Inheriting parental political adherence to a political party

- an invitation for a debate”

Just in case my feature article of the 2007-05-22 about the exemplary biological features of a ‘quacking duck’ might have caused a bit of ‘socio/political jittering’ within some readers, then imagine that, the title read as - “…every story tells a story that has already been told”. I think this might have been a bit painless, isn’t? Now, let us focus on the theme of today as above:

Writing from an individual perspective within a political world view, it can be argued that one’s everyday life experiences are partially underpinned by the political nature of a given community, or society which she/he belongs to. Please, do correct me if I am wrong. But this in my view is not sacred for one to cling on to a particular political party say, the NDC, NPP, PNC and many others because “thy father, senior brother” and others are supporters of “that” political party! For example, I can recall my late dad, Naba Asigri Duut (Worikamdana) and my senior brother, Idana Asigri, both now deceased - Rest in Peace - Amen. My senior brother was an elected MP for the then Bawku East constituency now known as the Garu Tempane constituency - a political role in which he performed diligently for quite a number of years partly in the pre and post independent era. Both my dad and brother were adept supporters of the then NPP (Northern Peoples Party), UP (United Party), and PP (Progress Party), in addition to being culturally aware towards the needs of the indigenes for whom they served unreservedly.

However, I cannot lay claim on, neither can I make any attributions or assumptions as to which of our current political parties that both of them would have paid allegiance to, given the “political and economic situations” as argued by former President Rawlings (see Ghanaweb Homepage - Page 1 of 2 of 22-06-07) as they do certainly cause emotional instability to the individual. person and her/his family as a whole..

Indeed, with their held natural beliefs and values for mankind, my late dad and senior brother shed trust, honesty, and empathetic understanding for the poor, sick and the weak - incidentally, these being some of the principles underpinning the notion of ‘social justice’ of which people are yearning for from the current government. Furthermore, I use the concept of ‘voice’ in both an individual and collective sense drawing from the political and traditional role previously displayed by my dad and senior brother. In other words, ‘collective parental voice’ equally acknowledges that a parent can influence a highly individualised one as illustrated by former President Rawlings (see Gahanaweb Homepage 2007-06-22).

Let me assert that both dad and brother’s political adherence to any of our present day political parties, would have been greatly dictated/influenced by a party that possesses similar human sentiments as discussed above during their life time. The issue here is, whether things are better today is not always and easy question to answer, but it is the primary question the constituents of Garu Tempane constituency need to answer for themselves when they are deciding on which political party/representative to vote for when the time comes.

In this context, there is a need for people in position of political responsibility to recognise that all constituents have opinions about what they are looking for, for example, basic human needs such as the provision of pit latrines as opposed to the current ‘no controlled choice but an individual choice’ which, rather strangely is not a contravention of perhaps the existent sanitary laws of the constituency or nation in general! Opinions give a clue to values in my view…

Truly, much can be learned from our present and past political leaders but, in analysing for example, the reflective account self disclose by our former President Jerry Rawlings’ 60th birthday (Belated Happy Birthday Mr President!!) as illustrated by Ghanaweb of 22 June 2007, one can adopt his experiences as a road map in which to proceed to the polling boot come the next political decision day/date for us to speak out in Ghana soon.