Comment: Politics not two-horse football league

At the beginning of the year, a long serving journalist from a well-known radio station sat on TV and proclaimed that politics in Ghana is NPP versus NDC, "...just as soccer in Ghana is Hearts versus Kotoko".

I stared at my TV screen and him in amazement and remembered that he was one of the media personnel who since 1996 had discouraged political parties in Ghana other than the NDC and the NPP from developing.

It is almost as if the 1992 Constitution came with a provision that Ghana should be a two-party state. On this occasion, he liked what he said so much that he resorted to falsehood. Yes, Hearts and Kotoko have dominated soccer in Ghana over the years, but not all the time.

We have had Real Republicans, Ashgold, Berekum Chelsea and others play competitive soccer and win league championships in Ghana. Dwarfs, Wise, Olympics, Cornerstone and others have had their days and done well. Football in Ghana cannot be complete without them.

So where from this obsession with a two-horse football league and extend it to politics?

Football has lasted longer than multi-party democracy in Ghana. We have been voting since 1992 after a long break due to the impatience, impunity and treachery of some men in uniform and their civilian accomplices. Their treasonous acts landed Ghana that they came to "liberate", "redeem" and "revolutionise" in a worse social and economic shape. We don't seem to have learnt our lessons that nation building cannot be rushed or wished in a dream to happen overnight.

To many of us, the dust has not settled, though two parties have seen electoral success so far. Electoral success has not turned into governing success. Every now and then, we stop to ask ourselves if democracy is all that it is supposed to be. A number of Ghanaians vote believing that all politicians are the same and will deliver benefits to themselves but do nothing positive for the rest of the people. Voting, for some, has become a vote for ethnic reasons or party colours. Eventually, the people will realise that playing Hearts and Kotoko politics has kept them poor. They will wake up to the fact that a few privileged politicians have prospered only on the knowledge that they have a 50-50 chance to win power no matter how badly they treat the people or mismanage the finances of the nation.

I am a believer that people do wake up. Eventually, get it. So 2016 will not be about the NDC or the NPP. It will be about how successful a party like the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is in educating Ghanaians to understand that their level of poverty is directly linked to the choices they make during elections. When the people get to know that the competence and experience of the people they vote for matter, they will not treat elections as one giant carnival and an opportunity to eat, drink, and gain a few cedis.

However long it takes, that time will come in Ghana when the voters will demand positive results from those their votes give power to. This roll of the dice, voting for the highest bidder, will come to an end. The dictatorship of two parties will crash.

I know one thing for sure - a country gets what it votes for.

The writer is the 2012 Presidential candidate of the Progressive People's Party