About a week ago, I attended a community Entertainment event in Luton and somehow, I got into a long conversation with a neatly dressed gentleman—-I will know him later as the NDC’s Luton branch chairman.
Even though I read a lot about Politics due to my keen interest in Law and Philosophy, which I’ve come to acknowledge you cannot study and appreciate without a bit of politics—I have always avoided discussing Ghanaian politics.
I cannot find any appropriate word or phrase to correctly mirror how I feel about Ghanaian politics, but DETEST is not far from how I generally feel.
I’ve stated on here and will state once again that, I love politics as a discipline and as a system of civic influence but I hate its accompanying anti-intellectual and insulting culture, especially in Ghana.
I am not sure how many of you have had the chance to listen to BBC Radio 4 when the English politicians highjack the station, discussing policies, ideas, political parties, national issues and civic matters. In a simple sentence, I will say; they do this so beautifully, and with so much confidence and intellect that makes you fall in love with their political discourse.
I listen to BBC Radio 4 regularly and never I’ve I had to ask myself; what is the substance of what that politician just said or does he even know what he is talking about….
Surely, I do sometimes find their views opposing to mine and I guess many do too, but they articulate these maturely, intellectually and with substantial respect for those holding contradictory opinions.
With the above in mind, just change your dial and find any of the Ghanaian radio stations and you will soon realize that, the neatly clothed politics being portrayed as a civil enterprise on a western radio is being randomly butchered in Ghana—full of insults, name calling and demeaning innuendos.
The attractiveness of politics lies in its intellectual structure, enlightened debates and tolerance in the face of all opposing views. But these significant attributes do not come with Ghanaian politics. Instead of discussing issues, policies and concerns, we discuss people, call them all sort of names we will not even call a dog and openly threaten each other without remorse…
Interestingly, it id not only the politicians holding governmental appointments who descend into the gutters, the various citizenry politicians also call into radio programmes to spice things with their own insults and name calling.
How on earth does anyone find comfort and interest in being part of this political atmosphere, let alone to love and enjoy it?
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