One the most interesting hypothesis from the renowned writer from Nigeria on political situation in his country goes like this “if you chose your last 11 players to play a football match, you are bound to lose”. This was his response to a question on why Nigerian politicians act in ways and manner that portray them as being senseless and stupid.
The forth republic Ghana have churn out a lot of characters who not only sound stupid but also think with their stomach. This set of people has been involved in countless mishaps in their public pronouncements, actions and behaviors which can best be described as un-statement in all the political parties. A lot of ink has gone into admonishing of politicians who made comments on radio and in print media which sometime sound distasteful and thereby polluting the political climate in the country. We have also witness some bright people in politics in Ghana and so it is not all gloomy picture and I cannot use the overbeaten statement that all politician are the same. If so, we will not have had the opportunity of knowing people like our very own Dr Kwame Nkrumah with one his endearing quotes "Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge - a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve - to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?” Or Mahatma Ghandhi who said that “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” The question to be asked then is, are we as nation given the opportunity to the right people to serve us? Politics of laud mouth has become the order of the day, we wake up to hear insults, lack of respect for the presidency, age, religion and even the dead, politics of positive defiance, cronyism, monumental corruptions and complete neglect of our cherish dreams of becoming a middle income nation in 2015. What on earth will let a minister of state attend a public function to address students and the only he could talk about is what cause some opposition members death? I do not support any body wishing another person dead, as Ghanaians, one thing we all respect is the dead. I will tell a story about a renowned music icon whose Nigerian father died and body was brought to his home town for burial. This man was sponsored by the village as young man to university and went on to become a professor but never visited the village again after marrying a white woman. So while his body was still in the church, officiating poster was raining causes on him. He said may we as village never encounter such person that we about to burry. He is a cause of our failure as town, spent our money to train and we are spending our money and time to bury him but we never saw him again after left this town as a boy, of cause the lady music icon has never visited the village again till date.
We as in Ghana has been around for 50 years and what have we achieve with our freedom, our population has grown from mere 6.7 million to 24m, can we compare our development strive with the population growth?
So, do we have our last eleven on the field of play, leaving the first team out? Do we have the team B while team A cool off? I believe when our politicians behave maturely and see politics as service to his country and not avenue for enrichment, and then we shall have the right people going into politics. For now I sight with Chenua Achebe’s assertion that we have our last eleven on the field of play and as Mahatma Ghandhi puts it “It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.”
Joseph Ampomah Adu