The election fever has caught up with us and I am ready to vote for one; just one of the candidates. I am disappointed that I cannot vote for two of them.
A vote for two would satisfy my conscience and my belief against hypocrisy of all kinds. Maybe we should consider granting that franchise for each voter to select two candidates so the one who comes second would be vice president. In that case, a more competent candidate like Ndoum who is not in a popular party may also have a place in the Flagstaff house…aloo?

John Mahama is not my man and Nana isn’t either. But I am told a vote for a smaller party would mean a vote for the unintended candidate. This is my foremost source of confusion and for many others who have lost faith in the political system.
Another source of confusion is the opinion polls and predictions by pollsters and those who are making fortune and fame from punditry. There have been polls from EIU, UG,BNI and GN Research all of which placed the opposition NPP in the lead. But apart from the EIU the rest of the polls have been denied by the said institutions. The NPP were all joy with these projections that placed them ahead of the NDC. And the NDC pack, led by the Vice President, Amissah-Arthur rubbished the polls as fake.
Meantime, the President wrote in his letter that the NDC’s scientific polls show they are winning.

In a fascinating twist, opinions have changed like the weather since Ben Ephson published his polls. Now the NDC goes hallelujah…Amen! The NPP this time round quickly goes for Donald Trump’s victory against polls, ignoring the facts that opinion polls are but about popular votes and not Electoral College votes. As for the pastors and Muslim clerics who are so engrossed in the elections, God almighty has a message for you: “Don’t worry my servant, I am considering to extend the fivefold ministry to six; you are good for ‘prophetocracy’. Be in the media, conduct religious polls, punctuate with numerology ( like 666) and predict the winner of elections. Start every prediction with THOU SAYETH THE LORD”.

The issue of Trump brings me to my third confusion, the way ‘Yaanom’ drew parallels between the US and the Ghanaian system was interesting. Honestly, the only similitude the Ghanaian voter has with the US voter is the pervasive genocide of crony capitalism that rapes the economic opportunities of the working class and poor for the filthy-rich. Oh yea, masa, there ain’t no parallels between Trump and Nana Addo. The former is a solid business mogul and an avowed critic of the political system while the latter is part of the shape, form and structure of the political establishment.

What do I mean? Both Nana Addo and John Mahama are part of Ghana’s problems. They are both sons of politicians. One was the son of a former chief justice and one time ceremonial President, and the other a son of a minister of state. They both contributed and benefitted directly and indirectly from the system. The only difference is that, one presides over a corrupt country while the other only served in a corrupt government as an Attorney General. This election is a matter of the rock and the hard place; I mean the devil and the deep blue sea. And therein lies my ‘Trump-like’ confusion and when I think about this as a hustler, I feel like just buying me a carton of Kalyppo on December 7, cross my legs and sip until 7pm without inking my thumb.
I wish both JM and Nana were miles away from the character of this good-for-nothing political system.

The Legacy

But there are legacy issues that go with this election. Whoever wins the elections wins collateral and whoever loses suffers collateral.

Should the NPP win, they will inherit an economy that is recovering from poor economic growth of the last two years. They will build it and consolidate their reputation as better managers of the Ghanaian economy. One may not agree with the NPP’s style of economic management but many businesses believe the NPP provided the requisite polices for business growth. Get the opportunity to jail some NDC ministers and use this opportunity to appear less corrupt.

Otherwise, the NDC with its fiscal consolidation measures that are monitored by the IMF, will enjoy the results of its fiscal consolidation policies and with benefits from new oil exploration, turn the economy around and change the minds of those who believe the NDC is only good at winning elections not at proper economic governance.
If the NDC lost the election, it would go down as bad managers of the Ghanaian economy, having left the economy in poor shape at the end of Rawlings era and under the current government. They might suffer longer stay in opposition and the corruption tag as some of their members might suffer jail terms again. Hahahahaha.
Else, the NPP would go down not only as a party which lacks political mobilization and entangled in unnecessary play of egos but also one which would struggle to pool resources for election 2020 and subsequent ones.

Frederick K. Kofi Tse
kelikofi@gmail.com
Facebook/Frederick Keli Kofi