Senior Political Science Lecturer, Prof. Ransford Gyampo
Senior Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has described as infantile the attribution of the #FixTheCountry campaign to the opposition National Democratic Congress.
According to Prof. Gyampo, the response to the campaign by some sympathizers and officials of the ruling government that calls for the country to be fixed is engineered by the NDC and must be disregarded is politically infantile and that people behind such thinking suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the opposition in democratic practice.
In a Facebook write up, Prof. Gyampo again asserted that another part of the response to the campaign which is calling for pro #FixTheCountry campaigners to rather fix themselves is suffering from a fundamental ignorance about the essence of putting a government in place.
Alluding to Thomas Hobbes’ account of the generation of the Leviathan, Prof Gyampo emphasized that the essence of a government was to solve the problems created by the people and prevent them from creating more problems.
“Put differently, the essence of government, in the Hobbesian perspective, was to solve the problems in the state of nature, caused by the people themselves. Hobbes, therefore, argues that you cannot have a government in place and continue to experience the very problems that existed when there was no government.”
He, however, called on the campaigners to reconsider their planned demonstration scheduled for Sunday, May 9, 2021, due to the risk of the demonstration leading to an increase in the nations COVID-19 numbers.
Read Prof. Gyampo’s write-up below:
1. I had decided to take a 6 month leave off Social Media, beginning from this dawn, not because of any Culture of Silence, but because I feel I must make way for others to be heard. Therefore, I wasn’t going to comment about the creeping mobilization of people, calling for the country to be fixed.
2. I honestly feel this particular government is not only yet to be fully formed, but is also too young. I believe they need a little more time to fully settle to grasp the vision to leave a legacy for Ghanaians, before we can keep them on their toes, in the manner in which some have started, giving meaning to the President’s call on all Ghanaians to be CITIZENS and not SPECTATORS
3. But I am compelled to write this just for the education of some top politicians, journalists and policy makers, who have rather resorted to insults and ad hominem fallacies against those making the calls, rather than presenting superior arguments to counter the calls.
4. First of all, I have heard the rather politically infantile response, that the calls for the country to be fixed, are engineered by the NDC and must be disregarded. Whoever is pushing this line of thinking, suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the opposition in any democratic practice. More importantly, calls made by political parties in opposition, are also calls made by Ghanaians. Being in the NDC doesn’t deprive anyone of his or Ghanaian citizenship.
5. I have also read responses to the effect that, those asking for the country to be fixed, should rather fix themselves, for they are the very people breaking the country. This is also a fundamental ignorance about the essence of putting a government in place. I respectfully invite those who hold this rather disingenuous position to read Thomas Hobbes’ account of the generation of the Leviathan. In this work, Hobbes noted that the chaotic scenes in the state of nature, were caused by the people themselves. The formation of government, was to solve the problems created by the people and to prevent them from creating more problems. Put differently, the essence of government, in the Hobbesian perspective, was to solve the problems in the state of nature, caused by the people themselves. Hobbes therefore argues that you cannot have a government in place and continue to experience the very problems that existed when there was not government.
6. So yes, it is the people themselves who are causing the problems in Ghana. But it is also the duty of the government so instituted, to fix the problems by preventing the people from causing the problems, through sustained public sensitization/educational drive and ruthless enforcement of rules, to get them internalize in the psyche of people.
7. Having said these, may I respectfully counsel those planning to demonstrate to call on the government to fix the country to rethink their resolve and to approach their decided course of action with some trepidation. We are still managing COVID. We saw the increased rate in infection and mortality, after our voter registration exercise, parliamentary primaries, car roof-top campaign rallies etc. We must guard against all manner of emotional gatherings, where people would easily throw caution to the wind, and spike our COVID infection rate.
8. Real politics is about fixing problems and finding solutions. Unfortunately, the way and manner we have vented our grievances, over the years, have often times not yielded much. We tend to justifiably oppose, publicly criticize, go on demonstration and go to sleep afterwards. These do not always yield desired results. They can only reduce a government’s goodwill momentarily, without addressing the real issues. But the role of countervailing agents within the body politic, is not only to douse governmental goodwill. We must rather engage government directly around the table to ask questions, demand accountability and insist that the problems be fixed. This is also one of the ways to get things done. Let this way be resorted to first, because of COVID, and if audience is not granted, then we can all join in brainstorming a safer way of demanding accountability from the government
Yaw Gyampo
A31, Prabiw
PAV Ansah Street
Saltpond
&
Suro Nipa House
Kubease
Larteh-Akuapim
Watch a discussion on #FixTheCountry from the 21st minute of the video below.
