December 2012 Elections: For The Sake of Ghana's Unity Must Patriotic Ghanaians Vote Against NPP Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates?

By Kofi Thompson

With the lesson of the near-destruction of the Ivory Coast etched deeply in their subconscious, one doubts very much whether the ordinary people of this country, will ever allow their homeland Ghana, too, to be led into the abyss, by any politician or political party.

One also hopes that most ordinary Ghanaians are sensible enough, to understand clearly, that were they to allow the tragedy that befell the Ivory Coast, to be repeated here, they will end up seeing their lives (and that of their loved ones), turned completely upside down.

They cannot afford to allow their relatively peaceful and stable democratic nation, which has taken decades of never-ending sacrifice on their part, to get where it is today, to be torn apart by civil strife - orchestrated by opposing sets of power-hungry and power-drunk politicians, too callous to care about the effect of their actions, on others: and who, in any case, are bound to escape from Ghana, with their immediate families, were Ghana to burn.

It is such a pity that when he had a historic opportunity to make a difference in our national life, by changing the nature of Ghanaian politics, for the better, alas, President Mills was unable to do so.

Instead, for some extraordinary reason - which is hard to fathom - he appears to have allowed others (referred to in pithy fashion by ex-President Rawlings as "greedy bastards") to take advantage of his tenure as president, to put narrow self-interest above the common-good goal, of creating a political milieu, in which the personal cost of engaging in corruption (of the rogues-in-high-places variety) would be so high, that none, but a few, would ever consider entangling themselves in it.

As a result of that failure, high-level corruption still remains a hindrance, in the effort to transform Ghana, and better the lot of ordinary people.

Naturally, many ordinary people in Ghana, have now become completely disillusioned with the Mills administration.

As a result of that, today, incredibly, the rather unfortunate situation has been created, in which the clever and grasping acolytes of Kufuor & Co., under whom - despite the unrelenting propaganda blitz to make us believe the contrary - we did not experience a rule of saints, are actually on the cusp of returning to power again, after the December 2012 elections. How can that be, I ask, dear reader?

Yet, as we all know, many well-connected individuals and the most influential New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, benefited a great deal, and prospered mightily, from Kufuor & Co.'s not-so-secret agenda, of asset-stripping the enterprise Ghana - which underpinned the ethos-of-greed, which characterised many of the self-serving policies of the NPP regime of President Kufuor.

Alas, given the record of Kufuor & Co., in the eight years that the NPP ruled Ghana, one would have agree with those who say that such is the unfathomable greed that drives that clever, self-seeking and ruthless lot, that it would be catastrophic for Mother Ghana, were they to return to power again, after the December polls.

Despite the failings of President Mills' National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime - which incidentally pale into insignificance, when compared to the brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana, and the many other crimes against Ghanaians, perpetrated by the perfidious Kufuor & Co. - for the sake of the unity of our nation, it is vital that the discerning, independent-minded and patriotic individuals in Ghana, whose crucial swing-votes now decide who becomes president of Nkrumah's Ghana, do not allow those tribal-supremacist NPP wolves-in-sheep's-clothing, to return to power again in our country, any time soon.

That can be done - assuming that the incorruptible but colourless Mills does indeed stand as his party's presidential candidate - by making a lesser-of-two-evils choice, and voting for NDC candidates, standing against the candidates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Vodafone