About two years into the next electioneering campaign, there is everything on the political space to show that the ugly noises or, worse still, the excesses that often threaten to push the nation and its democracy to the precipice is refusing to go away.
From the social media bloggers and party communicators, through extremist newspapers and broadcast networks, to core party leadership, restraint and conscience are giving way to recklessness and impunity from young men who just left our universities and want to climb over our shoulders to prominence overnight.
Political stardom
It is, unfortunately, becoming clear that people have to be ‘tough-talking’ and even abusive in their utterances, especially in dealing with their political opponents, in order to rise to ‘political stardom’.
And in this case, it appears it does not matter whether the “political misfits” in the system are making sense in what they say or not. What matters is their ability to “deal with” their political opponents in a contest of making abusive utterances.
It also appears that our political discourse is no longer about a contest of ideas done in a decent manner, as we witnessed in the past between the likes of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama, when they were both Members of Parliament.
Indeed, that was the period when it was a delight to listen to or watch political talk shows that were hosted by journalists who upheld the tenets of their profession. That was the time decency was hailed in the country.
Unfortunately, it is clear that is not the case at the moment. One will not be far from right to say that the insanity we are witnessing in our political discourse, on our airwaves – and even at the hallowed Legislature – is motivated by the fact that those who are able to shout or insult the most are now the heroes of members of their political parties.
Interventions
We would recall that Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11 has on a couple of occasions waded into the matter, urging restraint on several issues, including the election of the Speaker, which culminated into a fight, and the abortive effort at building consensus on the implementation of the E-Levy.
We also recall academia and a couple of our credible civil society groups, including religious leaders and Moslem clergy, joining the discreet call for restraint and consensus building – until the recent demonstration and its unfortunate fallout.
Leadership
Thankfully, both the ruling New Patriotic Party and the leading opposition National Democratic Congress have decent folks constituting their Council of Elders. These elders can make all the difference in the cacophonous environment being created by ‘kids’ who may be younger than their own children or even grandchildren.
Already, some of these noisemakers, backed by seniors who should know better, have begun taking their acts of insolence to these eminent statesmen who mean the best for the nation, making any meaningful intervention challenging.
But, we still believe our elders on both sides of the political divide should begin to do something about the situation. Because a crab cannot give birth to a robin, we believe there would be some incorrigible elements who would refuse wisdom. Largely, however, we believe if our living distinguished statesmen would rise to the occasion, and make an intervention, that effort alone would be a weapon into eternity against those who want Ghana to go to the dogs.
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