Played not paid!

With less than two weeks to go to the General Polls come December 7^th, it’s pathetic to note the degree of apathy that has engulfed the youth towards Politicians and the 2012 General Elections as a whole.  The forthcoming elections would be the sixth successive and yet another successful General Elections in the history of the nation, since the introduction of democracy in 1992.

Democracy and its related activities such as freedom of speech and General Elections have gained popularity among Ghanaians over the years and has come to stay with us except the intent and purpose of the whole democratic exercise has lost on us.

The terrain is so rife with Law makers breaking the same laws we pay them to make with glee and yet going unpunished, failing to fulfill promises they made during campaigns, failing to talk to the people but themselves except during elections time, paying hefty salaries to themselves and misusing state resources for their selfish ends.

Others are getting rich overnight, showing disbelief in the nation’s institutions and establishments by sending their kids abroad for further studies while they treat the nation’s ones with all the contempt they can gather, masterminding and perpetrating crimes like drug trafficking, money laundering, engagement of state resources to transact personal businesses and arrogating all the powers to themselves as they share the national cake.

Speaking to a lot of Ghanaians across the world, you realize that most of them do not even know what is really going on; they are not privy to the issues the political parties are talking about and seem absent-minded about their activities. The only people you see and hear mostly are the ones who are benefiting directly from these parties or Politicians because I’m yet to see someone engaged in active politics without paramounting his or her selfish gains above the overarching aim of pushing Ghana forward.

It is appropriate to state that, the electorates are not absent-minded, unintelligent or lacks what it takes to either be one of them or engage in it, they are just disinterested because they are tired of being played as fools, they are tired because they can’t be taken for granted anymore and finally, it is not attractive for the well-meaning folks who wishes to help. The only good news here is, they are willing to partake in the activities if the Politicians will take them seriously and engage them in consensus building and helping to build the nation by playing their part of the virtual agreement.

How can someone take you serious if you are going to appeal to people’s conscience and allow old women and men who can barely walk to queue for almost a whole day to vote for you and then make a U-turn and never come back as promised? How can someone take you serious when you can actually walk through every nook and cranny of your catchment area and cannot even drive by when elections are won? How can the electorates take you serious when high office will take all your time that you cannot organize a durbar even twice a year at the market square or the town hall for the people? They won’t take you serious because when they elect you into office, you would lose touch with them and send your assistants to represent you when the community invites you to programmes.

The youth have nothing to lose because it looks like even before the start of proceedings, they had already lost and the timely awareness has made them lax, knowing it will be foolhardy to put in a fight they don’t even have a dog’s chance of winning and to enforce that stance, they have decided to shun anything that has to do with the Politician.

The foot soldiers and loyal supporters who have become an extension of the Politician, and amplifying his lies and vain promises too are not consistent and it appears, they don’t even know what they are up to, let alone know what they are doing. It is rightly so, because they are quick to pick up a fight with you before you even start with them. They are not able to explain the policies and modalities their masters are spawning. They are quick to label you an opposition, depending on their divide or what you are talking about or because you have not swallowed their bait, hook, line and sinker.  

A lot of people says, they are going to stock their fridges with their favorite drinks and relax cozily to football and movies and some are offloading their relegated schedules to that day and it is unfortunate to note that an important national exercise of this magnitude is going on and the politicians do not seem to care because they know that at the end of the day, a verdict will be declared and they will share their gains and spoils. 

There are usually those who stand in and coerce the I no go vote squad by reminding them of their civil rights and how they have to vote to become patriotic citizens and how sitting aloof will leave the nation’s decision process in the hands of some charlatans, yet they are not able to extend the complains and disregard the politicians have for the electorates over the years and that also smacks of partiality or at most a conspiracy between the elects and the lobbyists against voters.

It has become evident that we are condoning unaccountability and encouraging disdain from the Politicians, so we have decided to leave the country for them to do whatever they want to do with it. Are we not peace loving enough not to come seeking a part of the national cake which is not making rounds anyway?

Additionally, these disgruntled voting public are not ready to be emotionally mauled into thinking that they are the ones acting politically incorrect towards the democratic or at most the electioneering exercise because the relationship between us and the Politicians all these while ought to have been a mutual and a respectable one.

However, we would like to appeal to the Politicians to tolerate each other and be cognizant of the fine line where going beyond will foment trouble and its subsequent unrest in the nation. We want a trouble-free voting and smooth transition into our sixth term of governance as a democratic nation in the fourth republic. And to serve a reminder, we will not forgive them if anything should go contrary to how it’s supposed to be. Shalom!