Each day we wake up, there is one thing that one cannot miss in the news and that is the guaranteed noises from extreme partisan twists. They somehow suggest that something is amiss. Ghana is not standing united.
Whatever thorn was digging deep into the flesh of Paul, the Bible did not say. Nonetheless, it is clear that there was a troubling occurrence in his life. Not trying to be a prophet, one can predict a sharp thorn in Ghana’s flesh.
Polarisation
So what is the nature of the thorn in the flesh of Ghana despite all our many blessings? One can say without any equivocation that the extreme divisive partisan politics we have on our hands is hurting Ghana badly. If today anyone should be shedding tears for Ghana, it would be for the fact that this beautiful country has been sharply polarised beyond comfort.
It makes one wonder where the nationalistic instinct which Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, so passionately propagated for the country and for the continent of Africa has headed to? Did we throw it to the dogs? Would God’s grace be sufficient to save the bitterness we are breeding for this beloved country through needless partisanship?
When we tear into each other and bring down our country, what we are doing is creating walls instead of a seamless one country. If divided we fall, then why are we doing this to ourselves? Others are watching and would be wondering if this is the Ghana whose people’s warmness and other credentials so beautifully touted over the seas and everywhere are only a farce.
For now, we are still loved and so visitors and those seeking to do business still feel relatively comfortable to come to us because they see the continent’s shining star in us. However, if we continue to hate ourselves we may lose our friends and they would not continue to love us. They would turn elsewhere.
Africa’s brighter star
Gradually our actions and inactions would begin to send wrong signals and turn heads away elsewhere. Unfortunately, the signals are already on the wall. Rwanda is being seen in some circles as Africa’s bright shining star of the moment. Wounded and traumatised by a war that left them broken as a country, they have seen the gem in staying together as one. Today, Rwanda has impressively dusted itself up and running, no wonder world investors are allegedly chasing them.
Rwanda now is reported to be the first country on the continent to feature fully electric cars from Volkswagen. The popular Golf model, e-Golf, is said to be already on the streets of Rwanda as part of its partnership between Volkswagen and Siemens to test the viability of electric cars in Africa. According to reports, Kigali’s strong energy infrastructure was a deciding factor as it would adequately support the building of charging stations throughout the city with little disturbance to businesses and residents.
Nationalistic tendencies
National issues which need passionate nationalistic views and therefore collective ideas to move this country forward have time and again been heavily politicized. We leave issues hanging with no proffering solutions for others to learn or borrow from. Any wonder we keep making the same mistakes and falling into deep pits and Ghana being the looser.
National reconciliation lessons have not done much for us. But for a country that is reported to have nearly 70 per cent of its citizens as Christians, one would have expected that the healing power of forgiveness would have taught us great lessons. Lessons to forgive and forget and move our country forward holding hands together. Instead, needless squabbles continue plaque us.
The people of Luanda have come out of bitterness to be better persons. They have learnt to love their country first and seek its progress foremost irrespective of partisanship. Are they succeeding with that agenda? Yes, they are.
It is so painful to hear people saying Ghana is heading for the worse with the intense divisions created by partisan politics. No, Ghana is beautiful inside out. Ghana can sustain its beauty even after 60 with no lines of wrinkles. Ghana’s destiny is in no other hands but our own. The more lines we draw the more we push Ghana off the road into a ditch. We can put Ghana first, love Ghana first and together, we can uproot the thorn of divisiveness buried under Ghana’s flesh.