Ghana’s enviable electoral credentials was consolidated last week when the largest opposition party, led by Nana Addo won a landslide victory in the general election. The win albeit its especially the NDC fanatics and some political pundits, was invariably unavoidable.
In the build up to the election, majority of the electorates were made to believe they were suffering hence they needed to change the government. The New Patriotic Party grounded their campaign message on this theme and cleverly used imagery and statistics to achieve this objective. They were reminded of the deteriorating economy which reflected in their inability to pay school fees, electricity bills and other basic financial challenges. In a nutshell, lots of the electorates were indoctrinated. Since lots of them couldn’t reason beyond any marginal scope, they instantly fell for the bait.
Indeed, majority of Ghanaians are in a state of hopelessness. The unanimous complaints notwithstanding, lots of people thrived and remained indifferent. These cluster of people subscribe to the notion that to stay afloat in these turbulent times which abounds in other countries, you have to work very hard (a notion which underlines the purpose of this article).
In the meantime, John Dramani Mahama was making meaningful strides in the infrastructural development across the length and breadth of the country. Unfortunately these developments meant nothing to the average Ghanaian voter. Ghanaians want robust policies that will alleviate their predicament. That was exactly the tool the NPP used and it worked perfectly. Furthermore, there were glaring corruption scandal that was tied to the NDC like an umbilical cord. All these made the umbrella party plummet.
Now that the NPP has won power, many Ghanaians will be hoping Nana Addo and his surrogates will brandish the magic wand and instantantly make everything perfect. In fact, if that mentality ferments in our subconscious mind, then we should brace ourselves for a huge disappointment.
Nana Addo will definitely do everything within his capacity to initiate actions which would be favourable to the development of the country but I don’t foresee any significant variation. The kind of change that we are clamouring for will take a very long to materialize if the citizenry fail to realize that we equally have a role to play. The onus lies on every Ghanaian to work assiduously, irrespective of the political divide. Take for instance a group of men and women who allegedly boycotted the national clean up exercise initiated by the NDC in the wake of cholera epidemic because they belong to the NPP. We cannot accelerate the growth of the country with this shallow attitude.
We don’t need vigilantes like the renowned Anas Aremeyaw to lurk in our guilty shadows before we do the right thing. The newly elected president can operate and fully discharge his duties in our best interest if we start the ‘change’ from home.
