Should We Rank our Nation’s Interests Below our Party’s?

--Prince Prah suggests we should.

After reading Prince Prah’s Article captioned: “Alan: The Loose Cannon”, and appearing on April 8, 2010, I felt compelled to rush not necessarily to defend Alan Kyeremateng, who was the object of Mr. Prah’s reckless disparaging Cannon but to decry Mr. Prah’s conviction that we ought to relegate our National interests below those of our Political Parties.

It is most disturbing to see a prolific Writer, and aspiring Journalist of national renown, I presume, like Prince Prah, produce such an unpatriotic and obviously slanted Article, whose contents he miserably fails attempting to claim neutrality on.

Prince Prah’s Article, referred to above, is totally without due attention to the relevant issues at stake, and has no merit establishing the purported ineligibility of Alan’s for NPP’s flagbearership. Rather, the Article unequivocally displays Mr. Prah’s gross admission of irresponsibility to Ghana's success or wellbeing. In fact, Mr. Prah’s Article seems more of an impulsive, sentimental outburst against a candidate that he unconditionally dislikes than a normal writing to discount the chances of that candidate to defeat Mr. Prah’s favorite.

But more critically and self-destructively, the Article exposes Mr. Prah's lack of understanding of what Political Parties are meant for in a democratic Nation and his endorsement of putting the Nation’s interests in the shadows of those of a Political Party. What do we become when we abase the interests of the Nation below those of the Party? If we did so, wouldn’t we be suggesting, then, that the very entity of our Nationhood is subsumable into that of the Party? How logical and sensible is that? As we all would wisely expect that a smaller entity is what normally and rationally fits into a larger one, wouldn’t the attempt to fit a larger entity into a smaller one naturally raise the risk of abject incongruity?

The quotations Mr. Prah inserted in his Article prove nothing to dilute the validity of Alan's stance, or the Article’s significance in defining Alan, versus the other candidates. (Please, refer to the Article referenced above, if those quotations are not familiar to you).

With this piece, Prince Prah has sadly revealed how deeply naive and puerile he is. How could he so shamelessly disapprove of Alan's mature and intelligent assertion that he, Alan, prioritizes the interests of the Nation over his Political Party's?

If it were not for the Nation's interests, there would not be any use for Political Parties. And anyone that has that kind of parochial, shallow belief about Nationhood does not understand what Patriotism is, or shuns Patriotism altogether.

What would be the purposes of the Political Parties, then? Would it for gathering together people of similar minds to loot the Nation? Or, for assembling like-minded self-aggrandizing buffoons to subjugate all the rest of us to satiate their selfish interests?

If Prince Prah thinks the Party is more important than the Nation, then why would he bother with any Elections seeking for a leader for the Country? Such attitude of Mr. Prah's epitomizes the serious lack of National leadership we need to move the country forward and confirms the fears of many that important figures within the Party are out to look for only themselves and not the Nation; and these selfish Politicians, with no interest in leading the Nation to success, are supported by leeches like Prince Prah.

It is such most unpatriotic sense of affiliation that has denied all of us any meaningful sustenance of accountability and Probity in the Nation. So long as these Politicians believe that the interests of their respective Parties should supersede those of our Nation's, they would not hesitate to engage in any nefarious activity that fills their pockets and finances their Party's machinery, even if it undermines the Nation's wellbeing. It could be reasonably inferred from such a position that people of that belief see the Nation as a remote entity whose interests might be in competition with those of their Party's and would therefore choose their Party's narrow interests over the ultimate needs of the Nation.

The attempt by Prince Prah to claim some impartiality and objectivity in the intra-Partisan NPP feud is ludicrous at best. While he may not be a registered NPP member, he has, by his many Publications, indicated his strong preference for the Party over others..., which is no fault at all, except that it goes to show the obvious mendacity in this Reporter's claims. And if we are even to take his word for it and assume he is not partisan, the "Prince" has indicated he favors Nana Akuffo Addo for the NPP flagbearership over Alan, and possibly all others. Should we, then, extrapolate to assume that he considers Nana Akuffo Addo as having the same views about the Nation's interests as his, and that is why he supports the former National NPP Presidential contender? What a weighty polluting baggage Nana Akuffo has on his back!!!

So, what has Prince Prah, really, laid down as any sensible basis for his preference for Nana? Thus far, the most logical cause for his support for Nana, besides sharing a parochial interest to see a Party stake a superior position to the Nation, would be their probable familial or Akyem connection.

That being the case, the Public should, from now on, not lose sight of the fact that Prince Prah and the likes of him would rather see some Party flourish at the Nation's expense. And how he could see that Party flourish without concomitant National growth and success is something he and his cohorts alone would have to explain.

To cite Alan Kyeremateng's claim of ranking the Nation's interests higher than his Party's (or those of any other Party's, for that matter), as some negative attribute of his that should disqualify Mr. Kyeremateng from winning the NPP flagbearership is to admit that Alan is better for the Nation than any of Mr. Prince's choice.

I hope the Nation takes a keen note of that and rewards Mr. Kyeremateng accordingly with a win over any candidate Mr. Prah may be in cahoots with. More grease to Alan's elbows, then.

Well, thanks to Prince Prah for giving us a cogent reason why the rest of the Nation should shed no tears for Nana Akuffo Addo for failing to capture the Presidency in 2008 and should not be eager to throw our votes in the latter’s direction in the future, either.

Long Live Ghana!!!

By G.K. Berko. (Realtor, New Hampshire. USA.)