YOU DO ME I DO YOU POLITICS (Part 2): WHO FEELS THE PINCH

By Sagito Musah Issakah

The politics of Blame it on them, you-do-me-I-do-you and the politics of lies has gained prominence in our body politics that no single day passes without the ears of well meaning Ghanaians being bashed left, right and centre with these negatives, by people considered leaders of our country. These unnecessary bashings makes nonsense any argument and analysis of important national issues that unfortunately has the principal arguers as politicians.

The result and effect of the kind of politics we do in the country is that we remain where we are and eluded by progress. And who feels the pinch- the poor masses, who look up to the politician to soften and make better their not-so-good living conditions, with good policies and programmes. Selfishness, greed and self-conceitedness have taken the better part of the politician’s mind that he or she immediately forget the plight of the masses when exercising power. The following happenings and promises will give a better insight to what I am trying to put across. SECOND CYCLE EDUCATION The politician in Ghana is at it again, trying to waste resources on the unnecessary. It is a big shame that as a nation we don’t have an idea as to the way we want to educate our young ones. We are still grappling with the number of years we want our second cycle students to use for their secondary education.

The Kuffour administration after what they called ‘careful’ consideration decided that the three years secondary education be changed to four years so as to give the teachers of those institutions much time to take their students through the syllabi. The resultant effect would be an improvement in outputs in final exams (at least that was what they envisaged).

Two years into the new system a new government assumes office and things are gone haywire and confusion takes the centre stage. Having stated (in bold letters) in their manifesto that they will revert to three years system when they gain political control of the nation, the new government is working on fulfilling that pledge even though the new system is only two years old and so will not be analytically sound to think it a bad system.

My beef is not about the duration our younger brothers and sister use in secondary/high school. My worry has to do with the way politicians are insensitively toying with the future of these young ones when they know very well what to do. I very much believe that the new administration is just trying to buy time because they know they will fail, just as the former administration failed. The difference however, is that the new administration have started earlier. Every single Ghanaian knows that the problem with our education has to do with teacher motivation, lack of infrastructural facilities, salaries of teachers among other technical and logistical problems and these are the factors to be considered and not duration or fulfilment of party promise. The old administration was wrong and from the look of things this new one is treading the same path.

Now, why do I say the politicians are toying with the education of our brothers in second cycle institution? I will tell you my dear readers. Stories and evidence point to the fact that the now Minister of Education supported the four year system introduced by the former administration, only to turn round this time to condemn it and call for three years. It is also on record that the former administration was advised by the Anamoah Mensah Committee to continue with the three years education and rather tackle the problems of infrastructure, teacher motivation among other recommendations. But they politically decided on four years and totally neglected the important recommendations given by the Committee.

At the latest forum organised by the Ministry to brainstorm on the way forward in terms of the duration for the second cycle students, someone got up and said they (apparently talking for the government) have already decided on the three years, thus “rubbishing” the essence of that forum in the first place. On Adom FM, somewhere in the week that the forum was organised, the former Minister of Education, prof Fobih was interview on the issue and what he said was something to the effect that, when they come back to power they will revert to the four years. What does this tell us? It means that governments do not care about the effect of their actions on the principal players-students. They only do things that suit them and do not care if others are hurt or not.

UNITY

The president on several platforms since assuming office as the most powerful man in the country has made it clear to us that he is the father of the nation and that he is not a president for only a section of the populace. To this light he is urging all Ghanaians to get united for the development of the nation. Well, the president forgot that democracy does not give room for politicians, especially those in Africa to work in unison for the development of their separate countries. I beg to sound pessimistic but the kind of politics we are doing in this country does not give the impression that we will ever be united in this country. Hope I am proven wrong though. The Ghanaian politician goes about ranting that they have the country at heart but their actions tell otherwise. What happened in the eight years of the NDC in opposition and NPP in government on the one hand and what is happening in 2009 on the other hand, are enough to tell Ghanaians that unity as a people will always be an illusion unless behaviours of politicians and their supporters are changed. The NDC in opposition saw virtually every policy of government as not good for the people. They find negative sides of policies and highlight it to the extent that everything about the policy becomes negative in the eyes of Ghanaians. That attitude gave some of us the impression that, the NDC was always praying for the NPP to fail in their promises so that Ghanaians will reject them in an election. Division or polarisation of the state was the end result and that made senseless the call made by the government of the day and civil society groups for all Ghanaians to unite for the forward movement of the nation.

