December 2008 was a period that truly tested Ghana’s young democracy. The nation’s democratic process was certainly stretched to its elastic limit. More importantly, the 2008 election unfolded very interesting but serious revelations. Most of the events that characterized the elections plainly sent strong warning signals, to us, that all is indeed not well with our political process. These ringing bells point to one reasonable conclusion: that attitudinal change should be our number one concern.

The Moving Forward and Change Slogans

Before and during the 2008 elections the two main slogans or political jargons that took the centre stage of every political discussion were: ‘Moving Forward’ and ‘Change!’ The moving forward slogan with its kangaroo dance, which was spearheaded by the then ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), certainly proved to be a force to reckon with. No wonder President J.E.A Mills remarked, in his inaugural speech after the swearing in, that Ghana is prepared to pay royalties to the NPP for using that insightful catchphrase. The genesis of this watchword, interestingly, can be found in Exodus 14:15. The Living Bible (LB) reads: ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “Quit praying and get the people moving! Forward, march!”’ God made this instructive pronouncement at the time the Israelites were about crossing the Red Sea (to the Promised Land), in the wake of the deadly and threatening advancement of the Egyptians against them.

The then main opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), and indeed almost all the other minority parties in the country, on the other hand clamoured for change. Change! Change!! Change!!! - was the chant of many vociferous political activists and their buddies. At the end of the day, there is a change of government. The baton for exercising governmental power in Ghana has shifted from the NPP to NDC. It is worth noting, however, that it is Ghana and Africa that won the elections. Indeed, the greatest yearning and hope of majority of Ghanaians, irrespective of one’s political persuasion, was maintenance of peace. So, most Ghanaians campaigned and voted for it, hence it is peace that actually won the elections.

The Americans and their Change

Coincidentally, the Americans happened to hold their most keenly contested presidential elections, as was in Ghana, in November 2008. The then main opposition party, the Democrats, used the change slogan which worked for their success. Change actually occurred in the political process of the United States of America, in the sense that the Republicans lost power to the Democrats.

It is however worth noting that the Democrats did not ask for any change but “Change that (they) need”. ‘Change that we (Americans) need’ was the exact slogan that worked miracles for them. Really, the Americans have made another remarkable history which continues to magnetize the admiration of almost everyone around the globe. They made the seemingly impossible possible. The Americans truly illustrated that they have actually done away with racism, and that their quest for fair and equal opportunity for all is not just a political gimmick. As we speak, an African American, in the person of Barack Hussein Obama, has ascended the throne of American presidency – the seat that many people perceive as being the centre of the world’s super power. The needed change that many political and human right activists, such as Dr Martin Luther King Jnr., advocated for some years ago has now become a reality, because the Americans have now realized that that change was not just any change but the change they needed to conform.

The Change that Ghana Needs

One of the needed changes that Ghana is crying for is that sensitive national issues should not be swept under the carpet as we have been doing. The need to promote the welfare of Ghanaians should be the number criterion for taking every political decision. And that blame game, political vindictiveness, fabricated lies and sometimes certain outlandish remarks from most of our political leaders and statesmen should be discarded in the trashcan of our painful historical past.

The events that characterized the 2008 elections, timely, unfolded the fact that certain aspects of our political system need urgent diagnosis and healing. A change that is effected through a “ballot box” is of little or no meaningful impact on the life of the citizenry if that change does not inject any sense into any negativity that was revealed or created prior to or after the so-called change. The ‘Moving Forward’ slogan will only remain historic and therefore will not serve its useful purpose if those propagating or advocating for it are not ready to depart from anything that will thwart its effectiveness. It is very instructive to acknowledge the fact that ‘moving forward’ is just a decent way of preaching that people should depart from their acts of “backwardness”. Ghana needs to move forward, not backwards. No wonder since our independence most of our prominent political leaders including Dr. Kwame Nkrumah have reiterated this awe-inspiring statement: ‘Forward ever, backward never”.

However, a reasonable question we should ponder over is whether Ghana is truly moving forward - if not, why? I think one of the core factors to this disconcerting trend is that we seem not to be interested in permanently curing challenges that surface at various stages of our development. Rather, we seem to allow the same challenges to recur and afflict most Ghanaians, thereby hindering our national agenda. Most of our leaders seem to be experts in tracing, attributing and explaining most of our developmental challenges instead of finding lasting and pragmatic solutions to them. Today, it seems we have replaced our national agenda with the political agenda of the various political parties in the country. The party that wins political power becomes the new king with new laws. We want to move forward but we do not know the particular direction to take. Moving in different directions has been the bane of our advancement in all endeavours. We seem not to have a particular direction that we are all heading to, but different ones. No wonder our quest to move forward has been a mirage, because we seem not to have a common agenda, goal and purpose. We approach our developmental challenges with our political spectacle, devoid of objectivity and sometimes rational reflection. In the end, the challenges that bedevil us are allowed to assume more difficult and needless resource consuming postures. Wrongs of yesterday that repeat themselves are justified and explained in a manner that seems to exonerate us by tracing its root to a certain regime or political figure.

