No partisan politics at funerals, festivals!

By William A. Asiedu 

Political parties have attracted a lot of attention over the centuries, some of it positive and others negative. Political parties are essential, as they provide a way to organise the system of identifying and nominating candidates for political office.
They also help large numbers of people control the direction of government. Parties also provide a forum for their leaders to set policy and design programmes to achieve party goals.
Since the inception of the Fourth Republic, two political parties have been at the fore-front of government business in Ghana – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The fact that there is no third or fourth force besides these two dominant political groups, for me, is not really an issue because I believe that two major political parties, as in the United States, set up a system of competition for elected office, which simplifies the choices for the masses, making it easier to choose candidates and policies.
My worry, however, stems from the obvious inability of the political parties to constantly organise events/programmes that will serve as platforms to engage the masses in critical discourses that will provide ways to move this country forward.
This inability has resulted in a situation where our politicians see all social gatherings as opportunities to make political statements or merely make themselves seen by the people for the sake of publicity. They literally run to every funeral, outdooring, party, traditional festival etc, and turn such events into partisan political platforms.
Even if a mosquito dies and you invite the Ghanaian politician, he will come with a huge entourage and do all he/she can to make their presence felt at the ceremony. For the politician, the best places for such political show-offs are festivals and funerals.
On many occasions, political ‘big men’ have clashed at funerals and festivals, where politicians whose party is in power do all they can to push opposition party officers under the basket to keep them away from the television cameras.
The ‘political taekwando’ that takes place at festivals, in particular, is an affront to the spirit of such ceremonies, which aim mainly at promoting unity and development.
When was the last time you heard or saw a political party, in or out of power, organising any programme for its members to generate ideas that will help to develop the country?
As I write this piece, authorities in neighbouring Burkina Faso have opened the Bagre Dam in that country to save it from damage. The water level in the dam had risen above its limit and its water had flowed into Ghana, killing people and destroying property.
What stops a political party from organising an engineers’ forum to see how the water flowing from the dam can be handled in a profitable way. The fact is that the Burkinabes open the dam every time that the water in it overflows its limit, and it comes down to cause havoc to the people in the northern part of the country.
 While the poor were dying and losing their property to the floods, our politicians were busy ‘fighting’ over who should be recognised at a festival and who should not. What is the political leadership of this country telling us?
Indeed, our political parties need to offer the people more than just candidates to occupy political offices. They should begin to take the development of this country seriously by providing concrete solutions to the country’s numerous headaches, and stop the fights at funerals and other social functions. If they wish to do politics, they should create their own political platforms for that purpose and stop embarrassing everybody.

Nana Addo out of coverage area?
 
Drama reportedly unfolded at this year’s Oguaa Fetu Afahye when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) big-shots who attended the festival last Saturday were prevented from greeting the chiefs on the dais. None of them, including the NPP flag bearer for the 2012 Presidential elections, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was formally introduced to the people.
And the Omanhen and President of the Oguaa traditional Council, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II was alleged to have said that the Oguaa Chiefs did not see the NPP delegation at the Fetu Afahye durbar grounds.
‘Ag-g-g-y-e-iiiiiiiiii!’ ‘Aaaba!’ We all know that Nana Addo may be vertically challenged, a point he has personally acknowledged, but is he so short that even the MC for the occasion could not spot him and thereby announce his presence? Seriously, people should stop attempting to score cheap political points at events such as festivals because if anything goes wrong, the gods will not forgive them.