BY SESHIE, STANLEY

Political discourse in Ghana seems to focus on the Opposition than the
Government for that matter the people. Whereas that must not be the
case, the truth is NPP as an Opposition had fitted itself into that
limelight, and do almost everything necessarily to occupy and make it
a position of distraction than contribution. The individualistic party
posturing characterizing our national politics had devolved into the
NPP itself, as reflected in the pervasive individualism rocking and
cracking the current leadership hierarchies.

Just as the case in the national politics, the needed cooperation is
conspicuously nonexistent because each member is buried in his own
thoughts, which only keep fueling their crisis to the detriment of the
whole. Though understandably undesirable and unpreferable politically,
yet to be in Opposition is to be in an orderly and not a chaotic
state. Anything other than this is baffling. That is why the
continuous current chaotic state of NPP is extremely difficult to
appreciate. Unless they are seen as a group of people buried in
thoughts that extols individualism in lieu of cooperation just as the
party itself does in national politics.

It will be naive to, even assume that NPP is ignorant of the political
climate of Ghana. Yet as knowledgeable as they are about it, they are
encapsulated in their own self-created thoughts degenerating into the
self-created and fanned conflicts. These make-beliefs mostly clouds
their judgement. As such, they hardly engage in any critical
evaluative measure to appeal to the people outside their catchment
areas. Given that every party has its strongholds that they can count
on during election, it takes more than campaigning to appeal to that
group of peoole called the floating voters. Every party can campaign.
But it seems not every party can appeal to the people apart from their
faithfuls.

For instance, NPP's intransigent posture in pushing for the call to
changing the Voters Register even if done cannot be a subsitute to
appealing to the people apart from their stalwarts. Likewise, it will
not create disaffection for the parties with contrary views. Besides,
per the observation of and from the two days EC Forum organized in
Alisah Hotel, powered by the five-member committee to discuss the
claims of NPP by all stakeholders, the emerging consensus points
towards edition to cleansing the Register of the generic challenges
than replacing them from scratch.

Generic challenges, in the sense that it is impossible to have a Voter
Register absolved of all possible infiltrating challenges, which are
themselves been fostered by these very parties. In that regard, the
NPP's deflated case can best be reduced to merely pointing out the
generic challenges inherent in Voter Register compilation, and never
building up a case of political contrivance, a thought they are buried
in and imposing on Ghanaians. It is therefore conspicuous that since
NPP's claim is generic and not a contrivance by any party, editing to
cleansing the Register is the best option to make it new.

Of course, the newness of the Voter Register via editing is not what
NPP wanted. They wanted total replacement from scratch. Meanwhile
doing so in the absence of the necessary technology and logistics to
forestalling the very generic challenges that bothers on political
honesty than technical inefficiencies of the Electoral Commission will
be more of a merry-go-round voyage, tantamount to wasting time and
resources than a solution. So technically, econimically and
politically, it is more prudent to edit than replace the Voters
Registration from scratch. In addition it smacks off double standard
to be constantly accusing the Government of profligacy, whilst urging
same in the name of preventing potential unrest as if the editing is
without cost. Just as peace is better than unrest in all situations so
is editing better than replacement from scratch in this context.

Accordingly, this intransigent insistence of NPP on the replacement of
old Voter Register from scratch to confer that newness in lieu of
editing to achieving same purpose is a reflection of the fact that
these are people "buried in thought" and for that matter insulated and
isolated from the national interest. It will interest them to be
reminded of an observation made by the British Historian, A.J.P Taylor
about Napoleon, that, he learned from the mistakes of the past to make
new ones. In the same vein whoever writing the political history of
NPP that will span the democratic dispensation of Ghana must similarly
and definitely highlights how NPP learns from the mistakes of the past
just to make new ones in its quest for power, resulting into more
defeats than victory. This is not unimaginable in 2016. Thanks to
being buried in, and "fighting" the thought of EC and others are
against me than focusing on working out solutions to appealing to
floating voters.

This tendency of being buried in thought is not only characteristic of
the ignorant, but also of the knowledgeable as well, which insulates
and isolates them from reality. The reality is that the political
machinery of a nation ought to work in cooperation to better the lives
of the citizenry. It is in that collaborative substratum that the
incompetence of a ruling party becomes visible to the people, which
underpins their collective disposition for change of government in any
election.

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