‘Celebrating 58 Years of Independence in Unprecedented Rancour’ 

This country Ghana celebrates 58th independence anniversary usually but carrying an unusual baggage and in discord through divisive politics at its unprecedented peak this time round leaving an unhappy people as a nation.  The occasion and remembrance is usually as a matter of course and includes the mundane opposition boycott which has gone through a relay by all the ruling political parties.

The unusual is the special case or cases of protests for various causes by whoever went to marching telling their reasons by placards. There is the normal expectation they will be peaceful. The oddity in the next bout of demonstrations to protest at this and that is the date. 

The consensus thinks it is unpatriotic and it is as if the protestors are either aliens or opting out of Ghana. That does not need a demonstration to disrupt or distract a celebration of salute, picking up memories to reflect how independence was won and re-determine to preserve the national esteem at the worst.

Not strangely except to a stranger every bit in the content of the protests take its roots from the politics of ''them" and 'us' started 1949 when the UGCC was lamed by the departure of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He founded the CPP and led the country into independence. 

By the way 'them' means the party in power and 'us' opposition. This worked on the basis of an imprimatur or indeed doctrine which compels a mind set for considering the outsider as an enemy to have nothing to have to be part of or with nor take anything from by that as both reasonable or could and correct for adoption into policy formulation and pursuits.

Pursuant to that is polarization of the country today and has reached its peak following the difference about the economy and the off and on power supply. Apart from arguably those transient hate politics lined with diarrhoea of unwarranted abuse, the economy since the past year stood the battering, nosing up and shows the resilience of the infrastructures which is one salient reason it is not in highlights as it used to be. 

The country remains one culturally and serves a positive omen for coherence to sustain. The excerpts cannot omit national security for which the end of year report can say raised its profile in terms of firefighting, control of potential trouble and equipping the services including professionalism.

The media landscape has been rough and tough to meet challenges of truth objectively public respect and the digital migration for specifically the electronic media; and finally complaints depend on which side is the complainant politically the substance of the cause being irrelevant. 

Such is the grave weakness the country carries into the next year .The message from the moral in that scenario is that the political leaderships shall be aware demonstrably to work for changing the discourse in syntax style and diction. Very much to wit that exercise can retrieve a certain unquantifiable  gains not excluding electoral but certainly inclusive of bringing back quality into national political debate for development.

BY PROFESSOR NANA ESSILFIE CONDUAH A POLITICAL HISTORIAN