Features
The political sprint race about to begin
Sikaman Palava
Elections in Sikaman are often interesting, especially at the primary level. It is at this level that people can vote against you because your face is too bushy.
Others will vote for you because of your American haircut or your Arabic moustache which has been jerry-curled.
A delegate will cast a vote against you simply because he feels you are too fond of eating kokonte at ‘CHOP BETTER’ chop bar. He might not realise that your addiction to kokonte is like an addiction to cocaine and even if you become a head-of-state you cannot resist facing the wall.
At the primaries, you are given the passport to hell. Getting elected can be pretty easy, but given the nod can induce palpitation because it places a huge burden on your head. First, you must start looking for cash. You’ll start estimating the value of the cocoa farm your father left behind when he passed away.
Or will a foreign loan do?
Whatever it is, Ghana politics cannot be ran on an empty back pocket. You must budget for palm wine for the folks who’ll double as your foot-soldiers; organisers of canopies and those who buy you ‘waakye’ and ‘pure-water’. They form the core of your utility staff. They are a necessary evil.
SQUASH
Naturally, some people won’t take palm wine. It doesn’t kick them! To then palm wine is softer than orange squash. So you have to budget for ‘akpeteshie’ better known as ‘kele’. You must apportion money for hot kenkey and plenty of fish, because you’ll be advised that when you give somebody ‘ogoglo’, you better follow it up with food.
Your budget must include funeral donations, outdooring gifts, payment of school fees of people who irritate you, just to get the votes of their parents. When you put pen to paper and add money for courting floating voters and incidentals, you’ll start considering whether it was worth entering the race.
The problem with it is that, once you have entered as an aspiring MP there is no U-turn. You can’t go and tell your constituents that based on your calculations you have decided to chicken out. You just don’t have the cash to finance your campaign so it is better to quit than face disgrace. That will not be.
OPTION
The option available is to seek a money lender and promise him that when you win, you’ll make him the Minister of Finance. And if he is stupid enough to believe it, then you are a goner.
The politicking becomes more interesting when you get to the presidential level. The problem with every politician is that he (or she) has ambitions to become president one day either through providence or by mistake.
So the scramble to the nation’s top post can become quite frantic, because all manner of people keep day-dreaming and fantasising about becoming president although they know somehow that it is impossible.
Getting to the top has nothing to do with fantasy. It takes hard-work to accomplish, aside all the other factors like charisma, financial support, powerful manifestoes and even political gimmicking.
When the Peoples National Convention (PNC) held its congress, I fondly remembered Dr. Limann. He used to carry his campaign message by putting it on the lips of his countrymen. “Any challenger, no challenger! Dr Limann, no challenger.”
His supporters added spice to it: ‘Any challanga, no challanga, Dr. Limann, no challanga!’ Others in his team adopted the Jimmy Carter booster, “Jimmy who? Jimmy Carter!” Some newspapers carried it: “Li who? Limann!” And Limann won to kick start the third republic.
Soon Flt Lt. Jerry Rawlings started eyeing the castle seat with keen interest. He had earlier warned Dr Limann to squat well on the stool and to do some house-cleaning. Dr. Limann agreed but soon forgot all – about the Jerry Rawlings accord, and – before Jack Robinson came to mind, the stool of power was wrestled from under his buttocks.
Today, Limann is no more. May his soul rest in peace. His political legacy is in the palms of Dr. Edward Mahama, a brilliant doctor turned politician. His ‘two sure two direct’ slogan caught on quite well as he appealed to the Zongo communities to rally to the PNC call.
Last Saturday, he became one of the men to have been elected three times to lead the party to the polls. It means his people have confidence in him. With his victory at congress comes the era of Kofi Wayo, the rapping-machine who knows how to blow his own horn, because nobody will blow it for him anyway.
He has brought a hint of American politicking into the game and clinched 185 votes at congress, far less than Dr. Mahama. And he says he was very surprised to get that much. He had thought he would only get about 45. Surely, he’ll be made the flag bearer’s running mate and we can all expect fireworks as usual.
PRESSURE
The overall political temperature is rising gradually. Alliances are being discussed and forged. Those who have won primaries are busy developing high blood pressure. Others have already started having running stomachs. The excitement is rising day after day as the NPP and NDC warm up for the contest of the decade. All the parties have elected their flag bearers.
What Ghanaians are praying for is peace. They value it because it is precious. Politics is a game, not guerilla warfare. While campaigning on platforms, politicians should preach peace alongside their manifestoes.
What brings conflict? It is the tongue. If you mount a platform and start insulting political opponents, certainly that isn’t politics. It is simply war-mongering. Sometimes, it starts via the airwaves and it is carried to the platforms.
What the people want to hear is not how foolish you think your opponents are, but what you think you can do for dear Ghana. For once, let us forget about our opponents and preach the gospel of what we can do, for which reason we want the endorsement of the people of Sikaman.
This article was first published on Saturday, June 5, 2004
Features
Another opportunity is available
Another celebration of Easter, which is associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Saviour of the world, has just gone by.
