Ethnocentric campaigns sad — Lecturer

The tribal venom being poured out by the two main political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – is a worrying development that shows that no lessons have been learnt from past experiences, Dr Eric Opoku Mensah, a political communications expert at the University of Cape Coast, has said.

His comment follows recent tribal statements made by President John Dramani Mahama to the effect that the NPP would abandon its vice-presidential candidate after the elections because he is a northerner.

Addressing party supporters in Lawra as part of his campaign tour of the Upper West Region, President Mahama urged the electorate not to be deceived by the role Dr Bawumia was playing in the NPP because he will never be given the opportunity to lead the party.

He said: “Alhaji Aliu Mahama was vice president under the NPP government. He served faithfully under President Kufuor and, so, when eight years was up and President Kufuor was leaving, the natural order of succession is that he should have been given the opportunity to lead that party, but 17 people contested him and defeated him and that is why I say NDC is a party of opportunity because if NDC wasn’t, who am I? A boy from Bole born in Damongo, who am I to stand here and call myself president of the Republic of Ghana?

“[The NDC] is the party that opens its opportunities to all Ghanaians irrespective of what your ethnic affiliation is. Sometimes I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running around and also doing this. … They will use you and dump you. I want to live and see the day. Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him, I can assure you. When the misfortune hit us and our father Professor Mills passed away, the constitution said the vice president should take over, I did. But then we were close to an election. If it was another party, they would have insisted that there should be a congress and in that congress I would have been contested and they would have given the leadership to somebody else,” the president added.

Similarly, former President John Agyekum Kufuor has also told the people of the Eastern Region to vote for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because he hails from the region.

“Akropong-Akuapem people are fortunate to have their own son contesting for the presidency. If we say we need change, then we have to rally behind our very own. Wherever the Elephant goes, there is progress. Be wary of campaign promises and also of anybody who advises you to vote skirt and blouse. Vote for both the NPP parliamentary candidate and Nana Akufo-Addo. The president is the one who sets policies for parliament to approve, so, don’t be deceived at all. Vote for the NPP candidate and Nana Akufo-Addo and you will see development in your constituency,” Mr Kufuor at a rally in the Akropong constituency.

But speaking on these developments in an interview with Emefa Apawu on Class91.3FM on Monday November 21, Dr Opoku Mensah said: “As a nation we witnessed this in the 2012 elections, and I felt strongly that after the criticisms of tribal politics, respective candidates in this year’s elections have learnt their lessons, and by this time these major parties would have moved the arguments forward by making their arguments within the realm of bread and butter issues and other major issues that really bother on our lives as Ghanaians.

“But I think that is sad for them to be getting into this tribal politics especially using our brothers and sisters from the North. I think it is a negative development and it shouldn’t be encouraged. I am just hoping that what we are witnessing will not continue but will end here, so that we will have a very decent public discourse based upon legitimate issues that bother on the lives of Ghanaians. So I am not happy about this and I think that if it is allowed to continue, it will degenerate into something else. I am happy that major stakeholders are criticising this kind of rhetoric.

“It is not helpful, it doesn’t help because President-elect Trump (In the US) was so much involved in this kind of politics, not necessarily tribal but divisive rhetoric, politics of polarisation. Once that happens, it becomes difficult for you to unite these different groups after the elections. And I think we need one united Ghana for serious development.

“As a country we have a development deficit, and so anybody who will take over leadership of this country, whether the sitting government or those in opposition, should be mindful of our own internal divisions and will not want to exploit that for political gain. So I think that it is important for the two major political parties to remember our own history and avoid a rhetoric that will invoke these negative past sentiments that do not unite us but rather divide us the more.”

Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com