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Opinions of Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Columnist: Musbau Razak

Multi-party democracy; the 'devil' to development in Ghana?

Democracy came with it, multi party politics and this has gone a long way to deepen all aspects of democracy in Ghana.

However, one thing it might have brought along is the inability to use all of our human resources due to the existing political differences. It just might have made it difficult for us to harness our our very skilled personnel due to the strict political differences in our country.

It has since become a taboo for one party member to serve in another party's government. Such move is usually termed as a betrayal and usually results in a sack or suspension of the said member. This is borne out of the strong rivalry between the various parties.

Moreover, it such a move is seen as an attempt to help deny one's party from ever regaining power.For it is the prayer and belief of opposition parties to see the party in government fail abysmally.

And this adventure is what every member of the party must be engaged in. The failure of the ruling party is the success of the opposition party and the success of the ruling party is certainly the failure of the opposition party.

As funny and interesting as this sounds it is the reality in the country Ghana and a number of other countries in this world of ours . Working together is a no no and this has left the country where it is today.

One wounded with corruption, embezzlement, dishonesty, no development plan, lack of continuation for existing programs, and a complete misdirection.

The country has been through some 20years of military rule from the overthrow of our first president Kwame Nkrumah in 1969 till 1992 when we accepted democracy again. After 25years of democratic governance, the country has developed at a snail's pace. Division , hatred,envy and dishonesty has been the creed of our leaders.

Most recently,former member of parliament and a staunch member of the opposition party NDC, E.T. Mensah had wanted to contest to be part of the Council of State, this move however was deemed a betrayal of his mother party.

And according to him, he received several calls from officials of his party NDC, calling on him to discontinue his attempt to serve in the ruling party's government as a member of Council of state.

Well, although he was going to partake in an election, winning the bid was sure. He eventually discontinued the attempt and alluded his decision to the complaints that arose after he made this decision.

Truthfully, the man suffered some criticisms and backlash for making this decision which was seen as a betrayal of his party. This was seen as moving to help a rival succeed at the expense of his party. A success which will jeopardize the fortunes of his party according to some party faithfuls.

Dr. Edward Mahama has been appointed Ambassador-at-large and the PNC is furious. Some have referred to it as a betrayal to his party. The party has even called for an emergency meeting to settle the matter. Meanwhile some members of the party have called on him to resign.

The 2016 flag bearer has insisted he is serving Ghana and is bent on doing that.It will take time but we shall get there when everyone shall be willing to serve the country void of such sentiments.