Yes! It’s time! Ghanaian politicians who avail themselves to every ghetto in the length and breath of this country only when there’s an impending elections as in the current state of the nation with less than 85 days left. The politicians take the citizens of Ghana for granted with the stigma of having a short-term retentive memory of our past in relations to punishing the incumbent government when it matters most. They only embark on nationwide tours dubbed “Accounting to the People”, only when general elections are around the corner with unrealistic promises fussed with perpetuated lies and deceit.
Once again, we are in the midst of a furious competition ahead of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections happening live on December 7, after the brouhaha that was surrounding the re-scheduled of the elections by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to 7th November, 2016. This ideological mayhem by the two political giants was settled by parliament by their legislative instrument (LI) given the numerous political parties more time to campaign and rally round the flag of elections. Today, every light pole in the country is squeezed with political posters, cars are decorated with posters, banners are hanged at various houses and vantage points are covered by expensive billboards with various sizes depicting the pictures of the various presidential and parliamentary aspirants. There is no doubt that the cost of these items is from the public purse especially the incumbent party.
This year’s general election is very crucial and sensitive as the last year’s general elections ended up in the supreme court of the land. This year’s election is dominated by fallacies of promises from the ruling government who is believed to have failed the people as the economy of the country is in crisis and nothing seems to be working whereas unemployment is at the zenith level, energy crisis has collapsed many small scale industries and majority of workers have been laid off, the promise of building 200 secondary schools for the four (4) years term was only a promise but not a reality as only nine (9) out of the two-hundred (200) has been built, the high level of corruption and pure loot and share, the scrabbling of teachers, nurses, agricultural trainees allowance, unpaid statutory payments only to mention a few. An election which is keenly contested by eight (8) political parties is refereed by the Electoral Commission of Ghana. The two popular leading political parties thus the ruling government National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which is the likely opposition party to cause nightmares to the ruling party. A campaign has once again started by these two political giants as the presidential aspirants for the largest opposition party gave his promise.
When the campaign of fallacies ludu dice was tossed , the onus fell on the numerical figure “one” as it’s currently the talk of town. The opposition party started with the policy of building ‘one dam in one village’. This illusion was seconded by the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) promise of ‘one town one bank’, the ruling government is also promising of ‘one house one electric meter’, and the hilarious Akua Donkor’s Party is also promising of ‘one fisherman one sea’. This is mediocrity at the highest level. Non-governmental organizations, columnist, social and political commentators have all expressed their concern on the flimsy of promises that have been made by the politicians but it seems to be getting out of hand.
To unleash the treasure troves, the proposed campaign budget by the two political giants per every general elections put together can solve Ghana’s socio-ecoomic crisis for ten years undoubtedly. This country is torn apart all in the name of politics. Why did the political parties kept quiet in all these years but now decorating every length and breath of this country with unrealistic promises imbibed with lies and deceit especially the incumbency just to win votes from the poor souls? The citizen vigilante still can’t comprehend why honesty, integrity, transparency, trust, bribery and corruption free administration of our motherland have been an alien virtues in our political dispensation. The fragile heart of the poor souls in for county is yearning and crying to see positive change in every aspect of the nation. However, the hope still lives that, someday, Ghana will rise again to become the heartbeat of Africa!.