Many people regard politics as a game, thus it should be played to win, so people who are involved in politics must mastermind to be victorious, nevertheless the results in any game is either win or lose and sometimes draw, but the results in politics is either win or lose. Therefore one will lose and one will win, the question is, are people ready to loose election? And will they accept it in good faith?
Political campaign is an organised effort, by political leaders who, seeks to influence the decisions of the electorate, by making their ideas known to the public. Political parties will have to go through various steps in the process of campaign, from creating a campaign team, deciding on a campaign budget, determine the right strategy and message for their campaign, after all these steps are done, a campaign is ready to set off.
One Saturday morning, I was in the house idle, I thought about the Ghanaian election which will be happening on the 7th December, 2016. Apparently what came into my mind was whether campaigns can lure people change their mind, in favour of a different candidate? I stepped out and interviewed about 30 people on the street, about 25 of them, made me aware they have decided already, and absolutely nothing can be done to change their mind, I had 5 people insisting, they want to listen to the politicians on their campaign trail before they will make a decision. This made me cast my mind back and recalled what the famous scholar Paul Lazserfeld said about political campaigns
“Campaigns have minimal effect because of the existing information and prejudices that voters possess, campaign rarely change their minds”
I can enumerate several promises made by Ghanaian politicians, which may have been fulfilled or not. Here comes another election by the end of the year 2016. Ghanaians, who were above 18 years in the year 2000, will not be astonished, upon hearing some huge campaign messages, the current barge of presidential aspirants are making. Some of the interesting, but huge promises are “one district one factory”, “one village one dam”,” one household one metre”, “one student one tablet”. Some politicians have even forgotten students are not supposed to use phones in class, how much more tablets. Most politicians have these themes spearheading their campaign, ‘’changing lives and transforming Ghana’’,’’ better Ghana agenda’’, ‘’ change is coming’’, just to mention a few. Politicians have wonderful messages for campaign, but they end up making the country worsen than they came to meet. In fact some campaign messages are uniquely framed, as a result one may expect the country to be like ‘’heaven’’, but it becomes the opposite.
During this time, they get down to the level of ordinary people and make them believe that they understand their problems, under the pretext of caring for them. These same politicians will not be seen till the next four years, if they win the election. They enjoy whatever is there to be enjoyed with their family only. After a discussion with some friends I realized that, most of them do not believe in politicians anymore, few friends have even decided not to vote, but I managed to convince them about the need to vote. Those who wanted to vote, will be doing that because, it is their civic right.
Politicians should respect the citizenry; therefore they should not make extravagant promises, which cannot be achieved. People in the helm of affairs should be accountable. Diligent work should be done to raise the living standard of the citizens in the country. I envision that one day, the ‘’thumbs’’ which sent them to such high positions, will surely bring them back. I believe the citizenry should not be taken for granted. This is a message to the politicians.
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