Lydia Forson writes: The politics of promises, deceit and a starving country

Dear all,

I hope this piece finds you well.

I haven’t written in a while, because as my friend Malaka Grant says ” you’ve been through this type of fire before,seen the trash publishing these articles digs up and you ask yourself qualifying questions to calculate if the risk and annoyance is worth it”.

And as I mature it always isn’t worth it, but every now and then I’m moved to because I guess it’s just who I am.

Before you read, know that it isn’t going to be an answer to your problems, so if that’s what you expect, save yourself from punching the air and stop reading.

This is simply a ” you’re not alone in your frustration piece.”

It’s a ” what you ordered vrs what you got piece.”

t’s a ” now that we got played, where do we go from here, piece.” (it sounds better when I sing it)

But more than anything it’s a ” at this point we’re totally, absolutely and utterly screwed from the back with no lube”, to put it less graphically we’re F*#%¥ and we’re all walking around with legs spread apart from the pain.

Gather here if you can relate.

If you can’t, it’s probably because you like to be screwed like that, and well, to each their pain I guess or it’s because you’ve become numb to it.

Now that I have your attention…

A rant.

It’s the year 2019, dumsor is doing disco, the economy is whack, the Cedi is eating kenkey on crutches, we’re building chambers pots, PDS is looking Pretty Damn Suspect and Free SHS has parents double-tracking their children all over the place.

And thanks to social media, the very tool this government relied heavily on to convince the masses that they were the experts, is pulling out receipts,fact checking, and giving daily “throw back memories” to anyone developing amnesia.

Even worse is that it seems, every thing the government promised when they came into power have become words stuck on the pages of the party’s manifesto ,with book worms feasting on them.

The excitement with which the present government was ushered into power, has been replaced by gloom, doubt and a fear of an uncertain tomorrow.

Remember that kid in class who was always last, gave the wrong answers and never seemed to grasp what is being taught.

But for some reason you keep rooting for him, you keep hoping he will come out and shock everyone, come out and put people to shame.

And now our once confident government has become like that smart, annoying and “too known” kid in class, that always has their hands up to answer every question, knows all the answers but during exams starts to sweat, looks to copy, and when all fails resort to ” shady bi di ” ( a game of guessing answers to multiple objective questions in an exam).

And because they’re scared of the results and everyone finding out that they really don’t “know it all”, they start thinking up excuses for incase they fail; like blaming the kid named Mahama for distracting them, stealing their notes and copying from them.

Kids like this will be last but one and still laugh at Mahama for being last, thinking it’s better.

Sorry I digress, I got a little bit nostalgic.

I’m back.

You see, when you make glossy political promises and act like you know it all, people expect you to do in one year what should take five.

WHY?

Because you PROMISED you could.

No one cares about how you came to meet the economy, no one cares about what your predecessors did, no one cares that Mahama stole your notes, no one cares about your excuses, even if legitimate.

If you promised manna from heaven, said it will fall from the sky, land in our stomachs and we wouldn’t have to lift a finger for it, that’s what we will expect.

We won’t wait for the cassava to boil, soup to be made and fufu to be pounded before our appetite is satisfied.

So if you conveniently, connivingly and strategically play on our hunger and promise us food you don’t have the ingredients for, don’t know how to make or can’t serve on time; we have every right to scream, shout and kick on a few doors until we’re fed.

Unfortunately this common deceit from politicians is why after more than two years in power, this government is struggling to feed a hungry people who’re tired of drinking water to curb their appetite.

When the focus is solely on winning and staying in power, politicians will fully immerse themselves in this cycle of deception.

And there’s nothing new to this game, the ONLY difference between this present government and several others, is how hard they played.

In their desperation to win, they set them selves up to fail by making unrealistic promises that given a few years, they probably could achieve, but NOT in the time frame they promised.

At some point it was like watching “Oprah’s favorite things” and I was ready to hear ” you get a car, you get a car, you all get cars.”

They ran an aggressive “we must win by any means necessary” campaign, and didn’t even notice when they found themselves at the deep end of the sea.

And when they came into office and realized how far out they’d wandered, they refused to ask for a lifeguard, because for many politicians they’d rather drown than admit they can’t swim.

But the problem with politics in Ghana is beyond the exaggerated and failed political promises or the sham politics has turned into; its about our own complacency in this cycle of deceit we’re trapped in.

Why are we gullible to the lies and deception, what does it say about our willingness to believe manna can actually fall from heaven into our stomachs?

A quick look online and you’ll note that nearly every discussion about the country is polarized- people condemn/ justify an action solely based on their political affiliation and this usually between NPP/NDC.

This is what these two main parties depend and feed on, which blinds us to the main issues.

So as we gear up for 2020 we have some tough questions to ask ourselves, because until we do, we’ll endure another cycle of constantly being stuck with temporary solutions to permanent problems, half cooked meals and running stomachs.

For now let’s eat some alasa and listen to one of my favourite tunes and albums right now.