THE TEAM OF POPULAR YOUTH (TOPY) CALLS ON ALL PROGRESSIVE YOUTH OF GHANA TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA
“Once to every man and nation,
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side
Some great cause, some great decision,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
‘Twixt that darkness and that light.”
Courtesy Ketasco anthem.
Yes! The time has come for the Ghanaian people to decide in whose hands we should entrust this nation for the next four years, for a little more shaping and for a little more fine tuning.
Yes! Some great cause and some great decisions like election 2012 offer us each the bloom or blight of our future and that of mother Ghana. Whatever we decide to do with our thumbs on Friday, 7th of December 2012, could lead to either the gallant forward match of this nation or the bitter retrogression of our development. For this reason, TOPY took time to review the answers, the utterances and the demeanour of all the presidential candidates in their quest to woe the Ghanaian people for their votes, either on the political platform, on their tour of the constituencies, or during the IEA encounters and debates. But in so doing, TOPY has found out that it is only His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who stands tall with conviction in pragmatism to open the frontiers of Ghana’s democracy and socio-economic development of this nation.
Whilst some of these candidates cleverly demonstrated their theoretical understanding of the complex issues facing Ghana today, some have only managed to put fears in the spines of the Ghanaian that given the chance, they would not be careful when it comes to international diplomacy and protection of the national interest. Consequently, it is the security and peace of our mother land that is of most interest to the Team Of Popular Youth (TOPY) in this presentation. We therefore gave a premium to examine and conjecture the way the various candidates would handle matters of these highly prized twin-pillars of a developing economy (security and peace) if they became the next president of Ghana.
We were particularly worried about the response of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to a question as to why the 2012 election seems to be characterised by a higher political tension. According to him allegedly, the Oil find is the simple reason. And whilst one thinks his answer is an obvious truth, it only reminds us of the Coca Cola bottle that fell from the aircraft only to become a blessing at first, but later a curse to the Kalahari people of Botswana in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. So the questions that kept nagging the Team Of Popular Youth (TOPY) are “would the oil revenue become the personal property of an individual or political party that wins the next election?” Are all the political parties not giving us the assurances that the oil revenue would be shared to every Ghanaian to have a part? Why then should the NPP candidate be the one to see this gift of God as a source of conflict and the good reason why it is only the NPP that must manage the affairs of state at this particular moment? Or is the oil find being seen in the light of the Kalahari bushmen who thought that the Gods had been careless in bringing to their land something that only one person could use and enjoy at a time? To wit, again, would the oil become a personal property of one political party? Obviously, we have a dichotomy of strife of truth with falsehood on our hands.
But the strife is not only of truth with falsehood by the politician, but also between Ghana and La Cote d’voire for ownership of this natural resource. This is why a potential leader would restrain him/herself from making comments that could jeopardise our already precarious position in the matter. This is obviously a test of patriotism and a test of the psychological disposition of a leader in times when the nation is faced with taking crucial decisions like joining forces with other nations that do not share border with La Cote d’voire in a military escapade. And a wise leader in Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills was committed to ensuring that this resource does not become a curse, but rather a blessing to Ghana.
So TOPY is always at a lost when people criticise Prof. Mills of blessed memory for not honouring the pledge of the Sub-regional group, ECOWAS, to involve itself in the military overthrow of Laurent Gbagbo, forgetting the evil that befell thousands of our citizens in our neighbouring country in 1993 when Kotoko played Asec Mimosa. At that time, even the ‘military’ government of Flt Lt. J.J. Rawlings with all the revolutionary exuberance acted with caution and diplomacy in the face of extreme provocation.
Whilst Professor Mills decided to use humour to parry attempts to draw Ghana into a very long haul of conflict by saying ‘di wo fie asem’, I thought that would be the end of the matter. It is therefore the continuous stoking of this fire at every turn and opportunity by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that blows the minds and frighten the Ghanaian youths when they imagine this particular candidate as the next president of Ghana. We may be proven wrong from hindsight after his tenure, but how about if we were right now in our assertions about him as president of Ghana? The consequences would have been so expensive and irreparable to our nation and the future of our children.
So in taking a counsel from the article written by Mr. K.B. Asante, titled “A View From The Top Of The Mowag”, We came to one conclusion that we want to share with the Ghanaian voter as we have once again the opportunity to elect our next president. In that article, the writer made us to understand that it is only a wise leader that changes the topic in the middle of a discourse when he/she realises that continuing in the agreed line of argument would only put the lives of the rest of his/her followers in great danger. Another thing a potential leader would do all the time is to ensure that in extreme provocations and in quarrels with a brother or a sister, he or she would never divulge any family secrete to the venerability of all.
So, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side; some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight, where our choice would go by forever, we must look out for such leaders with our thumb. And thank be to God that the search is not far-fetched.
There has been a man of peace who everybody attested to has given Ghana a paradigm shift in politics. He not being vindictive caused him the wrath of his own political party, but he, so vilified, was the same person who became immortalised by this and many other virtues. It is under his tutelage and mentorship that the current President John Dramani Mahama served. Prior to him becoming the vice president, he conducted himself very respectably to the admiration of both friends and foes. It is in him that the Team Of Popular Youth has found that gem of a leader needed to take us across this crucial period of climbing onto the middle income status where many advanced nations, by fear of intense competition, turn to trap their victims into a needles warfare to take over their assets.
There is also good news for the youth of Ghana in John Mahama. Instead of turning you into employees that are always at the mercy of their bosses, he and his party have committed themselves into empowering you to become employers with the empathy towards your employees. We shall therefore not hesitate to recommend this affable, humble and the only candidate amongst the rest who has experienced the mantle of presidency to the progressive minded youth of Ghana.
Vote wisely, and do not get provoked into any act of violence; but always pacify yourself with the advice from his Excellency that “John Dramani Mahama says I should forgive you for peace’s sake” in case you were attacked.
Thank you
Marcus Garvin Adampah
National Leader,
Team Of Popular Youth (TOPY)
0261623673/0203838464
Raymond Tettevi
National Project Co-ordinator,
Team Of Popular Youth (TOPY)
0208437803/0262437803
