The other side of politics - ‘One fisherman, one sea’
Evidently, some radio presenters are having a field day parodying the catalogue of promises by our political parties on the campaign trail with an alleged promise of “one fisherman, one sea”. The quote is said to have come from singular politician Akua Donkor.
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Maame Akua Donkor, of the Ghana Freedom Party, is seen by many as the comic relief of Ghana’s current political scene, but did she really say “one fisherman, one sea” as some people are claiming?
A week ago I heard an Adom FM presenter attributing the expression to Maame Donkor. It was cited as her contribution to the catalogue, evidently in reference to the countless promises, that notably the ruling National Democratic Congress and the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, are making to woo the electorate ahead of Election 2016 in December.
It’s an example of the other side of the serious business of politics, of campaigning for votes. Fortunately, we get episodes of humour that sometimes help defuse the tension. And we really need some laughter, considering the struggle that life has become for many people. As some aptly put it, in Ghana-speak, “it’s not easy!”
Not surprisingly, the ‘one-upmanship’ promises focus on electors’ needs and aspirations – of which there are numerous. No sooner has one presidential candidate pledged ‘I-will-ensure-that-in-your-area-each-person-will-get-this-or-that if you vote for me’, than the other candidate counter-attacks with ‘it-will-be-one-community-one-this-or-that if you vote for me’.
But what I find even more fascinating than the ‘one-man-etc’ contest is what seems to be a worry of some of the politicians about what they apparently perceive as the wrong way of campaigning by their political opponents. They seem to have developed a bewildering penchant for correcting their rivals!
For instance, the Daily Graphic of September 12 quotes Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party of accusing both the NDC and the NPP of engaging in childish politics: “This one complains someone has hit me or bitten me and the other replies that he did it first …Akufo-Addo talked about Mahama insulting him …calling him a dictator, Mahama said Akufo-Addo called him a thief …incompetent …Is that the kind of politics we need?”
What is more perplexing is that, against the backdrop of continuing complaints by many sections of the public, especially about the unbearably high cost of living, instead of concentrating on telling the country how it intends to fix the hardship, the NDC is apparently more centred on condemning practically everything the NPP says it will do.
They deride the NPP’s approach and promises as being ‘colo’, unrealistic. Meanwhile, the NDC, too, is making promises galore! Naturally, the NDC message is about how much more they have to offer if President Mahama is retained to toa so (to continue).
Sometimes politicians baffle me. If the incumbent President can campaign on his achievements, what he has done and is doing, why can’t an aspiring President campaign on what he hopes to achieve, what he can do, what he aims to do if elected?
This dedicated strategy of the NDC pointing out what they see as the ‘mistakes’ of the NPP is puzzling. Why is the NDC alerting the NPP where it is going wrong with its campaign? Is this so that the NPP will take the NDC’s advice and thus change their campaign strategy for more attractive, vote-catching messages?
Furthermore, both President John Mahama and NDC General Secretary Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah have been giving strident warnings about the 2016 NPP standard-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, his alleged dictatorial tendencies and his alleged inability to maintain NPP unity.
Perhaps the NDC have forgotten the stand expressed in 2011 by their late leader, President John Atta Mills, “dzi wo fie asem” (“di wo fie asem”, ‘mind your own business’) – President Mills’ response to the issue of the Cote d’Ivoire conflict.
What I’m wondering is, if they’re convinced that their main opponent for Election 2016, the NPP is in chaos, and the NPP is falling apart under Mr Akufo-Addo, why is the NDC complaining and not keeping quiet about it? Is it not a happy development for the NDC?
If the NPP’s problems are so obvious to the NDC, why do they assume that they’re the only ones who can see the NPP’s difficulties and thus need to constantly highlight them to the electorate on practically every NDC platform?
In any case, if the NPP – or any opposition party– is disunited who loses? Isn’t it the NPP itself, or any of the other parties in question?
Again, if the leadership of the NPP or other opposition parties lose the confidence of their members, who stands to benefit? Isn’t it their opponents? So why is the NDC, and President Mahama, not simply enjoying what should be an advantage? Why are they rather giving the impression that the NPP’s alleged crippling, unsolvable internal problems are giving the NDC sleepless nights?
In my doubtless naïve way of thinking, I’m wondering why President Mahama and the NDC are seemingly bent on helping the NPP to correct their ‘mistakes’. Why so much attention on the problems supposedly plaguing the NPP? Again, are those problems not equally apparent to other Ghanaians?
Or is it that the gloom-laden picture being painted about the NPP is rather wishful thinking on the part of the NDC, that they don’t really believe that there’s a crisis in the NPP; they just want the electorate to think so?
To my simple mind, it’s all very confusing!
And, after all, wasn’t it their own leader who gave that memorable advice: dzi wo fie asem?