Today’s politics has become a game, that many have quickly forgotten the very reason for its existence; revolutionary change of bad leadership and a progressive evolution of good leadership into best governance for national development.
However, in Ghana, and to a larger extent, Africa, many support and campaign for political parties just as they do for football clubs. Nothing beyond a game. The motivation has largely been informed by a sense of belongingness, a false sense of superiority over others, and of course, for the fun and bragging right. A few do so with the hope of personal gains, with no interest in the collective benefit of the masses.
Not many have a deep intuition and the foresight of objective evaluation of how their political actions and choices affect their lives today and tomorrow.
And so slogans are chanted, sweats are extracted from the bodies, energies are dissipated, and blood is even shed, in a voluntary act of handing over freedom and power to the very people who are the culprit of the oppression and unending distress endured for ages.
But like the souls of men have always pursued the hope of a better life, the gullibility to believe in promises that offer hope seems to momentarily erase realities from the minds of people, further tightening the yoke of bondage on their necks. Like the slaves suffering from the victim mentality syndrome, praises are showered on the hostile masters, legitimizing brazen malice in the name of democracy.
The knowledge of history was meant to offer lessons to correct past mistakes, but it seems in the current African political environment, lessons are never learnt, and so more knowledge of the past, rather seems to forge a worse future for the people. This perpetuates the viciousness in a cyclical chain of hopelessness, smearing despair in the faces of innocent youth. The question, however, still remains unanswered.
When shall we…?
Musings of Shadrack T. Asiedu