The late Mills, Amissah-Arthur and the entire People of Central Region deserve better

We have heard the NDC leadership time and time again accusing the NPP leadership for allegedly being unfair towards their presidential running mates. However, it would appear that the actual unfairness is within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) fraternity.

So, who are the NDC strident apparatchiks actually trying to deceive? Are they propagandists or inveterate hypocrites?

“The word hypocrite is rooted in the Greek word hypokrites, which means “stage actor, pretender, or dissembler.” So a hypocrite is a person who pretends to behave a certain way, but really acts and believes the total opposite”.

In other words, a hypocrite is a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

“Hypocrites are experts at blaming others, while empathetic people are experts at blaming themselves. You absorb their poison and begin to believe it as truth”.

“Hypocrites spend their lives cheating, betraying, conning, and deceiving. But despite this disgusting pattern of behaviour, they still feel entitled to point out (or invent) the most minor mistakes in others—and they’ll point them out repeatedly, to negate & excuse all of their own horrible actions”.

Apparently, the names of the probable presidential aspirants for the NDC’s forthcoming flagbearership contest have been popping up. As expected, the supporters are openly throwing their unflinching support behind their preferred candidates.

Surprisingly, though, the name of the obvious successor to the throne, Amissa-Arthur, according to the NDC Party’s convention, is conspicuously missing. How bizarre?

It would however appear that the heir to the throne has been bizarrely ostracised and forgotten. How unfair this world be, my dearest reader?

Believe it or not, politics has sadly ceased being the noble profession it used to be. It is absolutely true that politics has been infiltrated by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Verily, the vast majority of the modern day politicians’ ostensive preoccupation is to manipulate their way to power and pursue their vested interests.

If you, dear reader, will kindly take time off and peruse through the archives of the 2016 electioneering campaign at your own convenience, you will definitely understand exactly what I’m trying to drive at.

The NDC leadership, led by former President Mahama, made it known to the good people of Ghana that the NPP has an unparalleled record of dumping its vice presidents without providing them the opportunity to lead the party.

“President Mahama while campaigning at Lawra in the Upper West Region, said the NPP will not allow Dr Bawumia to be their flagbearer because the party is largely not in support of northerners taking up such positions” (cityfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 21/11/2016).

President Mahama asserts: “Sometimes I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running and also doing this. They will use you and dump you. Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him I can assure you”.

Following former President Mahama’s seemingly unsavoury statement, a number of prominent Ghanaians and civil society groups, including the Chairman of the Peace Council, Professor Emmanuel Asante and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), censured and beseeched former President John Dramani Mahama to refrain from making comments which were deemed ethnocentric.

I have always held a firm conviction that there is nothing wrong for political parties to have party precincts or strongholds. Besides, it is true that such practices are acceptable in even most advanced democracies. The distinction, though, is unlike the voters in developing countries, the vast majority of voters in the developed countries, more often than not, do not vote for voting sake.

In other words, the vast majority of voters in the advanced democracies mostly vote on the issues that affect their lives.

It was against that backdrop that the vast majority of the UK Labour Party supporters in Scotland rightly voted against their party in the 2015 general elections for failing to live up to their expectations.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong for voters to have a preferred political party. However, voters must not and cannot allow manipulating politicians to take them for a ride in perpetuity.

In UK for instance, the majority of voters in Wales and Scotland more often than not, do vote for the Labour Party, with the exception of the 2015 election where the ratio of the votes swing favoured the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party respectively.

In that regard, why must people continue to upbraid voters from the Volta Region and Asante Region for frequently voting the NDC and the NPP respectively?

What we must however be condemning with no uncertain terms is the unfairness being displayed by some political actors in our democratic dispensation.

We have been made to believe that the National Democratic Congress has a special convention when it comes to the selection of their flagbearers. Take, for example, if we take a stroll down memory lane, the party’s founder and the first president of the NDC Party, J. J. Rawlings, defied all the stiff opposition and chose his then Vice President, the late Mills as the flagbearer during the 2000 general election.

In line with the NDC’s convention, former President Mahama received acclamation to lead the party in the December 2012 general election following the untimely death of President Mills.

President Mahama then selected Amissah-Arthur from the Central Region of Ghana as his running mate for the 2012 election.

Based on the NDC Party’s logic on the selection of a flagbearer, there should be no argument over the obvious choice of the NDC Party’s next presidential candidate. Indeed, the next person in line should be the erstwhile Vice President, Amissah-Arthur.

It is, however, ironic that there is an ongoing tussle over the choice of their next flagbearer.

In fact, I read with extreme satisfaction amid a glint of smiles all over my face the news of Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur’s recent intention to join the race for the NDC’s2020 flagbearership slot.

“Well-wishers have come to me and I am thinking about contesting the NDC’s 2020 flagbearership slot" (Amissah-Arthur, 24/07/2017).

The leadership of the NDC Party are regrettably refusing to recognise former Vice President Amissah-Arthur.

Wouldn’t it be hypocritical on the part of the NDC Party leadership if they failed to select former Vice President Amissah-Arthur as their next flagbearer?

Well, I would like to emphasise that it would seem hypocritical, unconscionable, capricious, unfair and incommodious, if the former Vice President Amissah-Arthur was to be sidelined in the search for the next flagbearer of the NDC Party.