Our elites and our politics are the major problems in Ghana today. Our elites are destroying the country because it is providing absolutely no leadership morally, fiscally, politically, or in education, the economy and infrastructure. We elect fools and despots into office. We get the government we deserve when so few vote and when the few who vote are not educated about the issues, and especially, when we treat politicians as if they were professional magicians.
Ghana has two main political parties. One is a violent anti-democratic, totalitarian party born out of a coup de tat; the other of cowards, born with the finest political ideals to promote the rule of law, expand freedom, and promote prosperity, but now a lost and slumbering elephant.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), if you count the period from 1979, has ruled this country the longest and consists entirely of people who crave un-contested power, who want to control the state, control the citizens and dominate their lives, who simply believe in revolution with the gun while collecting the rents into their pockets.
The NDC is pure evil. That party do not believe in republican democracy. Their so-called believe in multi-party democracy is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. People who believe in the violent overthrow of duly elected governments, who lie incessantly about the evils of private property rights, who tout revolutionary rhetoric —social justice — while appropriating people’s property into their pockets. The NDC do not understand the root cause of our economic problems. That is why their solutions are questionable at most times.
The stock in trade of the NDC is to make people afraid, bitter and resentful. They can only blame someone else. Tribalists who prefer not quality, but the tribal sharing of political positions; degenerates who enact policies that cause countless millions of Ghanaians to struggle financially and live on the edge of poverty due to higher taxes, and redistribution of wealth. The only “freedom” the NDC believes in is total control of people’s lives, of course, that is not “freedom.
On the other side of the aisle, there is the confused New Patriotic Party (NPP). Some party members have come to facetiously call that party the “Stupid Party,” and the activities leading to their internal presidential primaries is a perfect example of why. Sadly, the NPP is too much confused ideologically and do not even know what is on the plate. The NPP has left its story to be told by their socialist intellectual opponents, rather than activist liberals. The triumph of populism has left the NPP marooned, confused and depressed.
The party of Danquah might have to return to the beginning to understand the present. The party is now taken over by a reactionary youth that do not understand the classical liberal ideas of the founders. These are corrupt and are in the NPP only as a means to power. These mercenary opportunists are becoming far too numerous, and if their activities are not checked, they would lead the party to defeat in 2024.
Meanwhile, Ghanaians find themselves stuck between these two opposing factions who all believe in aid, centralised control of the economy and lack of trust in the Ghanaian private sector and playing political games with Ghanaian voters. Politics is not supposed to be a game. It is supposed to be a way of working out problems together in pursuit of common goals. Ghana has become a country where right and wrong are no longer polar opposites, but only shades of partisan difference.
If one honestly sit back and objectively assess the political environment, we are stuck in the middle of nowhere with clowns to the left, and jokers to the right; malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans. The NDC and NPP are not fighting a war. They have become partners in a joint venture kept alive by strategic silences, willful blindness and mutual self-interest. Together, they are creating an environment fertile for authouritarians and fools.
The NDC, in true totalitarian fashion, is returning John Mahama, who failed previously as a president of Ghana as their candidate in 2024. Who can blame them? Of course, the NDC, or at least the rump revolutionaries that remains after Jerry Rawlings, is now the domain of glorified first-year students running their mouths, like Ghanaian politics is some dorm room welcoming party at the University.
The NDC still remain apostles of coup de tat. Of course, like children, they believe they are entitled to so many of the good life without working for it. Like most Ghanaians, they do not understand how wealth is created. Now, adults understand that for the good life, you have to work, save and be responsible. Some of the most shameful socialist nonsense continue to swirl around their foot-soldiers’ declaration of war on all successful people.
Unlike the NDC, the NPP, that is the real classical liberals remaining in the fold, believe in choice. In democratic sense, that is not a bad thing; debate and dissent is good and healthy, something the NDC do not want in our politics. The perception of the NPP as a bumbling ‘stupid’ party is NOT a good thing, but that is the major perception the party of Danquah is leaving in the minds of their teeming supporters and some Ghanaians. Meanwhile, the chance to turn Ghana into a truly liberal society goes to waste.
Unfortunately, the NPP is showing they are simply not good at “government.” Ironically, that is not a bad thing. Their core liberal ideology frowns on too much government. What is not good is in their best attempt to succeed in the post-1992 era politics, they are masquerading as what they imagine voters want, with almost comically false results.
Ghana needs better leaders, however, citizens will not get them until they begin to demand more from those who come for their votes. Our country is on a catastrophic fiscal, economic, cultural, and political course. Massive increases in spending and debt and corruption is making citizens lose confidence in the country’s economy. We need to solve these problems but we cannot, until we wake up from our partisan slumber or fear of recrimination.
Presently, our institutions seem locked in battles between entitled and increasingly empty leaders in their 40s and an older generation, in their 60s and late 70s, bent on political war and power seeking, and seemingly unconcerned with probity and accountability. Our politics has one main problem — overflowing with the vice of the young and the old, and so often falling into debates between people who behave as though power and money is everything. The vacuum of visionary leadership is noticeable.
The question as we move into 2024 is this: would Ghanaians prefer to still live under a system that is centralised, dictatorial and requires complete subservience to corrupt politicians who give no choice or by fools willing to blame our economic decay on external factors than on the decline of family values, hard work and bad policies.
Under the present circumstances and a choice between those two, the best choice will be fools over totalitarians any time of the year. Totalitarianism gives us no freedom. Stupidity is not a good thing, but unfortunately, true freedom does give people the right to be ignorant and act foolishly. Such is the cost of freedom — as long as it lasts. But what our country is crying out for is courageous and visionary leadership.
The role of political leadership is to articulate a vision and attract relevant expertise to translate that vision into practice. We can only vote for the people who run for office. And, in recent decades, the people from across the aisle who have been on the ballot have tended to be —- fools —- social predators and like all predators they are looking for feeding grounds. We are a nation that is surrendering itself to be led by non-visionaries. The current leaders cannot see, let alone imagine Ghana beyond the current tide of destruction.
In 2024 we do not need strong leaders – totalitarians and fools. We need courageous and visionary leaders with integrity, intelligence, and with shrewd judgement and a questioning mind. They are difficult to find. But that is what we need. This is our last chance to avoid a precipice and the last opportunity to steer our country in the right direction.
Otherwise, we will continue to be governed by people with no clear path to tomorrow — totalitarians or by fools.
By Kwadwo Afari