We need to grow

There is a certain tendency with our political leaders and activists that has not helped in promoting good governance and strengthening democratic culture.

The concomitant is crass partisanship and the labelling of citizens based on which side of the political divide the expression of a candid opinion on any matter seems to favour.

The phenomenon is more diffused among supporters of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress.

Presently, there is a national discourse about the appointment of one of the noted members of the NDC campaign team in the 2024 General Election, Ms Emelia Afi Agbenyo, as a Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

The crux of the matter is that during the administration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when Dr Bossman Asare was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the same EC, there was outcry against the appointment because some Ghanaians considered him as a politically exposed person, on the side of the NPP.

The outcry was from a cross-section of Ghanaians.

However, the leadership of the NDC vehemently condemned the development and promised that it will never and cannot happen under an NDC administration.

But the cock has not crowed three times, and nkwanta ayera yen, mfofoo adane yen kwaye, as President Mahama has so soon forgotten the promise never to go that route.

That is why many well-meaning Ghanaians are saying that whatever has necessitated the turnaround cannot be noble nor justifiable, hence the calls for the revocation of the appointment or resignation of Ms Agbenyo.

Suddenly, leaders and activists of the NDC, who were the strongest critics of Nana Addo, have now become praise singers of President Mahama, insisting that he has done no wrong, shifting their stand.

On the other hand supporters and activists of the NPP, who saw nothing wrong in the past are suddenly saying that it is intolerable for President Mahama to have appointed an active member of the NDC to replace Dr Bossman, who was an academic.

What I find intriguing is the fierce, vociferous and acidic attempts by supporters of both parties, the NDC in justifying the appointment as legitimate and the NPP in condemning the action as incomprehensible.

Where are the principles, upon which groupings from both sides took their entrenched positions yesterday and now that the tables have turned, are eating humble pie or licking their vomits.

If it was bad yesterday, how does it become good today and likewise, if it was proper yesterday, how does it become improper today, when the only factor in the equation which has changed, is not the background to the appointment, but who then was and now is the President of Ghana.

This is what George Orwell, describes as ” doublethink ” or ” doublespeak” in his novel 1984.

As supporters of the NDC and NPP insist, against each other, that the other has lost the moral right to comment about the reasonableness or otherwise of the appointment because of what happened before, all it means is that we do not have principles nor integrity for upholding something yesterday and condemning it today or for condemning it yesterday and commending it today, just because it happened under our and their parties.

There should neither be a defence nor condemnation, since neither has any moral ground to defend or condemn the action

Indeed, if we want to demonstrate sincerity and loyalty to the national interest and help strengthen constitutional democracy, then activists and fanatics of both the NPP and NDC, must have a sense of shame by keeping quiet to allow others, especially civil society organisations, which condemned the act when it happened under President Nana Akufo-Addo, to do so under President Mahama, so that we can move forward and grow, but not repeat an act very unhealthy to engendering public trust and confidence in the EC.

The position of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers about the appointment of Ms Agbenyo is consistent with its stand during the period of Nana Addo.

And for those who rush to the law to justify certain indefensible acts, we must appreciate that society does not always have to depend on laws to justify actions considered acceptable or unacceptable, good or bad.

Otherwise Solomon would not have been able to resolve the matter of the two women and the living child as to who was the mother when he directed the child to be cut into two.

But that seemingly unilateral and unlawful action unearthed the truth, which was beyond human capacity.

We would not have appreciated the level of Solomon’s discernment and his greatness would have diminished.

We must motivate and encourage ourselves to grow collectively as a people, not as members of political parties.

More importantly, we need to appreciate that once we accept something to be unconscionable, it does not matter who did it.

It only means we are committed never to repeat the same or similar action since we find it unmeritorious.

Similarly, it is simply a lack of principle or integrity that would make us unequivocally condemn something today when we proudly defended and justified the same action yesterday.

And where these scenarios play out because of crass fundamentalist and sycophancy political partisanship, it takes away the beauty of criticism, as a means of sharing ideas to improve social exchange

We need to grow otherwise our democracy would stagnate as we proceed to do the same thing over and over again to elicit the same answers.

That is what Rita Brown refers to as insanity.

How would open-minded Ghanaians applaud a government which previously vehemently criticised something considered by the majority of the people as unconscionable but when given the opportunity to prove himself, failed miserably by acting in the same way as his predecessor.

Again, how does one support a group which condoned a certain action yesterday but are openly condemning the same act today, all because the actors have changed but not because of any uncovered reason.

But if you ask me what I think about the developments, even if I am ready to forgive the one who first acted irreverently, I will be less inclined to forgive the one who repeats the act because of the opportunity of hindsight.

That is why I share in the Akan maxim that ” se obi fom kum a, wo mfom nnwa” meaning if one accidentally shoots to kill, one does not de-skin.

The future offers better insight than the past.

We need to learn from the past to enable us to reach the future with hope and aspiration.

I thus call on my Roommate President John Dramani Mahama to revoke the appointment of Ms Agbenyo to avoid Cognitive Dissonance or that she must voluntarily resign to restore integrity into our political and governance system.

Our EC must not only be seen to be independent and objective but must manifestly be beyond reproach from politically partisan causes, real or imagined since perception sometimes appears stronger than the reality.