Until the opulence of open buying of votes at the Ayawaso East Constituency primary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) popped up, I was bent on commenting about the directive of the NDC outlining measures to streamline the relationship between the party and the government.
The party announced a policy to distinguish party positions from government and public service roles.
In the wisdom of the party, members in the employment of the state, whether serving in government, civil or public services, were to be barred from contesting party positions.
Many of the party members felt uneasy about the measures and expressed their dissent in unfriendly ways.
Some directed their ire and angst against the General Secretary, Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, the bearer of the bad omen, as if he had acted unilaterally or imposed his will on them.
In “Anthills of the Savannah”, Chinua Achebe, in talking about misdirected dissent, notes that the meat of the chicken being cooked in the pot must not be angry at the pot nor the fire on which the pot sits, but at the person who manufactured the machete which was used to slaughter the fowl.
Fiifi Kwetey merely announced party policy and, thus, to hold him responsible and liable is to betray a lack of appreciation of collective responsibility and good governance.
What the party wants to pursue is what I have fought for since the birth of the Fourth Republic.
Having started my journalistic work from the Northern Region, two months into my appointment as a Staff Writer, after my internship in the Ashanti Region, Mr Huudu Yahaya, who does not want the title Alhaji, was my very good friend as he served as the Northern Regional Secretary.
However, when he became the General Secretary of the NDC and was appointed as Secretary for CDRs, I did not shudder to criticise the appointment, which I considered a subsidy for the NDC, as he received a salary from the state as Secretary of State.
It is the same principle that I have been fighting about Alhaji Rashid Tanko Computer, who, after his appointment as Chief Executive of a public entity, still carries himself as a virulent Director of Elections of the NDC. His postures have been hawkish and reprehensible, as somebody paid by the state.
There are many like him, who, by their positions as government or public officials, come by public information which they abuse and misapply for political partisan interests contrary to some of the things we saw leading to our entry into partisan politics, where some public officials were dismissed for using their official vehicles to attend any party meetings other than that of the NDC.
Vote buying
Last Saturday, we saw boldly, without any inhibitions, vote buying, with NDC agents in the Ayawaso East Constituency carrying home television sets or motorbikes and other unseen goodies after exercising their delegated franchise in selecting a candidate for the party to contest in the by-election.
The curiosity of the public was heightened when the NDC national executive announced a swift investigation into the matter, followed by the call by the Majority in Parliament that the process be annulled and finally, the revocation of the appointment of Baba Jamal by the President as our High Commissioner to Nigeria.
The NDC did not present a coherent front.
Whilst some hailed the action of the President as deserving and decisive, others argued that soon, Baba Jamal could become an MP and voluntarily resign his post.
Others argued that the Majority in Parliament were playing the ostrich and acting like the legendary anomaa kokonekone, which goes upstream to muddy the water and comes downstream to complain that the water is dirty.
The justification is that the Majority Caucus donated GH¢100,000 to the widow of the late MP to wrestle the primary and turned around to complain of vote-buying against the eventual winner, soar grapes.
In between, the NDC seemed immobilised as allegations of factionalism emerged.
Some are saying that Baba Jamal belongs to the camp of the national chairman of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, while the widow was with the faction of President Mahama.
While neither the party nor the factions had publicly reacted to the claims of the factions, the Ayawaso East Constituency executives of the party rubbished those alleging that there was vote-buying, suggesting that no official representative of the government nor the party had been to the constituency to observe things, but had jumped to the hasty conclusion of criminality, a sort of instant justice.
And their claim has been established by the investigations, which have exonerated Baba Jamal.
Is it that the outcome of the investigation by the NDC is about the government providing a goat or sheep which has been transmitted or misrepresented to the public as a cow, as Baba Jamal, aka Esculanto, once advised staff of the Information Services Department to do or that this is no farce nor whitewash?
The lesson is the claim by a faction of the NDC, those on the side of Baba Jamal, that any of the Majority MPs who did not buy votes must be the first to throw dirt at him.
Coming from a predominantly Muslim community where a donation by the Chief Imam towards the cause of Christians or an adherent found inside a church is considered a fatwa, an abomination, quoting the Bible to defend Baba Jamal, to quote Lawyer Addison in the Presidential Election Petition, “is very rich”.
If MPs could be silenced from commenting about a public event because they are guilty of vote buying and cannot, thus, call for justice, then shame on all party commentators who have ever criticised or condemned any other party or candidate for inducing voters with any form of gifts or bribes.
Any party communicators or spokespersons who have accused any politician of vote buying and condemned the act from partisan interest must shut up.
Obligation
We have a collective obligation to fight such opulence and open lawlessness when there is concrete evidence of corruption and corruptible practices and that must not be limited to political opponents, but anybody whose conduct undermines the sanctity of the right to vote, especially where it is a privilege exercised on behalf of others.
As Achebe notes, the events of last Saturday, the charade of an investigation and the cracks that occurred within the NDC, as to whether what we saw was abominable or adorable, clearly point to the fact that Ghanaians in unity and oneness of purpose must speak against such despicable acts and not trust party symbolic emptiness and crass condoning.
In the words of Achebe, the happenings around the Ayawaso East NDC primary and the empty promise of thorough investigations” have shown that a man must not swallow his saliva (spittle) because he fears to disturb others with a cough” or spitting it out.
Whether you are NDC, NPP or belong to any other political party, it is criminally shameful to speak about any act of vote-buying in a condescending, patronising or euphemistic manner.
All such individuals do not appreciate or deliberately demean the sanctity and inalienability of the franchise.
Directive
Turning to the policy directive of the NDC, the barring of members from formally working for the state and party to establish clear boundaries is in the interest of good governance.
Party activists must not and cannot be paid by the state, but devote their time to politically partisan causes that have no direct function or benefit to the state.
For as the Bible says, no one can serve two masters objectively and functionally.
We all saw the agents unashamedly carrying their ill-deserved bribe items.
Is it that the investigations established that all the candidates purchased the votes, for which reason Baba Jamal cannot be singled out for punishment since both the agents and candidates stooped low, or that no wrongdoing was found against any of the candidates?
Since the NDC has failed the test of bringing integrity into the Ayawao East Parliamentary primary by upholding the interest of the party against the country, we cannot be sure whether there will be no bending of some of the rules to favour certain utility members in the interest of the party.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
