Mojo Odyssey: The Price Ghanaians Pay For Political Folly

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn defines ?Folly? as the trait of acting rashly; the quality of being rash and foolish, and exemplifies it thus: "trying to drive through a blizzard is the height of folly"; "adjusting to an insane society is total foolishness".

Are President Kufuor?s political follies that glaring? Mere rhetoric about ! filth without concrete action to permanently solve that issue is surely a political folly. Could the whole Ghanaian Society be insane? People walk by compatriots urinating in the open in a ?business as usual manner? with careless abandon and without reprimand. What of this nation that is oblivious to health hazards where unregulated food vendors fend off hordes of flies by the side of choked gutters full of human waste? And, such a nation allow officials to travel overseas in search of grants and aid to cure preventable diseases. How does this folly impact our lives and what price do we pay? Folly. Political Folly.

?FOLLY is a more DANGEROUS ENEMY to the GOOD than EVIL. One can protest against evil: it can be unmasked and, if need be, prevented by force. Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, as it makes! people at the least, uncomfortable. AGAINST FOLLY WE HAVE NO DEFENSE. NEITHER PROTESTS NOR FORCE CAN TOUCH IT: REASONING IS NO USE: facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved-indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied, in fact, he can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make him aggressive.?(emphasis added)

There is no gainsaying that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the neo-orthodox German theologian executed for trying to relieve the world of Hitler in 1945, did not envisage his words above to be employed in description of certain elements of Ghana?s Democracy. Bonhoeffer?s characterization of FOLLY aptly encapsulate attitud! inal posture of Ghanaians. Have Ghanaians not assumed indifference to moral choice, making it impossible to discern good from evil? Is it not evident that those Ghanaians who strive to do the good and moral thing are often attacked? It would seem that what is good and decent is deemed as bad by politico-Ghanaians. Ghanaians would like to pride themselves as the epitome of all wisdom, yet folly seems more of our bedfellow than virtue.

Dear Reader, shed your pre-conceptions and come along with me, away from political correctness, to peek into abandoned or forgotten mirrors. Then determine for yourselves what informs political credos of Ghanaians in our reluctance to hold elected officials accountable when they are in power and doing wrong? Are Ghanaians politically sophisticated or are we captives of political folly? Does folly reign supreme in our political h! earts and minds?

Let?s take a look at just two issues:

1) Did the political idiocy on display in our nation come into existence only when the Kufuor Administration was born?

2) Do Ghanaians live in a make-believe political world?

POLITICAL IDIOCY:

Did the political idiocy on display in our nation come into existence together with the Kufuor Administration? The answer is certainly no. To his abiding credit, Kufuor is not the originator of political idiocy in Ghana. That dubious honor m! ust sadly reside with Ghana?s founding father, Kwame Nkrumah, whose folly in declaring himself President for Life and his one-party rule was only the first in a series of political idiocies upon Ghana?s independence. Check out these idiocies: Kwame Nkrumah?s use of Ghana Broadcasting Corporations 1pm News bulleting to strike ?sacking? fear into civil servants long preceded Rawlings? revolutionary era?s use of radio announcements to relieve public servants of their positions, which was equated to Acheampong?s use of Gyewu Kyem?s Times Editorial to cast foreboding shadows of coming nasty events to citizen?s at large, and now rivaled by Kufuor?s use of ?Senior Journalists? Kwaku Baako Jr, Otchere Darko, Gina Blay and the ?Labone Coffee Shop Mafia? for spewing blatant lies in crude attempts at damage control for his political excesses. !

NDC?s inability to galvanize contributions from members construct permanent party headquarters up to this point is a folly. Is that not the same with the NPP, or, have they now purchased their Kokomlemle Office Building in this era of ?Kickback saga?? The protracted internal turmoil in the NDC is a complete folly. The NDC?s inarticulateness in defining its many accomplishments during its eight years of power which makes visitors to Ghana think Sankara Interchange, Accra International Conference Center, National Theater, Kotoka International Airport renovations, Skyline of Accra etc, have all been accomplished under the NPP is a folly. On the policy side, VAT, GETFund, NHIS, were all initiated by the NDC, and so their silence is a folly. Has this not given their opponents room to say NDC accomplished n! othing during its time in power?

