Politicians or PoliTRICKScians: How Well Do We Know Them?

?My people are dying of hunger and oppression and I can?t live in peace when my own soul and blood is in fire?. These are some of the political ?con? words we hear when they need our votes to fulfill their own agenda of been ministers and presidents to drive in land cruisers and live in posh houses.

These people who promise to help us , are indirectly the cause of our woes because their political decisions are not what they told the people during the campaign for the land cruisers and bodyguards . They promise us heaven on the campaign platform but deliver to us hell when the mandate to rule and govern is giving to them . Once the power to rule is giving to them they barely visit their constituencies, asked why they are not going there, the only excuse is that he is serving mother Ghana in Accra.

Another funny aspect of the political language is ?I will or we will? when voted to office. I?m yet to hear from a Ghanaian politician who have come out clean to say ?I have or we have? and not the usuall I will and we will lip-service.

I cry everyday when I think of how our politicians have caused us many troubles. They preach accountability and probity when on the otherside of town but are accountable to their wife and children and not even their constituencies and the hungry and oppressed people who voted for them hoping their actions and inactions will put food on the table to fill the proverbial ?rawlings chain?. When the power to govern is giving to them.

I think the Ghanaian is more decerning today then years back when salt and road construction was used as an enticement.The politician or politicians must convince us they can be good and examplary leaders and not one that will bring BOOM or forge signatures to fulfill a personal agenda.

Sometimes you watch proceedings from the sidelines and you begin to laugh because they?re still clinging on to the idealogy of the 50?s and 60?s while the ?rawlings chain? keeps widening in the 2000?s. While others are more concern with feeding the hungry, others are interested in the parliamentary allowance or salary and prestige that goes with it. I hope their message this year should be the ?we have? and not ?we will? because the ?we will? do this and that have failed us since independence so I suggest the ?we have? medcine.

The advice I have for my fellow country man is that we should not exchange our intelligence for propaganda, vague promise but we should judge them by their stewardship and past encounters with them. I will advice the self styled television and radio political commentators to becareful of what they say and not to act in a selfish manner as public relations practictioners for the contesting parties because they are the source of reference for the electorate and the public as a whole.

The print journalists, as I will call them, I hope their stomach will not decide for them and I hope ?soli? will not sway them from the truth.

Tsi bu amoh Mensah{new york}

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