How we still Cannot Copy The White Folks Properly

I have written on this pages about educated illiterates and I have also read where some other person has written about the lack of knowledge within the electorates. What happened at the NDC Congress has shown how we can make ourselves laughing stocks to the West in our desire to please them. We are trying so very hard to please them and receive their kudos; that causes us not to take a backward step, to examine if we are doing their thing properly!

I suppose this is the progress in democracy the NDC refers to when they claim to be the pace setters where democratic education and practices are concerned. What has just happened at their Congress is not democracy, it is Elitism! About 3000 delegates were allowed to vote at the selection process. I must admit that some in the NDC wanted to have the voting conducted Regionally; unfortunately, Ms Rawlings and her supporters objected to it. If they had allowed what was proposed, we could have been nearer to having autonomous Regional governments in the not too distant future. Unfortunately for her, it has rebounded on her and she lost overwhelmingly!

What happened on Saturday, in the eyes of some of us, was the flaunting of power by the political elites, where the Masses had been completely ignored; and the thought that NOBODY bothered to CONSULT us the MASSES, about who we really wanted as our flag bearer for the 2012 election. What I have failed to comprehend is the fact that we are here pretending to tell the world that we are now mature in the system they call democracy. And on the other hand, we are completely out of order by the way we are operating their system in other to show them, or should I say try to show them, that we are now their equal in the practice of this system. But oh no, we are completely messed up in trying to satisfy the masters and once again, have become educated illiterates.

How The System Is Operated In The USA.

You have what they call Primaries in individual State that wants to organise one. In our case, this elections will be organised in each Region.

The result of the election in each State is recorded. The winner of the State Primary will be declared at the Congress. So if Obama won in Ohio, the result is taken to Congress and the votes cast are recorded with those from the other States that voted for Obama. At the end of the Session, Votes, which have already been known from the results of the Primaries held in the various States, are collated and then The Winner from all the votes cast from the States is declared as the flag bearer!

Therefore in Ghana, they should have had Primaries in all the Regions among the members of the NDC. The Votes cast from all the Regions should have been brought to the Congress and counted. The outcome of the collated votes would elect the flag bearer for the Party! It should not have been left to the 3000 delegates or so, who could have been nobbled by the contestants! This is where we have left ourselves open to be ridiculed by the western world, knowing the level of corruption endemic in the black people as was evidenced during the World Cup voting! How did Pres. Mills spend all the Ghc 9million alleged was allocated to this re-election campaign?

So, here again, we have got it so wrong which really begs for us to find something that is not an invention of the west! We MUST try and know who we are and where we are coming from before we can get to the level of where they are. It took them a long time to find themselves after all the various civil wars in Europe before they emerged as individual nations. We must be allowed to evolve the same way, to find ourselves and determine where we belong before refining our OWN DEMOCRACY. We MUST REMEMBER we were different empires before we were PUT TOGETHER by the colonial masters!

Our politicians need to go and read our history in order for us to understand our identity first and foremost, before accepting that we are all Ghanaians; for collective socio-economic advantages and security, just like the USA and the other western nations we are trying to emulate! In the USA, the Texan will tell he is a Texan first and foremost before an America! An Ashanti man will be one before he is a Ghanaian; and so do others from the other Regions in Ghana. This is why we have Tribalism because if we do not think like that, then, Tribalism will not exist. Therefore, to get rid of this Tribalism, each Region MUST be allowed to RULE ITSELF and then we can come together at the centre for collective security and socio-economic advantages!

Author: Ismail Danesi

E-mail: ismail.danesi@gmail.com