Happenings in the six months of the new administration show a repetition of events in the tenure of the previous administration. The president and NDC wants all Ghanaians to unite and together ensure that we achieve the all important objective of progressing the nation to a middle-income state and also creating the environment for good living conditions for all Ghanaians and not just a few. The opposition NPP do not think it prudent to ensure that and their actions give a manifestation of what they want. Protestations, condemnation of actions and press conferences to express teir dislike of actions are what the NPP is employing and these are divisive actions especially the way and manner they go about them. We all are aware of what has happened and is happening now and so there will be no need citing examples.

LIE TO WIN THE MASSES

The politics of lies has assumed the greatest of impunity in this country that some of us fill democracy is doing more harm than good in our daily lives. I can say with all confidence that the promises made by the flag bearers of all the parties were pledges aimed at winning power and not because they can do it. They all compromise the truth just to get political power. Inscribed on a poster place on the Mankessim-Cape Coast road is “...prosperity for all and not a few”. How can this be possible in a country that leaders are self-conceited and greedy? The NPP also promised  a better Ghana for all and not a few. This is obviously not possible and they know it. Hoping to be able to do something is different from saying you will do it. They should not forget that.

Virtually no day passes without us hearing politicians lie to their tooth just to save the image of individuals in the party or even the party as an institution. Classical example is what happened at the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) some few days ago. The government says “ ...during his stay with the BNI, Mr. Mpiani was in the company of his lawyers, Yoni Kulendi, Egbert Faibille Jnr., and Hamida Nuhu.” Whiles, the counsel of Mpiani says, “the BNI’s interrogation of his client on Tuesday, took place without them.” Credit Ghanaian Times of Thursday, June 4, 2009. An issue that has only one truth has the truth compromised for the lie just to save the image of a party on one side of the coin and taint the image of another party, on the other side. In the heated days of the campaign for the election in 2000, the NPP flag bearer then, is on record to have carried fuel gallons at rallies, apparently sending the message to electorates that the NDC government was making life unbearable due to their increasing fuel prices unnecessarily. They won the election alright but became worse and assumed the notoriety for fuel price increases.

The NDC in opposition from 2001 to 2008 castigated the ruling NPP for making life unbearable in their eight years of rule by unnecessarily increasing fuel prices intermittently. They are now in power and have started increasing fuel prices, obviously going against their campaign promise that led to their winning power. The NPP in government gave the main reason for fuel increases to increasing prices on the world market. The NDC did not buy that argument then. Now that they are in power and increasing prices, they are giving the same excuse of increasing world market prices. The NPP is also not buying into that argument. The cycle of lie-to-win continues and their actions give prominence to the saying that “what goes around comes around.” They know the truth but will never go for it. That is the character of the African and for that matter the Ghanaian politician.         I told a friend once that the kind of politician we have in this country is the kind that will tell a group of prostitutes or homosexuals that he or she will legalise their professions if he or she gets an academic hunch that, it is only through them (prostitutes and homosexuals) that he or she will win an election. He will do it knowing very well that Ghanaians will resist it when he or she tries to legalise it or even if it is against his or her so called moral principles or religious principles.

The effect of the actions of the politician is the mass suffering and poverty of our people. From the look of thing the principle of democracy which place power in the hands of the people is only realised during election. Afterwards the politician takes over and behave the way he or likes without the people having a say.

It’s about time all Ghanaians rose up and told politicians that they cannot take us for a ride with their sugar coated promises on their way to power only to worsen the plight of those who gave them power. The time is now.  Â