Some members of the Western Togoland group
The average Ghanaian politician including the top-notch ones have not only taken Nicholo Machiavelli as their friend but have also fallen in love and married his popular cliché of 'the end justifies the means' which essentially, in the context of the Ghanaian politician, is to win political power by any means scrupulously or otherwise.
The elections from 1979 to today exemplify political clientelism, the nature of which portrays people of certain geopolitical landscapes as their political clients who are influenced to be angry to either vote to maintain or change a government with ethnocentric and incendiary comments from political actors as a tool.
For instance, the deployment of the armed forces to the borders of the nation was not limited to only the Volta Region but the opposition seized the opportunity to stoke ethnic sentiments for the people to be angry so they can vote for them and now people are vandalizing public properties and the same crop of politicians are now calling for calm.
The average Ghanaian, in my humble opinion, does not demand much from his or her government but desire esteem and recognition. Therefore, the denial of infrastructural development cannot be the basis upon which the Western Togolanders are seeking to secede from Ghana because broadly speaking, Ghana is underdeveloped in its entirety.
If one should consider Obuasi to Kumasi through Dunkwa to the Western Corridor road, an important road which has been in tatters before Kufuor's regime till now and the number of roads of such nature nationwide, this assertion of mine cannot be far from right. The Western Togolanders must feel important and the only way to ensure this is to avoid making comments that underrate and ignominies them.
Politicians from the major political parties have failed to appreciate the rational choice theory which essentially posits that what is rational to one may be completely irrational to another. They have not come to terms with the fact that people have the freedom of choice and have resorted to abuse such as denial of requisite amenities, making uncomplimentary remarks and implementation of unfavourable policies in areas they consider their opponents. Examples are politicians of the NPP passing demeaning comments about Voltarian in the past and implementation of Capitation Grant on the National Health Insurance Scheme which run conterminously with the 8year rule of the Atta-Mills Mahama administrations only in Ashanti Region and the list of such unfortunate examples are endless.
Moving forward, politicians must use alternative mechanisms to lure people to change their voting pattern, one of such is to be very meticulous in their speeches towards perceived opposing groups, pay particular attention to such areas in terms of development and be measured in their actions and inactions to give true meaning to Acheampong's 'one nation, one people with a common destiny' maxi
