Politics of acrimony
In politics shared hatred is almost always the basis of friendships. Alexis de Tocqueville
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The recent diatribe between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as to who has helped in the development of the Volta Region cannot be a basis of friendship. This is so because each is steeped in its position that what has been said is the fact. There will be no let in the posturing, although the people can acknowledge what each of the parties did for them.
While they are quarrelling and arguing as to which of them contributed to the development of the region, they have forgotten that they are exposing themselves to the public, such that in future when individuals begin to attack them for being insincere, they should not say that the public does not encourage decent people to enter into politics. When politicians refuse to acknowledge facts and the reality for partisan gain, they present themselves as charlatans.
In truth, and in deed, no government can say that its predecessor did not do anything in some parts of each region. The other side is that when a project is initiated or commenced by one government but is inuagrated by a successive government, such as the Circle- Achimota Highway, or the Achimota Lorry Station, the new government takes credit and scorns the contribution of the earlier government.
I was in Ho when my friend Fosuaba Mensah Banahene was the Administrator of the GETFund and saw the massive infrastructural development on the campus of the Ho Polytechnic. On my return, I went to his office and told him that if the pace of the programme was sustained and replicated around all the polytechnics across the country, it would not be difficult for him to win a presidential election. And he did well with Accra Polytechnic and the other polytechnics across the country. That was during the NPP era. However, the institution of the GETFund was done by the NDC, although no fund was disbursed until after a new government had been installed.
So if somebody comes today to say that the NPP did not provide any substantial development project in the Volta Region, it is difficult to understand. The Keta Sea Defence Wall was built under the leadership of the NPP although the sod for the project was cut by former President Jerry John Rawlings. But the sod was cut long before feasibility studies were undertaken.
The Sogakope Hospital and the Tema -Sogakope road were all constructed during the NPP era, even if they were not completed before the change in government. These are substantial development projects.
But it seems it is a game play. The NDC did a lot of ground work towards the realisation of the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange yet the NPP claimed the full credit. There are a number of development projects that were at different stages of completion during the first era of the NDC that were completed by the NPP for which no credit was given to the NDC.
It seems it was only President JEA Mills who recognised the role played by President JA Kufuor in securing American money, part of which was used in constructing the George Walker Bush Highway and, therefore, acknowledged him by inviting him for the inaugration of the road. That is how things should be. We have to acknowledge the philosophy of the half glass of water. We can never deny the fact of the substance in the glass but we can do the interpretation as to whether it is half full or half empty.
Our politicians must learn to call a spade by its name but not to be euphemistic by calling it an instrument for digging. One of our political low points is the fact that when a government takes credit for facilitating some private sector investment which helps in national development, the opponents denounce that as reaping where one has not sown, but when it happens during their tenure, they do not hesitate to count that among their achievements.
When politicians wash their dirty linen in public and refuse to do what is noble and right, they offer the ordinary people cause to look at them with disdain. A gentle person has no dignity if he fails to accept simple basic facts.
We must appreciate that those who do not want their counterparts to count to get to nine will themselves never get to 10 (se woama wo yonko antwa nkron a won so wontwa edu).
As Dr Martin Luther King has said,” nobody is unhappy when they are praised, even when they know they do not deserve it, and even if they do not believe it. The only time people are unhappy about praise is when the praise is going too much toward somebody else.”
The baseless political acrimony must stop and end.