Kufuor?s failed nominations for 2005 NPP National Executive Council are unmitigated follies. Kufuor?s loyalty to his thieving subordinates is perhaps the greatest of his follies. Why would he invite some of these subordinates to the Castle only for a pep talk, when clearly such people deserve outright dismissal for criminal acts? The comical vetting of 2005 to confirm the President?s nominees is another folly. His appointing of various relatives to positions of power reeked of arrogance in the suggestion that only those of his bloodline were qualified to those positions; another folly. His casual indifference to domestic affairs, (such as his inability to find solution to the Ya-Na?s and forty others? murder, from his first term of office to his second) is another folly. His apathy in the face of blatant corruption and his insistence on accusers! doing all the investigation, marshalling all evidence, at their own expense, before asking him to act, is yet another of his follies. His insistence on full cost recovery programs, while ignoring the plight of the masses, is pure folly. His inability to recognize the impropriety of his son and daughter purchasing a US $ 3.5 million hotel, which he described as ?a small boy and girl buying a small hotel? in an impoverished country, is a folly. His inability to understand that it would take private investment to revamp Ghana?s economy, and not the incessant foreign trips to acquire public loans, grants and other measures of foreign aid, is a folly (Kufuor?s lust for frequent traveling originate from the fact that his first major political appointment was as deputy foreign minister in the Busia regime of 1969)

NPP?s use of US $ 1.7 m! illion to renovate and refurbish the Castle for Kufuor?s residence and office, only to turn around four short years later to seek US $30 million loan from India to build a Presidential Palace is certainly a big folly. NPP?s failure to understand that land reform is completely essential to transforming Ghana?s economy is a sad folly. NPP?s failure to take strategic advantage of Diasporean remittances is a folly.

MAKE-BELIEVE POLITICAL WORLD

Do Ghanaians live in a make-believe political world?

It is nearly half a century since Ghana took her destiny into her own hands. In that peri! od, Ghanaians have tasted varied forms of governance, ranging from dictatorship, autocracy, military, revolutionary, democratic, ceremonial and executive presidency. A people deserve the government they get. Kwame Nkrumah did not become dictatorial from the get go. Soldiers did not overthrow Nkrumah, Busia and Limman without cause; however spurious one may take their cause to be. The electorate did not replace NDC in 2000 without reason. In all these scenarios, critical support from the trusting masses played a critical role. The popular ?Tsoo Boi? call to action usually emanates from one leader?s throat. Unable to guess true intentions of leaders when they first emerge, trusting masses give their support anyway. Once in control of government structures for coercion, many of these leaders discard promises they had made. Do the masses see through their leaders? metamorphoses but tolerate them anyway? Yes, they do, but there is a secret, not so secret, which is: th! ere is little mystery as to the effect of religion on the masses in forbearance of follies of their leaders.

Karl Marx has been quoted to regard religion as an _expression of material realities and economic injustice and that, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society: that religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. He is said to have theorized that religion is used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. This is the origin of Karl Marx?s comment that religion is the ?opium of the masses?. Could Ghanaians and our ?FAMA NYAME? (Let God Solve All Problems in the life hereafter, though the elected are mandated to solve such problems in this present life) Syndrome, be considered a manifestation of part of Marx?s thoughts about religion? Ghanaian Pastors and Apostles play crucial roles in politics. Their homil! ies have effect on the masses in their choice and tolerance of political leaders. To the extent that whilst ?anointed leaders? commit blatant thievery and assaults on decency and economic well-being of society, such misdeeds go without un-addressed in the name of God. Rather than allowing electorate to hold leaders accountable, these Pastors/Apostles, seemingly pious men, troop to the seat of government to talk pious nonsense and convey political crap.

From Ghana?s independence to the present time, these so-called men of God use their religion to descend upon the Castle openly or secretly to dispense ?advice? to Nkrumah, Ankrah, Afrifa, Busia, Acheampong, Akuffo, Limman, Rawlings, and Kufuor. Why does the electorate allow themselves to be pacified with religious talk; and not deman! d swift retribution for political folly or that their needs be acted upon immediately?

The Good Book says: ?Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar?. Yet it is by coercion many times over that the electorates follow this edict. They would rather pay bribes at the first opportunity. Thus, while the leaders steal with careless abandon, the masses abscond from responsibility; the social pact is broken. It is the masses who lose as a result of their follies. Unjust leaders are allowed too much room to maneuver to the detriment of the masses.

Ghanaians do indeed live in a make-believe political world. How else to explain their docility in the face of egregious abuses of power? The only reasonable explanation for this meekness ! is that they have been tempered with religion to believe that this sorry state of affairs is the best that Ghana can do. Ghanaians must make politicians, without exception, face rigors of the law, and a referendum on their actions when they stray from the voters? preferred path. It is possible to be religious and yet keep a sharp eye on those leaders who would try to use their faith as evidence of their righteousness, whilst committing crimes. The folly of the masses is indeed strange.

2005 Mojo Odyssey was soft on politicians past and present, a condition which 2006 Mojo Odyssey intends to rectify.

Mojo Odyssey on hiatus for the rest of 2005 unless??..