Election 2016: Vote prudently

Let me share this true election story with you in my attempts to advising all Ghanaian eligible and registered voters to cast their votes wisely in the upcoming 7 December 2016 general election.

There are some electorates out there who will easily deceive themselves by their own actions, inactions, commissions and omissions. There are others that will be deceived by some cunning fellow Ghanaians in their aspirations to either further their political career, enhance their chances of being offered higher political or public appointments or simply to acquire immense wealth.

Those seeking to fool the electorates in pursuit of their selfish secret or open agenda will try to induce their targets (electorates) with one-off offers like the sort of things (outboard motors, China made sewing machines, few kilos of fertilizers, machetes, hoes, tins of sardine and geisha and rice etc.) that President Mahama and the NDC are currently giving out to some people.

The recipients of the electioneering gifts may deceive themselves into thinking that the President is a good person who deserves a second term in office because of the gifts they have been given. They do not think about the consequences of allowing themselves to be fooled by such petty offers that will pale into nothing with the passage of time or within weeks, considering the cost of living and the prices of essential commodities that will skyrocket.

People like Koku Anyidoho, Kofi Adams and the agents and assigns of NDC may come to you, remind you of some done and dusted injurious tribal remark(s) made against an individual of a particular tribe but mistakenly perceived or misconstrued to have been directed at the entire tribe, to incite your anger. As they whip up your anger, their motive is to get you to remember the bitterness of that remark to eventually get you to vote for them.

Hang on a minute; have you checked your personal circumstances? Have you realised how fate has been dealing harshly with you under the NDC government of which toady Koku Anyidoho is a well-placed member earning so much money to pile up body mass weight while you grow lean by each passing day as if famine is your best and inseparable mate?

As they trick you to get your vote, they feed off your ignorance and propensity to get bitter for something that has been dealt with decades or scores ago. Why should you allow them to play on your intelligence in their deplorable quest to stay powerful and rich at all times while you remain destitute?

Sorry for the delay in recounting the main motive behind today’s write-up.

During the 2012 general election, I was in Ghana to participate in the electioneering campaign in the hope of getting a comparatively more credible and incorruptible candidate elected as the President of Ghana with a political party of same description.

While I was campaigning for NPP and Nana Akufo Addo, very aware of the bad things the NDC were doing; rotten to the core with corruption, overflowing with lawlessness, nepotism, incompetence, practice of selective justice etc., one Kufour in Kumawu was aggressively actively campaigning for the NDC and President Mahama to win power.

I used to question him about his reasons behind his overly display of such interest in campaigning to see NDC win the election. He would not tell me but continued with all the energy he could muster, boarding the NDC campaign vehicles, leading in the singing of their campaign chorus, and being conspicuous in all their campaign activities.

All my advice to him to see reason or relent on his active campaign for a party that does not mean well for the collective interests of Ghanaians but a selected few of whom he was not included, fell on deaf ears.

Luckily for him, President Mahama and the NDC were declared the winners of the election by the Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan’s Electoral Commission. Come and see, how jubilant Kufuor was, joining cars moving up and down the streets of Kumawu, blowing their horns.

At nightfall, he met me in the street on my way to my in-laws’ house. He approached me, pleaded with me to give him money to buy food to eat as he had not eaten the whole day. Instantly, I got furious and chastised him saying, your party has just won the election, go to your party’s local leaders to ask for money. I have no money to give to you.

Kufour: Please, I am very hungry. My son has come from Kumasi to visit me today. He is at home but I have no money to buy him food tonight. We shall be starving so please help me.

Rockson: Kufour did you hear what I told you? I said, go and collect money from your party leaders, I have nothing to give to you. Were you not the one who had been campaigning actively for the NDC and President Mahama to win the election even though you knew very well that the party does not mean any good for the ordinary people like you and I? Go to them and stop disturbing me.

Kufuor: Please, help me or else I will have nothing to eat and my son is already hungry.

Rockson: You have just voted NDC. You were very active, if not more active than anyone in your camp to campaign for NDC, go to them and they will surely help you.

Kufour: No, they won’t!

Rockson: Why then did you put up that conspicuous campaign attitude? You have voted for the party that will help you so go to them and leave me alone. Did I not warn you to vote for a party that cares for the entire people of Ghana? You have made a choice, deal with it.

I started walking away. He ran to me and said, please help me because I am very hungry. I am even more worried about what my son will eat tonight. I have no money.

Rockson: You have just voted NDC. Why are you bothering me with your problem? You don’t listen when we advise you.

Kufour: Let me confess to you, I did not vote NDC. I know what party I voted for.

Rockson: Stop taking me for a fool. Did I not see how you were campaigning and how you refused all my admonition to you to be careful of what you were doing?

Kufuor: Before God and man, I did not vote NDC. I know the party I voted for. I was alone in the polling booth and I know the person and party I voted for. If I had not shown active interest in the campaign in favour of NDC, they would have sacked me from my job.

Rockson: What job are you talking about?

Kufour: I work for "Zoom lion", employed by the District Assembly. Please help me for I have told you the truth.

As compassionate as I am and have always been, and knowing Kufour from my infancy, attending the same Church with him for about two years during my days as a student at Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School, I gave him GHC10.

He thanked me profusely and said, now, I can go home in peace, get my son and then visit “Obaatanpa” (name of a Chop bar – restaurant) to buy something to eat.

Why should people do things that they will soon regret for? Why should you campaign and vote for a party that you know cannot help you nor has your interest at heart? Why?

I hope people will think very deep; reflect on their aspirations, before they campaign and vote for a party.

The NDC has nothing good to offer Ghanaians. They are only good at fooling you by their promises and one-off gifts. Please, think about the future. Think about your long term wellbeing in order not to allow NDC and President Mahama fool you for the second time.

Do not be like Kufuor who just after his party has won the election, started feeling the mistaken pain of voting or campaigning for it.

This Kufour I am talking about has just passed about two or three weeks ago. I am yet to find out if his funeral has taken place already. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

I call on all Ghanaian electorates to vote for a party and person who care about the collective interests of Ghanaians. You have seen NDC. Don’t allow them to fool you with gifts that will soon pale into insignificance when the harshness of the economy comes to bite you hard.

Vote for a change. Vote for Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP. Try Nana Akufo Addo to see the difference.