Show me your best friends and I will show you your political party of affiliation! Funny and outrageous as this assertion may sound in your ears, it is an obvious reality backed by empirical evidence on the ground. The era in which your vote was highly regarded as your secret and power is now a matter of history. In every nook and cranny of our society today innocent people are baselessly labeled especially “NDC” or “NPP” based on the type of friends they regularly interact with, ethnic and geographical origin, religious affiliation, place of work and sometimes musical and dance orientation. What a partisan and polarized society! Even our entertainment industry is not free from the canker of excessive partisanship as the so called “Kangaroo” dance, “Azonto”, “BoysAbre” among others are currently linked to one political tradition or the other. God saves Ghana!
The cacophony of partisan labeling of innocent vulnerable individuals, groups, institutions such as churches and vitally important national issues of late has actually reached an astronomical proportion and should urgently be a major source of concern and worry to all level headed individuals not only in Ghana but also across the globe. It is increasingly becoming conspicuous that almost every single commodity in our dear country today faces an eminent danger of being adulterated with partisan politics, a situation which is highly unacceptable. The result is that talented and knowledgeable people who do not want to be unnecessarily labeled with political party colours that may expose them to various forms of vilification remain silent and keep their great ideas to themselves. Who suffers? Your guess is as good as mine. In as much as it appears to be possible for some unscrupulous elements to hide under nonpartisan organizations to perpetrate their own illegal politicalgalamsey on behalf of political masters, we need to thread cautiously in dealing with such dangerous political hypocrites in the system in order not to throw away the baby together with the dirty water.
To add more insults to injury, our highly cherished sense of nationalism, fellow feeling and respect for the elderly are gradually being thrown to the dogs just in the name of excessive partisanship, inordinate scramble for materialism and impunity. Monetization and votes buying at all sphere of our political landscape is no longer in dispute but can simply be described as an obvious reality than mere perception. Hostile and unpalatable expressions continue to dominate our air waves only to satisfy selfish gratification of political “Bosses” at the expense of the larger society.
As for the so called party foot soldiers and partisan serial callers, the least talked about them the better as their activities are not only seen as nuisance but sometimes an embarrassment to decent minded people who believe in morality and social justice.
Are there any available solutions? Yes, it is time all and sundry is told the gospel truth about the fact that democracy is not synonymous with “democrazy”! Political party affiliation is just a matter of preference and choice and hence must not in any way be a recipe for enmity, conflict and war. Ghana deserves better!!!
By
David Banaaleh (King-Dave)
BSc.(Psychology)
Founder (NetBuPs)
0247113859
Websites: www.netbups.com
www.choicism.com
