Why The Candidate Who Proved He Is Best Suited ......

To Lead Ghana Will Not Win The Presidential Election

By Kofi Thompson

When a friend in the U.S.A. asked me who I thought would win the presidential election in Ghana, for my answer, I told him who I knew would not be winning that election - by recounting to him what a brilliant young female student told me, when I asked a group of university students the same question.

In the view of that brilliant female student, nothing will change in Ghana, regardless of which of the two major political parties that have governed the nation since the 1992 constitution was promulgated - the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party - wins the presidential election, because both simply lack the political will to fight high-level corruption: which she regards as the biggest nation-building challenge facing Ghana.

The tragedy for Ghana, she said, was that the person who had shown, by deed, not words - by making public the results of the medical examination he recently underwent to show he was medically fit for the ardours task of leading Ghana; releasing his tax returns and declaring his assets openly to the media; as well as showing the amount spent on campaigning by the party he founded, and the sources of its funding to show he was transparent about financial matters he was associated with - would not be winning the presidential election.

She ended by saying she was certain that Ghana would miss the opportunity to elect the candidate who had shown the discerning that he is the most suitable politician to lead the Ghana of today, for a number of reasons.

To begin with, it was her opinion that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive Peoples Party would not win the presidential election tomorrow, because: "behind the facade of modernity, in terms of the psychology of a majority of the populace, in a sense Ghana is a very backward nation in which superstition is deeply woven into the fabric of society. That is the reason why the political party most favoured by the many crooks-in-dog-collars, who speak in 'tongues' and exert a malevolent influence over the minds of the millions who flock to their churches regularly to seek 'prophetic anointing' and 'protection from spiritual enemies', can garner a substantial number of votes. And, lastly, because tribal bigotry is written into the DNA of some of the most prominent and influential of today's descendants of the pre-colonial traditional ruling elites - who, even though it is a democracy, still seek to dominate the Republic of Ghana through the back-door by proxy - and those who hold fealty to them, often show their allegiance to them by voting for the political parties such tribal-supremacist traditionalists support." Well said, say I.

How insightful this young Ghanaian is. Alas, indeed, most voters will not vote for the candidate who by voluntarily undergoing a medical examination and making public the results, as well as releasing his tax returns from the 1980's to date; and publicly declaring his assets to the media, and topped all that by revealing the total amount spent by the party he founded and the sources of its funding, showed Ghanaians (including a doubting-Thomas like me who has often criticised him in the past for attempting a reverse-takeover of the party founded by the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Convention Peoples Party - and advised he leave Nkrumah's party to set up one of his own in which he could call the shots), that in good governance terms, he is the best amongst this year's crop of presidential candidates - and can offer the kind of sorely-needed world-class leadership underpinned by ethical principles, which the people of Ghana and their peaceful and democratic nation require to prosper.

Sadly, the candidate who proved he is best suited to lead Ghana, will not win the presidential election - and Mother Ghana will be the worst for it. Pity.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.

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