It’s a sunny Friday; I just closed from my lecture
and am on my way to get some hot waakye from Auntie Mercy’s joint adjacent the
Ghana International Press Centre. I notice a group of young men and women gathered at the Press Centre and all in their full NDC regalia with inscriptions "JM for
2012". They are singing and chanting the party's slogan; fortunately for
me, I meet some of them at the “joint” and as curious as I am, I approach one
individual and ask, "excuse me sir, please what's going on there”? You
come there and join, you'll see what is going on”, he ignorantly answers. Then I
approach another and ask. Please has the NDC launched its manifesto yet? And to
my utmost dismay he replies "well I don’t really know; you can come ask
the leaders there, cos I don’t really know about those things".
I guess u might be thinking am trying to downplay a
political party here, but honestly am not. I’m not concerned about the party because
I would have mentioned it if it was still another party. My worry is that I see
men and women of my age and older gathered and seemingly “championing a cause”
they seem to strongly believe in but upon brief interrogation I see they don’t
even know what they are “championing”. You cannot easily give me a brief
description of what you have left your precious time to come and support..???
You do not know whether the party you’re supporting has even launched its manifesto
or not..?? Then I want to ask, why are you here in the first place? This
reality seems to be the undue truth about a lot of youth who are seen hailing
after all sorts of political parties. This makes me want to ask if they are
really supporting the party because they believe in its "ideal" and
"ideas" or they just following cos of the "noko fioo" they
will get.
Surely I did not ask whether the manifesto has been
launched because I didn't know, but I did that just to satisfy my curiosity on
the assumption that ‘a lot of my fellow youth spend or should I say waste their
precious time after political parties whose ideologies they don’t know to even
understand’. I am just a critical concerned youth seeking the well being of my
fellow youth.
Don’t get me wrong, supporting any political party
is not what I’m against here. I believe ideally any political party at all –
whether big or small, known or unknown- has its own set of ideologies and
principles that governs its operations, campaigns, manifestoes and their quest
to win political power and that its members, supporters, sympathizers or stake
holders in general, are well endowed in these principles and thus have informed
their decision to choose that particular party over all others. However this
seems to be an imaginary logic here in Ghana. Allegiance to a particular political
party has become more of “who has more money or food to offer me”
One could easily agree that Ghana needs to develop
seriously but I believe that we as individuals also need to develop first. A
developed citizen can help develop a developing nation.
By: Julius Ofori Boadu (JOB)
(juliusboadu@gmail.com)
Twitter: @CwesiOfori