This is not the first time such a celebration has taken but it has been celebrated each year, ever since I was old enough to appreciate things happening around me.
During the festivities, many people become holy and begin to rededicate their lives to God, through his beloved son Jesus. Many people make resolutions about how they are going to become committed to God, how they are going to change the way they have been living their lives and change for the better, how they are going to demonstrate love to their neighbours etc.
Give them say three months and you will find them forgetting about the resolutions they made. Those of us who belong to this group, a new opportunity has now been offered for us, so we can stick to our resolutions.
Easter has always been a time of reflection, especially for Christians. It is a time for stock taking to see where we stand with our faith in our creator and our status as to where we are on our walk with God and therefore his son, Jesus Christ.
It is a period in which the death of Christ takes on a deeper meaning and the significance of it becomes very much appreciated. It affords believers an opportunity to critically reassess our lives and to read just our way of life, so we could still be on the narrow path to heaven.
During the Easter period, an atmosphere of divine visitation can be felt by those who are spiritually inclined. Testimonies abound of miraculous encounters during Easter seasons.
Watching the Passion of Christ movie after church last Sunday, I really experienced a deeper connection to the suffering that Christ endured from when he was taken to Pontius Pilate up to when he said “It is finished’’ on the cross.
On the social front, it is a great time for reconnecting with members of our families, a time of reconnecting with friends, contributing to the development of our local communities etc.
This is the time when those who are outside the country, come home to interact with family members especially their parents, who they have not interacted with face-to-face for a long time.
It is true that due to technological advancement it is now possible to interact with friends and family but it is not the same as face to face interaction. There is the disturbing side to this celebration which requires that efforts be made to cause attitudinal change.
Some people see this occasion as an avenue for promiscuity and all they look forward to is an opportunity to get someone to sleep with, despite the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.
If we want to see improvement in our lives both spiritually and physically, then we must prayerfully consider the resolutions we make now, so that God will grant us the grace and determination to achieve them. Let us focus a bit more on the spiritual than the physical.
Let us plan on how to improve say our prayer life, how to manifest the gifts of the spirit and not how to get the latest vehicle, and things of that nature.
The Bible exhorts that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things that we need, shall be given to us, according to Matthew 6:33. Instead of going by this directive, we usually turn it upside down and seek what we perceive us our needs first before seeking that of God, no wonder things usually do not turn out the way we expect. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Features
Who knows tomorrow?
Recently a friend posted a sad news on his Facebook page, announcing the death of a school mate who had passed away, suddenly. The report had it that he was on his way to the airport to take a flight to Ghana.
I am sure this man had already informed the wife or a friend or a work colleague at work that he was returning home but he was not to return as a human being but as a dead body.
Such is life and so we need to be circumspect in how we go about things in life. The Bible reminds us that we are like grass which at one point in time looks elegant and the next moment becomes withered according to Psalm 90:5 and 6. It is for this reason that we need to guard our hearts with the word of God so that we shall be motivated to do the right thing, at all times.
This will enable us live on this planet, free from all sorts of troubles in our personal lives, even if we ignore the question of Heaven and Hell. Living a disciplined life delivers us from any kind of trouble as the Bible declares in Galatians 5:23 that against such there is no law.
The uncertainty surrounding our lives on earth is the more reason why people should commit their lives into the hands of the one who created it, in the first place unless you believe that the world created itself and that it appeared from nowhere.
Otherwise, the logical thing to do is to recognize the authority of the creator and surrender to his Lordship. Heaven is real and Hell is real, so for us who know the truth and have received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, the onus lies on us to encourage our relations who have not believed and received Jesus into their lives, to do so.
We are a couple of days from another Easter Resurrection celebration and an opportunity to reflect on our lives in relation to the significance of Easter. In the Bible, the only occasion Jesus, Saviour of the world commands us to celebrate is his death and resurrection.
He never commanded his followers to celebrate his birth but like everything else, we chose to ignore Jesus’s instructions and decided to do what pleases us, just like our forefather and mother in the Garden of Eden.
Let us deliberately choose to do things differently as Christians this Easter, so we can really benefit from all the blessings that the celebration of the death and birth of Jesus, has on offer. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is definitely insanity.
I choose to be different this Easter and I am believing God for a newness of life so God’s glory would be revealed in me to draw the unsaved to him. It is only when people especially the unsaved, see the character of Christ in us, that they can be convinced about the authenticity of Jesus, as Saviour of the world, who can bring transformation in their lives too.
This is what would motivate them to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Let us make this Easter a memorable one that will be cherished for a long time. It is also a period for reconciliation and it would be great if in the spirit of Easter, we would try to reach out to those who have wronged us or have a grudge against us.
This would demonstrate that we have indeed accepted Jesus and that our religious posture is not a sham. May the good Lord grant us the grace to love our neighbours as ourselves, demonstrating the love of God in the process.
Those who have lost their loved ones and Easter brings sad memories, may the good Lord comfort and strengthen you. God bless.
.NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
