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Mr. George Akom, Educationist and Social Commentator, has addressed that divergent demography of universal adult suffrage has a high influence in choosing leaders of a country, especially at the executive and legislative levels through electioneering process.
He further indicated that, any such demography which has divergent knowledge and understanding of governmental policies and how they impacted on the development of a nation becomes problematic in selecting good government.
Mr. Akom stated that effective governance is a two-way affair, whiles the government comes out with plans, policies and interventions, its implementation is subject to how the citizens would accept and adopt these governmental and national policies for the betterment of the entire nation.
He continued that, as opined by Abraham Lincoln in his definition of democracy as, “The government of the people, by the people and for the people”, it clearly shows that citizens have a role to play in selecting leaders of government, and their understanding and involvement in these processes are very key for national development.
It also indicates that, how citizens are aligned to political groups based on their ideologies and how these ideologies impact national development are critical in choosing good governments.
He emphasized that if these citizens are just aligned to political groups based on pettiness, and without recourse to how their ideologies would bring out good policies and interventions for the good of all citizens, it becomes a problem for the nation to select good leaders and representatives in the governance structure.
He averred that in our present circumstances of political misinformation and disinformation, if citizens are not careful and verify whatever information they see and hear, they could be swayed by what he described as “Polimorphied Information”, that is, information that come with many versions with good taste to the intended recipients.
He intimated that, now that people are getting involved in political activities and governance processes, it is imperative for them to get the understanding of policies and interventions and how impactful these would have on the national development for now and for the future, than relying on political pettiness to select leaders and representatives into government.
Mr. George Akom, who is also an Assistant Registrar of the Ghana Technology University, alluded to the prevalence of political pettiness in our recent political discourse and how dangerous it is becoming for selecting good government for the development of the nation.
Political pettiness is gradually eroding into our political and electioneering activities where citizens consider some basic and unimportant pointers and substances to determine the performance of a governments and how they select leaders for the nation.
He opined, that relying solely on pettiness such as personal looks and profile, beautiful posters and billboards, campaign slogans and songs, receiving of gifts and goodies for voting, religious differences and factionalisms without considering the competencies and performances of persons, the plan, policies and other social interventions of the political groups for the development of the entire country before selecting them into government could have dire consequences on the country’s future development.
He advised that citizens should consider the country first in making any choice during elections that would have future positive impact on the nation at large but not for the benefit of the few.
Source: Broadcastergh.com/Ayisah Foster
