I got surprised when a septuagenarian acquaintance told me that she does not want to be on Facebook.
I felt that was strange, because I believe that is where all the fun is these days. Some of the messages and videos can be offensive yes, so you skip to the entertaining ones. Actually, one could spend the 24 hours in a day on Facebook without realizing, provided you have enough data.
That is why for a much less busy 70-year-old, I thought my friend could do herself a lot of good by logging on to that Social Media platform. Plus, she may meet some of her long-lost classmates, that’s if they have not taken the lead to the hereafter. Some of her management colleagues or junior staff may also pop up on the ‘people you may know’ section for her to request their friendship. Watching TV these days does not match up to the Facebook-based fun. I think.
I love Facebook. Aside other benefits, it keeps me in touch with trending pidgin language. The latest I have learnt are; ‘it will over you’ (You will be overwhelmed), ‘you go explain taya’ (You will explain to no avail), and ‘I Won’t do again’ (I give up).
Appiah-Kubi and the ‘I won’t do again’ threat
‘I Won’t do again’ came to mind when I heard the incumbent member of Parliament for Asante Akyim North, Lawyer Andy Appiah-Kubi lamenting over the cost one has to incur before being elected as MP, for which reason he said, if care is not taken, experienced and knowledgeable persons like him will not be motivated to want to be MPs again.
“… I sound this warning, that if this is the way we are going to go, next time I will not be competing. Because it is not worth spending all these kinds of money and not getting anything back. Unfortunately, people think that when you go into Parliament you make money. The converse is the truth. It is the exact opposite.
And most of our people are losing because they don’t have the financial resources to contest. Some of us have come through because of our professional earnings. We can’t continue to earn money from our professions and come and dump them in politics and attract the insults, the undermining and name calling.
Politics is becoming unattractive. And I am serving this notice, that if we don’t change our ways of selection, I will not be a candidate next time. We need to select people who have the capacity and the competence, interest and the energy to go into parliament,” he lamented in an interview with newsmen.
He stopped short of speaking his native Twi- Me ny3 biom. That is ‘I won’t do again,’
Before Mr Appiah-Kubi voiced out his frustration, I heard former National Democratic Congress (NDC) appointee, Dr. Anna Louisa Bissiw on TV3’s News 360 that, as we say in local parlance, if you dash her the position of MP, she will reject it. Her reason? The call for support from constituents, she claims, ‘will over you’.
Founding member of the NPP, Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu, Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin have all expressed deep concern over how costly seeking political office has become. Their ultimate fear is the possibility of misfits being elected to work in the legislative chamber.
The phenomenon of vote buying
My personal observation is that vote buying is a practice whereby persons seeking political office use monetary or other inducements to influence the electorate to vote in their favour.
Wikipedia says, “vote buying occurs when a political party or candidate distributes money or resources to a voter in an upcoming election with the expectation that the voter votes for the actor handing out monetary rewards.”
The key elements are that someone who wants to be voted for, gives money to the one who has the vote in order for it to be cast in their interest.
In Ghana’s politics, this practice has been known about and reported on since 1992. However, in recent times, it seems to have grown into a canker- a destructive fungal disease. And it is the destructive element that scares me and all who have spoken against vote buying.
And the stakes are becoming higher per election- Branded motorbikes, flat screen TV sets and cash seem to be the in-thing now.
As a result, comments by the Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman during an interview with Alfred Ocansey on the January 29 edition of Ghana Tonight on TV3, set me thinking.
Dr Draman said it is becoming obvious that illiterates with fat wallets are winning the electorates with their moneys, while experienced and competent persons are set aside. A situation, he believes, does not bode well for our democracy.
“I can tell you on authority that some of the people who have decided not to contest, some of them lament that those who have come with big moneys to replace them, are people who perhaps are ill-prepared, with very little or no education to go into parliament. You get them in there, and certainly quality is going to be affected,” he said.
He noted that “Our democracy is going to be for the highest bidder. Then we get into a situation where may be, drug moneys from all kinds of illegitimate sources find their way into our democratic system. And the national security implication of this will be very huge.”
He cautioned that, “If nothing is done, I think in the next two cycles of our election, we are going to have a big crisis on our hands. Because, those who have money are going to line up to go into Parliament. It is going to be like a buffet and experienced MPs who don’t have fat wallets are going to continue to get pushed out. That’s not going to be good for our democracy and even the national security implication of that.
All these people who have money and are pushing experienced MPS out, where are they getting the money from? Who is funding them? What is the interest of all these people who are providing them with funding? We need to interrogate all these and the implications of that on the quality of our democracy.”
But what causes vote buying? Upon asking ChatGPT, the first point that came up was poverty. Not surprising. Poor people will sell everything they own for money. As is already common knowledge, poverty makes people sell their bodies and babies. So, selling votes is the easiest thing for the poor.
Illiteracy was the next point. How true! If only they would appreciate the consequences that Dr Draman pointed to. There were more. However, I believe the others – weak institutions, lack of education, cultural factors, lack of civic awareness, election irregularities, political culture and lack of basic amenities are all rooted in poverty and illiteracy.
It’s time to go
The particular statement by Dr Rasheeed Draman which worried me is this, “I can tell you on authority that some of the people who have decided not to contest, some of them lament that those who have come with big moneys to replace them, are people who perhaps are ill-prepared, with very little or no education to go into Parliament. You get them in there, and certainly quality is going to be affected.”
According to STARGHANA, “On average candidates need to raise GH₵389,803 (approx. US$85,000) to secure the party primary nomination and compete in the parliamentary election in their constituency.”
From What the Centre for Democratic Development has found through surveys, “The present cost of running for Parliament in Ghana, as estimated by this study is GHC 4million ($693,0002). GHC2million of that sum is spent nurturing the constituency of interest and running for primaries and the other GHC2million is calculated to be expended during the general election campaign.”
Supposedly, those who preceded these money-bearing parliamentary aspirants went to Parliament on the merit of their brain power and what they are capable of achieving for their constituents in terms of development projects and their contribution to national development through legislation. Those who found themselves playing dual roles per their appointments in the Executive arm of government apparently displayed their A-game.
The question is, if they, with all their capabilities have been able to bring us this far- severe economic difficulties such that the only residents of Ghana who do not feel the pinch are those in red, white and blue colours, what will the empty barrels with fat wallets leave us?
Well, I don’t know about you, but I keep losing hope in this country’s prospects by day. I have been involved in journalism in one way or the other since I graduated from the then Ghana Institute of Journalism in 1997. I have seen the quality of the human resource in the political class decline in tandem with our prospects for development.
Dr Draman’s remarks therefore seems to me like a prophesy I can see coming to pass. That will mean only one thing- Doom!
I pray not. But if there is no clear indication of where this nation is headed, given that we still don’t have the basics right, then the only way out will be a miracle.
Wherefore, I sing Kofi King Atta’s famous song in English- God come for the steering wheel, we are at our wits end, we can’t see our way clear and we are getting trapped.
PS: A lot has happened since I started drafting this piece. Stay tuned for – Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s driver’s mate claim- ‘You go explain taya’
Salamat Tinggal – That’s goodbye in Indonesian
Let God lead! Follow Him directly, not through any human.
The writer is the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Columnist of the Year- 2022. He is the author of two books whose contents share knowledge on how anyone desirous of writing like him can do so. Eric can be reached via email [email protected]