A Nation on A partisan Diet

The greatness of a nation is measured by the by the many things that bind her people together and the differences that still remind them a sense of nationhood. As a child growing in this country, politics to me has become the chief occupation and all must be politicians to stand up to the vagaries of the economy. The grave challenges this nation face today are but this syndrome which have been woven strongly into our national fabric and has caught up so much with the younger generation. The spiraling partisanship that is engulfing our society in all facets is but the waterloo of our nation if care is not taken.

This endemic subculture has eaten in to student to the crescent of partisan politics holding student leadership to ransom. Competence or lack thereof is as useless as teats on a boar hog; one ought to be a member of either NDC or NPP to enjoy the wanton flow of campaign cash and paraphernalia to prosecute a flamboyant campaign. This gives little or no cognizance to the concerns of students since the payer of the piper calls the tune. It’s fascinating that student leadership due to partisanship can’t come out with a single voice in issues of national concern and even more ridiculous when it affects students more. The evidence of these abounds during the various student elections and congresses. With such porous beginnings by student leaders entering mainstream leadership positions only spell doom for the nation.

More to this, is the creeping of partisanship into our hitherto revered traditional and religious institutions? Chieftaincy was seen as sacred hence set aside for some families and the people chosen were often expected to have some impeccable track record especially in moral terms. This has culminated in countless chieftaincy disputes all over the country with some degenerating into brute conflicts where people are killed or maimed. A people that lose their culture certainly are bound to tumble into chaos and destruction. It behooves all who matter especially the politicians who have seen chieftaincy as a modus of feathering the cup of their political interest to desist. The traditional institutions ought to stand their ground in opposition to such blatant acts of disregard to our cultural norms.

The height of this unbridled partisanship is the media which is the fourth estate of our governance realm. The media due to funding or allegiance as the case might be has to a large extent become a poodle in the hand s to the NDC and the NPP. This doesn’t take away the professionalism by some few. Information has become bipolar as often reported and one believes a source or otherwise depending on his/her allegiance juxtaposing that with the media organization. This has inundated our media space with a lot of garbage and filth which would otherwise be considered noise churned out as news worthy of assimilation. The most topical of this situation is what most of us are awake to which is the case running currently at the Supreme Court. It is instructive to realize that in the instance where either the NDC or the NPP loses an election they never recognize the process as being free or fair. Over the years it has also become a culture when any of these political parties loose a high profile case they accuse the judiciary of being in bed with the other. It has been observed in many cases of which the states loss of the Ghana @ 50 case and the Bawku central MPs case which he lost are part of the litany in the former, the NDC accused the judiciary of corruption and in the latter the NPP did. The way commentary is on, on this case it is prescient that this trend wouldn’t change in this matter. In rounding up, this needless partisanship has become a major bane in our course to developing this nation. The unfortunate feeling by most of us that it is either my party in government executes this project or it shouldn’t be successful is reeling our progress negatively. This diet we are busily munching on is like concentrating on a sole diet which is deficient in many minerals and has the propensity of costing us many diseases. Let me state unequivocally that nations are not built by political parties or hardcore support for its activities but that successful nations are built on patriotism and respect for dissenting opinion. This ship would have to sail peacefully to her destination let’s not sink it with this greed.

Ali Joseph Oswald Wa