Change We Must

We must indeed change from being indifferent to, or running away from, our real developmental challenges. We need to rise up to every challenge that comes our way as a nation, and deal with it in an objective manner, to minimize or inter the destructive effects of those nagging challenges. We should put on our common national interests whenever we are approaching matters of national concern. Our political lenses or spectacles should therefore be put aside in order to see through these challenges or matters in a patriotic manner. It is then that every Ghanaian will see himself or herself as part of the solution seekers. The so-called CPP, NDC and NPP Ghana will therefore become a thing of the past. Apathy on the part of most Ghanaians will also be obliterated, because most Ghanaians would then regard themselves as part of the government, irrespective of the political party that exercises political power.

Healing Our National Wounds

One of the surest ways of making these suggestions a dream come true is healing our national wounds and squarely facing our real challenges, not ignoring them. We must not behave like ostriches thinking that all is well. The 2008 general election and its events clearly manifested some of the nauseating trends in our political process. It is now a plain truth that our electoral system is not immune to fraudulent dealings and manipulations. Indeed, votes can be bought and traded both by the electorate and sometimes officers of the Electoral Commission. Voting more than once is now regarded as ‘legal’ since some political parties encourage and champion its practice in a subtle way. The massive fraudulent dealings in the 2008 elections nearly evaporated the peaceful atmosphere that we are enjoying. Is this not enough for us to learn our lessons? This disturbing challenge must therefore be confronted now before our next general elections in 2012.

Truly, some of our media houses actually disappointed us by fuelling the already unnecessarily charged political atmosphere. Not only did some of our electronic and print media serve as channels for spewing certain sullied propaganda (by some political parties), but also adulterated their required neutrality and objectivity with bias and fallacious reportage. Besides, some of them, unprofessionally, usurped and assumed the authority of the Electoral Commission and announced flawed results. But for timely intervention of the National Peace Council and certain prominent personalities, Ghana would have been heading in the direction of some of the regretful factors that sparked the despicable genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. What pragmatic measures are being employed by the Ghana Media Commission (GMC) and other stake holders such as the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) to cure these archaic tendencies and ignominious journalism? It is certainly high time that we brought some of our media houses to order. We are compromising the needed journalistic standards with indecorous reportage and broadcast. Change we must!

What cannot be questioned is the fact that Ghana is polarized along ethnic and political lines. The most disturbing side of this dire situation is that the enmity that is normally created among the populace by reason of their voting pattern is often perpetuated, not only by some naïve electorates but also some leaders of most political parties. Sometimes, some of these leaders even manifest and kindle this rancour when exercising political power. As a result, some section of Ghanaians tend to be favoured, tolerated and protected unnecessarily to the malodorous disregard of those on the other side of the political divide. Nepotism has therefore become the order of the day. We “find job for the boys” and pointlessly dismiss the perceived opponents, real or imagined. It is a sad commentary that some Ghanaians, since our independence, are simply classified enemies because of their political persuasion. They are therefore treated, sometimes, in a manner that is an affront to our avowed constitutional principles. So always the seed of disunity is allowed to grow further into a harmful gargantuan tree. No wonder a government in power is mostly painted as only for CPP, NPP or NDC activists, depending of which of these political parties is exercising governmental authority. Interestingly, upon assumption of power, these political parties most often profess reconciliation, in words, but practice retaliation in a disguised manner. Definitely, we cannot move forward in this direction. We must practically change from these divisive habits. The needed change will remain a fantasy, unless, we truly admit that this abysmal conduct is something that will move us backwards, hence the need to sensibly root it out now.

Another unhealthy phenomenon that we must desist from is dishonesty. Dishonesty, especially on the part of most of our political leaders, should be a thing of the past if we sincerely want to move forward in any proper direction. It is an obvious fact that majority of our political leaders usually do not tell us the truth. Such political leaders mostly obscure the truth and perpetuate falsehood in their bid to protect their political interests. Undeniably, some of our political leaders are not honest enough to admit their mistakes and faults. Consequently, they more often try to save their image by lying or shifting blame to other persons. Ironically, they criticize others for their misdeeds and defend theirs to the highest limit, usually citing the mistakes of other leaders or political parties as their “authority” or standard for justifying their shameful deeds. There is no gainsaying that we cannot move forward in this grubby warfare.

Conclusion

Ghana, unquestionably, needs to move forward in a direction that promotes our national objectives at all times. This cannot, however, happen unless there is a change – change that we need. The change that Ghana is yearning for is the one that is prepared to find lasting solutions to the above enumerated challenges. Change that is real is the one that is pregnant with honesty, objectivity, proactive approach to our challenges and national policies. Ghanaians are looking for a change that seeks to rectify our noticeable ills in a holistic manner. This is the needed change that can actually move us forward, in a right direction. So we must quit from sheer words to candid actions. And our negative attitudes must give the positive ones a chance to operate!

Richard Obeng Mensah; borncapy@yahoo.com. The author is with the Faculty of Law, KNUST and Centre for Human Rights and Advanced Legal Research (CHRALER), Kumasi.