrary evidence to convince us to change our minds.
How on earth can a candidate score zero in any constituency where he had a handful of representatives or members of his campaign team there? It is either a paradox or a riddle to which only the proverbial Kweku Ananse can find an answer.
(We are careful to declare from the outset that this opinion piece does not set out to analyse the character of NPP candidates, per se, recognizing, as we do, that it may well be a phenomenon that characterizes all primaries in all parties.)
The Times is interested in the phenomenon because we fear that it could well be the character of the nation. Is this is how low politics has brought all of us? Must one be a liar to qualify to be called a politician?
Or is it a symptom of the alienation of the average Ghanaian voter? Do the people feel so helpless in the face of what they perceive to be the untruthfulness of the politician? Have the people lost so much confidence in politicians that they are prepared to fleece them, lie to them just to get even?
At the heart of the matter is the conclusion by many Ghanaian voters that the politician will talk sweet on campaign platforms, shake hands with the people, put an arm around the people’s shoulder and engage in bellyful pantomimic laughter with the ordinary people only to develop – after the elections - into a “wiper” when he gets into Parliament, Assembly or lands a juicy board appointment.
By “wiper” is meant the politician’s style of waving back when the enthusiastic crowds wave expectantly as their new MP or Minister or DCE or Assemblyman zooms past in their air-conditioned limousine.
According to an observation by the “masses”, the newly arrived politician waves back with one finger, with a tired, boring look in the air conditioned car with all glasses rolled up.
The Ghanaian Times did not cook-up this scenario. We heard it said in town, by the ordinary folks in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Koforidua. According to the people, this is what accounted for why many politicians did not win their seats in the last election.
Are primaries and district-level/parliamentary elections, therefore, the pay-back time? We are told that the politician himself/herself has began to wise up to the game; that is why they give out the money on oath – often the receiver is made to swear on a river god to vote as promised.
The Ghanaian Times is not enthused about this conduct. It smacks of a people whose philosophy is to “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.
It is not a good profile to paint of the Ghanaian because it reduces us to the lowest levels of opportunism. We are not able to look in the other person’s eyes and tell them as it is.
For us, that could be the more positive way to effect change in the other person, be he/she a politician or a business partner; our children or parents.
This is only food for thought. Let us chew on it.
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