It is the wish of all well-meaning and peace loving people across the nation and the world that events leading to the presidential and parliamentary elections in December will be peaceful. With the request by the electoral commission for political parties to go for nomination forms for their candidates many political parties and independent candidates have already gone for their nomination forms.
They are expected to return them by the end of this month. On radio and television and political platforms leading members of the parties are busy selling their programs for the elections to the people. But even before things get to the boiling points tension is mounting.
Leaders of the main parties the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have begun mounting platforms to present their manifestoes and policies to the electorates have begun trading accusations and counter accusations on each other for stealing policies of one village one dam for irrigation, the creation of more regions, improvement on the National Health Insurance Scheme among others.
Apart from NPP and NDC the other political parties like PNC and CPP have also been accusing the two political parties of stealing portions of their manifestoes especially on the health insurance and the creation of factories and free education policies.
Since Ghana is one nation with one people and a common destiny, we need to tone down on the accusations and counter accusations on intended policies by the political parties. Each of the parties must concentrate on bringing out good policies on education, energy to kill dumsor, industrialization to create job as we increase productivity, health and agriculture among other things.
What we must all know is that whichever party comes to power it is not likely that it can succeed in implementing its policies all alone without the help of other political parties. As Ghana is made up many political parties but the winning party will need the help of civil servants parliament traditional rulers and religious leaders who do not all belong to the same political party that will include the ruling party.
For that matter all the parties must tone down on the tension building among them that is likely to lead to conflicts.
Already tension is brewing in some parts of the country between the ruling NDC and the opposition NPP supporters. at Kukuom in the Brong Ahafo Region the offices of the NPP and that of the NDC have been vandalized perhaps due to misunderstandings arising from the exercise of transfer of voters by the Electoral Commission .
This should not result in conflict. The police have taken steps to deal with the incidents. But there is the need for the perpetrators of the crimes to be arrested and prosecuted. The issues must not be played down or considered political.
In Accra the newspapers have reported that some aggrieved people in two vehicles belonging to the NDC have also launched an attack on the head of the Lands Commission in Accra. For whatever reason it is wrong for those people to take the law in their hands. This has led to the police rescuing the persons concerned others with the law enforcers embarking on investigations on the matter. The issue must be taken serious and considered a criminal matter. This way the offending group would be punished to serve as a deterrent to others who might wish to take similar steps