Opinions of Friday, 19 June 2015

Columnist: Tse, Frederick K. Kofi

Congrats to the NPP and a word for the NDC

Congratulations to the NPP for their new crop of leaders and I hope they will stop attacking the youthful ministers in the current government and preach a message of hope for the youth.

Let us be reminded again that what our democracy lack is political will--which both the "experienced" and young politicians across the political divide fail to exhibit-- and not experience.

Many times, what we call in Africa as experience is just an accumulation of years at post rather than creative skills. The youth are coming on board with exuberant creativity, which we need as a continent.

My only disappointment is that Hon. Rashid Bawa has not got the nod. He is a fine gentleman, intelligent and vocal. Growing up, I hardly listen to news on GBC but anytime I drew towards a radio either by chance or by fate, I only listened for his name: “the deputy minister for youth and sports and MP for Akan constituency, Hon. Rashid Bawa".

That bit of the news had always inspired me as a poor brat in Senior Secondary School to dream “I CAN ". Ghana needs such inspiring leaders who rose through the ranks of poverty, by education, to the apex of high professions.

Now my suggestion to the NDC: we do not need any "lotto forecasters" or" G.P.R.T.U." parliamentary candidates in the Volta Region. Our country deserves better. It is not true that the NDC doesn't have the men, no, that will be disingenuous.

A political party who governed more than any other, at least, in years cannot be said to lack competent and intelligent candidates, but, rather, the incessant "moneycracy" is repelling capable people who do not have a lot of money from contesting.

Ghana needs people who can really read and understand and critique bills very thoroughly before they are passed.

We need leaders who will inspire confidence and garner respect in the youth; candidates who know that lawmakers elsewhere are passing bills which makes it possible for children in basic schools to learn coding and we here in Ghana can no longer be encouraging rote learning and on top of that leak papers to our students.

I expect the NDC to cause a stir in their party by disappointing some uninspiring leaders in parliament when they go to the polls. Let the youth come on board to enrich our political conversation in 2016.

But, if the NDC doesn't go to the polls early enough, so much money will go down the drain through vote buying and this could make way for only the rich at the expense of the competent poor who could perform better in parliamentary work than the rich who may not be competent.

But if incompetent people get the nod, Ghana and democracy will be the biggest losers.

For the future of this country, I write.

Frederick K. Kofi Tse
(Kelikofi@gmail.com)