BREAKING AWAY FROM THE SPIRIT OF POLITICAL DUOPOLY: A CASE FOR A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY (PART 2) - E. G. BUCKMAN WRITES

E. G. Buckman

Fellow Concerned Citizen,

As a nation, we appear to have been completely possessed by the spirit of party politics. The kind of spirit George Washington, America’s first president warned against in his farewell address on 19th September, 1796, after serving two successful terms as an independent president.

He had this to say against the development of a two-party political system that had begun to solidify at the time: “Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effect of the spirit of party generally”

Indeed,. seeing the kind of baneful (destructive) effect the duopolistic political system has had on our nation thus far, I am more than convinced that George Washington was more prophetic than political.

In today’s Ghana, almost every important national issue is politicized by the two main parties to score political points. They appear to be using the same playbook to manipulate and hypnotize the citizenry. They have actually mastered the art of manipulating the emotions of the people to get away with wrongdoings. They really know how to unleash the communist inferior tactics on the people.

Again, under our current model, when it comes to appointing people to occupy sensitive positions in the public service, all one needs to do to catch the eye of the “superman” is to show crazy loyalty to him. The issue of qualification, competence, character, credibility, integrity, vision, or experience plays second fiddle to loyalty.

This explains why many principled credible competent Ghanaians remain at the periphery of our main governance structure. After all, it is a winner-takes-all game even though it is impossible to find all the best brains and expertise we need to transform our country in one single party.

It is, therefore, not surprising that bribery, corruption, arrogance of power, poor service delivery, and losses have besieged the corridors of our public service at all levels.

Sad to say, in this duopolistic system, uncompleted projects started by the previous government are mostly abandoned to rot because in this country, projects are made to wear political party colours instead of national colours. This senseless behaviour of the two parties has cost this nation a great deal of fortune in respect of financial resources.

Besides, this winner-takes-all system has actually compromised our sense of nationalism and patriotism to the point where our supreme loyalty is no longer due to the nation state. The mantra “Party First” now runs superior to the “Ghana First” mantra. People would rather steal from the state for the growth and development of their party at the expense of the growth and development of the country.

Shalom shalom!

Part 3 available

E. G. Buckman