Beware of politics!

There is an undeniable fact: Politics has done a lot of harm to humanity. Whichever way you debate this statement, politics and its ramifications have proved to be a deadly enterprise.  

According to available information, by the time World War I was over, more than 16 million soldiers and civilians were dead. And World War II claimed 70 million lives.

Destruction

In addition to the loss of human lives, the destruction of infrastructure resulting from war is immeasurable ― residential facilities, factories, roads, bridges, large agricultural enclaves, heavy military and civilian equipment, forests and even rivers.

All this in the name of politics ― which is defined as “the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate (or struggle) between parties having (or seeking) power.” That is a simplified definition of a rather complex beast called “politics”.

You would think that “activities associated with the governance of a country or an area” should be a straight-forward and peaceful undertaking. But no, politics is an intricate, multifaceted, and knotty task with dire consequences when things go wrong.

Human complexity

The reason politics often goes wrong is that it is executed by human beings who are as complex as politics itself. As someone has put it, “Give food to the hungry and you are a philanthropist that everybody praises. But ask why there is no food and you’ve strayed into a political arena where you will be castigated as an opposition being.

Huge sums of money used in manufacturing fighter aircraft, submarines, missiles, tanks, sophisticated machine guns and land mines go down the drain due to war. Study the causes and evolution of all wars and you will find them associated with politics.

The day we drove past dangerous land mines in South Sudan and were told, “What you see over there are land mines,” I could smell the bad odour of the political war which that country was engulfed in.

That same bad odour of politics reached my nostrils in Sierra Leone when my host told me, “Let’s visit the amputees.” And when I saw men and women and children with their arms chopped off, I wept. The ravages of the civil war in that country, fought in the name of politics, are still visible to this day.

Those who were in Nigeria during the Biafra war should tell us if they didn’t smell the same repulsive odour.

World War III

If you think World War III has not yet happened, revise your notes. World wars are being waged across the globe on all six continents. Beware of politics, I say, for it is the fires that stoke these wars.

In Africa, we’ve had our heavy share of politics-related warfare: civil wars, tribal conflicts, guerilla wars, electioneering violence, apartheid, coup d’états, genocides, ethnic cleansings, mau mau, and other politically motivated aggression.

At our own backyards here in Ghana, coups, chieftaincy, paramountcy and land disputes are often steeped in local politics with distressing consequences.  Yet the warlords and warmongers claimed they were fighting to liberate the people from tyranny.

Politics of wealth

Politics in Africa assumes another dimension in its definition to include wealth acquisition. In the name of serving the people, many people enter politics to acquire wealth and attain it big time.

Such people forget Paul’s admonition that the insatiable quest for wealth has destroyed many consciences and shipwrecked the faith and life of many (1 Timothy 1:19).

It is wickedness, therefore, that politicians, in the heat of their political campaigns, fail to realise that politics is a time bomb whose trigger they hold in their shaky hands.

But, can we eliminate politics from our life as humanity? Certainly not. In fact, politics, like human relationships, is practically unavoidable. This is because virtually everything we do has political undercurrents.

But ― and this is the main thrust of our discourse ― there is the need to beware of politics and be aware that politicking is a time bomb in all jurisdictions and generations.

Tug-of-war

When I observe our current politics, I see a tug-of-war where two opposing forces are pulling the electorate apart. Besides the chaotic outpouring of campaign promises that we hardly understand and don’t believe, there is also the beating of war drums and the wailing of war cries. Scary, to say the least.

If politics were merely a game of tug-of-war, the stronger group would pull down the weaker one and simply clap away their victory. But the politics we are doing in this country doesn’t resemble a game at all. Rather, it resembles a lethal tug-of-war where the winner and the loser can plunge the nation into warfare.

We can prevent any approaching violence if we remember that the life-and-death quest to gain political power can become a time bomb waiting to explode.

A tug-of-peace, rather than a tug-of-war, points to a more sustainable democracy that guarantees national development, not mayhem that points to national destruction.