There is currently a lot of noise in Ghana regarding the above. The noise regards who has released one, when and to what extent they matter.
A manifesto is ” A public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.” Tiatiatia.
Of course, there are manifestos outside elections and even besides partisan politics. The Ten Commandments, The Communist Manifesto, The US declaration of independence, Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Nkrumah’s Addis Ababa speech are all examples of manifestos. In recent years, perhaps the best example of a manifesto affecting elections was the 1994 Republican “Contract with America”, derisively called, “Contract ON America” by Democrats. It won the Republicans control of the House and gave it the first Speakership in forty years.
Do manifestos matter? Of course they do.
However, we must not be like the girl in the neighbourhood who is impregnated by the drunken womanizer in the neighborhood who has already impregnated three of her friends! We must trust but verify what manifestos tell us.
We must ask how our parties did on their old manifestos before we listen to new ones.
We must ask why parties have new manifestos despite unfufilled ones on the books.
And we must assess the doability of manifestos when we hear them.
Commonsense dictates that when men who are manifestly corrupt promise clean government, we must doubt them. When men who are violent promise peace, we must doubt them. Now, let the manifestos begin!