<<Print>>The Chronicle’s front-page banner headlines of Independence Day, Friday, March 6, 2015, and yesterday Monday, March 9, give ample notice of the desperation that has crept into our politics that should not be overlooked. The Independence Day edition reported the press conference of an NDC constituency Organizer in Adansi Akrofoum in Adansi South District in the Ashanti region.
Mr. Robert Gyamasi, who doubles as the National Disaster Management Organisation Coordinator for Adansi South, pledged publicly to commit suicide if a prophecy that twice-defeated New Patriotic Party presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would be third time lucky next year, came true.
“I will hang myself if Nana Addo emerges winner in the 2016 election in line with Owusu Bempah’s prediction. There is no way Nana Addo can become President, let alone win an election.
“I call on the Christian Council of Ghana to call Rev Owusu Bempah to order by ensuring that the Man of God is critically examined at the psychiatric hospital to check the state of his mind”, Gyamasi trumpeted.
The party Organizer /district NADMO boss believes the prophecy was deliberately cooked to “divert the attention of government from major national issues,” at the instigation of a political party.
The Chronicle of Monday highlighted the alleged desperate moves of District Chief Executive of Mpraeso, Joseph Omari, to be the NDC parliamentary candidate for Mpraeso, for the third time, after two consecutive loses to his NPP opponent.
To ensure he has his way, the DCE is allegedly wooing a spiritualist at Atibie, who is seeking a radio licence, to accuse the NDC Mpraeso constituency Chairman and Secretary, who are seeking to replace the DCE with a Minister, of having defrauded him (spiritualist) of GHc60,000. DCE Omari has denied being part of any such plot against his own party executives.
The Chronicle wonders whether National Security has already put Gyamasi under close surveillance. If it has not, it should begin immediately.
Anybody who calls a press conference to announce his intention to kill himself if his party lost a forthcoming competitive election, is capable of anything, including murder of others and election rigging,and must be watched closely.
The same desperation is manifesting in the NDC Mpraeso constituency but on a lower scale. Ghanaians should resist the tendency to dismiss such people as cranks with a shake of the head. We should instead ask questions as to why we now have desperadoes in Ghana politics.
The Chronicle believes it arises from our turning the cart on its head. Where we have borrowed multi-party democracy from, politics is giving-back, the equivalent of corporate social responsibility of a profit making entity.
It is those who had made it in life – business executives, captains of industry, senior civil and public servants, professionals etc. – who as a token of appreciation to God and country for their success go into politics to give back.
Having already made it in life and comfortable, they do not need to be corrupt and /or give themselves fantastic salaries the mere mention of which makes those out of government salivate at the mouth and red-eyed.
What do we have here in Ghana? It is fresh graduates who have no work experience, struggling middle-level executives who have no final say in any matter they handle, who are attracted by the huge salaries that have been allocated to Article 71 officers, who have thronged party headquarters and the corridors of power, claiming to be politicians.
The Chronicle recommends that all those who mean well for Ghana – our development partners, non-partisan civil society organisations, moderate religious leaders, in short Ghanaian patriots – get together to agitate for the pruning down of Article 71 salaries and four-yearly end of service benefits, as means of gradually ridding our politics of desperadoes who see nothing wrong in killing their mums in order to attain political power, as a first step to wealth.
The end of service benefits, especially those for the political class, is a monstrosity. Civil and public servants work their butts off for 30-40 years for a miserly pension that hardly caters for their old age needs, while politicians smile to their banks every four years with up to possibly 10 times the regular pension. That is an injustice that should not exist in a land of Freedom and Justice.
We shall return!!!