Opinions of Wednesday, 13 October 2004
Columnist: Duku, Okyem
Dear readers, these are the two major political parties that we have in Ghana. One was in power for 20 years or to be fair with them eight years; at the end of which they were voted out of power because the ordinary Ghanaian was fed up ad nauseam with their kind of politics. We cannot truly say that all these years were wasted years, but the reign of terror that preceded the NDC era tend cast a shadow on all the achievements of the then government. This reminds me of my own Class 6 teacher of the old days who would give you 6 lashes and then give you alewa toffee thereafter; but the searing pain of the lashes cancelled the sweetness of the toffee.
The inability of people to say their mind and the sheer terrorising presence of Djato made people to loath the government of NDC.
Then came NPP amidst mass euphoric mood. The were perceived as the party that would save Ghana from going to oblivion. So happy were the people on the eve of NPP?s election if another election was held within the ensuing six months NDC wouldn?t have gained a single seat.
It is a known fact that about 85% of Ghanaian academia belongs to NPP.
In fact when President Kuffour had to choose his cabinet, it is said that he had a big problem, because there were more over-qualified CVs than job vacancies that were available.
In the time of NDC government, when these people appeared on TV current affairs programmes, they dissected the NDC government to the minutest detail to show us how incompetent NDC was; so we Ghanaian knew that now we had now got the brains that could our problems once and for all when they were elected ; but it did not take us long to find out that things are easier said than done. The problems were still there and some even compounded; so where are all these Oxon and Cantab folks who were supposed to be knowledgeable?
Some of the people who jubilated with the exit of NDC now wished NDC were still on power; The jobs did not materialise, school fees was high, euphoria began to turn to crestfallenness.
My own good friend Agyei-Gyasi who is a staunch member of NPP and also very close to some of the top brass of the party always accuses me of being a traitor and not supporting the Ashanti cause that is NPP was always quick to point out the achievements of NPP to me. I also make it a point to tell him that I do not belong to any political party.
His first point always is to remind me that NPP has introduced freedom of speech and when I reply by asking; is freedom of speech a job? He flies into tantrums.
Now the people on the streets are very disillusioned, and I would not be very surprise, if the voter turnout at the coming election is very low. People now couldn?t care about voting. The president it seems has adopted the ostrich?s philosophy. When you don?t see or hear about a problem, the problem doesn?t exist, so when people start to talk about the government, get out of the country, pretend that you are on some serious mission. (Wokeka a wobegyae).
My good friend the NPP man would say to me if you were close to the government, you would know what the government is doing, and I would say to him but all of us can?t be close to the government and in any case we don?t need to be close to the government to what they are doing if they are doing it for Ghanaians!
So it this a case of ?all that glitters is not gold or what??
To be fair to NPP government , we know that commodities prices have fallen on the world market and that is the main source of income for Ghana, but when we come to think of all the luxurious fleets of cars that are being ordered by hour, and when previous unknown characters in the ruling party could acquire three houses in the space of three years even though they are ordinary party officials.
So is NPP the same as NDC or what ? Somebody please tell me.