The most casual observer of the Ghanaian political scene will not scratch his head to name Nana Akomea as one of the most civil and well mannered politicians the NPP is blessed with. On the other side of the political divide, John Mahama, the current vice president of the republic is arguably the most respected NDC politician on the scale of civility in public discourse.
When Ghana ushered itself into the fourth republic in 1992, most of us thought the politics of insults would die with the expiry of the term of the first president of the re-born republic. Jerry was probably the most insulted president when he was in office. Not many people sympathized with him though and I don’t think he himself took it seriously either. The trend of politically motivated insults has not only continued beyond his era but rather seems to be getting more and more pervasive.

I will not attempt to chronicle the insults that have engulfed this country since such an attempt will generate volumes of pages in multiples of the bible. Suffice it therefore to highlight only a couple of high profile ones. We had once upon a time heard occupants of the highest office of the land describe each other as either Ata Ayii or sasabonsam. For most Ghanaians, it was no news when Papa J painted JAK in the image of Ata Ayii. It however went beyond the remit of news into the arena of disbelief when the gentle giant broke his own civil code to call his predecessor sasabonsam. Of course his supporters defended him publicly but I sincerely believe they wished JAK had not returned mud for mud, given who he is generally perceived to be.
Yes, the trading of insults has since continued between the NDC and the NPP politicians with impunity. Unfortunately, none of our political leaders has shown the will or the capability to effectively do anything about it. Jerry seemed to have embraced it during his time whilst JAK showed gross indifference to the menace. Uncle Atta on his part could only muster a lame lamentation about it and appears toothless in biting his insulting ministers and apparatchiks. As for Nana Addo, his all die be die posture and his tacit support for Nana Akomea in the “you stupid fool” saga makes him appear an unwitting accomplice.
For my daughter, it was when the two fine gentlemen of Ghana’s politics, Nana Akomea and John Mahama joined the fray of insults that she got to her limits. For her, these two gentlemen represent the brightest hopes for Ghana’s political future. She therefore got very alarmed when the Vice Pee, who rose to fame on the back of his extraordinary civility, described opposition to the government’s collateral policy on oil revenues as baloney. I don’t think it would have tickled her at all if such a statement was made by Mr. Acheampong, Richard, Mr. Kumah or the knighted General Secretary of Ghana politics. Before she could get over her disappointment, the usually soft-speaking and well composed Nana Akomea was also caught up in an unusual fit of rage on radio where he shouted “stupid fool” at a political opponent he disagreed with. This was the limit!
The decibels of my daughter’s political alarm bells were now out of acceptable range. By her reckoning, if these two fine gentlemen who she had looked up to as her political role models could also resort to insults in times of political disagreement, then this country was surely heading towards a political Armageddon. By her estimates, for every insulting Akomea and Mahama, there are a million political hot heads ready to explode in a suicide bomb style at the slightest political provocation. This, she indeed sees as a recipe for disaster. Having turned 18 a few months ago, she is fired up to mobilize the youth and like-minded adults to hit the streets to protest against this diabolical trend in our politics. According to her, somebody must stop these politicians from using insults to destroy our future and if no adult will, she will get the youth to do so.

Mathias Dorfe mdorfe@hotmail.com