Opinions of Sunday, 21 March 2021

Columnist: Joel Savage

Ghana is neither the property of the NPP or NDC, the country is for Ghanaians

The NPP and NDC flags The NPP and NDC flags

One doesn’t need to be a political analyst, to review the statistical data pertaining to politics in Ghana, before coming to the conclusion that the kind of politics in the country is not for the common people that put all their trust and confidence in politicians after long hours in the hot temperatures to cast their votes.

Despite the free education that has become part of Ghana’s national anthem, the country is rapidly collapsing, with the highest unemployment rate and corruption. Nothing is going better and people are facing the toughest challenges in their lives daily as businesses fold and taxations get high, yet it’s an abomination to speak against the government of the NPP without getting feedback or insults.

Why is everything in Africa entirely different from the developed world? Why does the developed world have the natural resources that Africa has but all of them are politically and economically better than Africa? And finally, why do Africans hate themselves so much? These are some of the important questions that people continue to ask over and over.

It’s all over the internet that “If you want to hide something from a Black man, put it in a book.” This is a very strong derogatory and racist comment against a particular race, yet still, there is ample truth in it because you can find that evidence in the comments and the way some Ghanaians often attack writers on political issues pertaining to the NDC and NPP in the country.

Writers that are concerned about the bad political atmosphere in the country and, therefore, sharing their opinions to correct things in the country are often accused with insults to be a member of the NDC or the NPP.

If you are intelligent enough, you will not attack any writer addressing issues on what is going wrong in either the governments of either NPP or the NDC because the country is for Ghanaians, not for the political parties. The NPP supporters must not promote corruption in the country because the NDC did that, after all, Nana Akufo Addo promised to fight against corruption in the country.

Since the NPP or the NDC has taken the country as their personal property, you will always get feedback of insults from members of both political parties that find suggestive and educative articles offensive. I don’t know if this is part of intimidation to stop writers from sharing their political views or opinions about the country.

I will not aid, promote, support, and abet any bad governance in Ghana because I have a relative in the government. Even I will not do that if I have a brother serving as a Minister, refusing to address the issues affecting the country politically and economically will also affect the future of the country, our children and the next generation.

African writers are never given the same respect as the writers of the developed world, despite having great scholars, academicians, and professors, that have played a significant role in the World of Literature today, yet Africans are not even considered as human beings by some people.

The simple truth many will hate to hear is a million years will pass and an African will never be given the same respect as anyone from the developed world until they wake up from the long sleep of ignorant, tribalism, corruption, nepotism and embark on serious projects to improve their environments, medical and educational facilities.

The white man sits for long hours to study Africans and they know that the people love and trust them, yet they hate themselves. This has been very easy for them to penetrate the continent to commit every crime politically, economically, and medically, yet Africans never learn anything significant from bitter experience.

If Africans will continue to remain hostile to their own brothers and sisters in this way, then we shouldn’t expect development on the continent in the next thousand years.