Ghana Must Abandon The Politics of Personalities - Diaspora Advises

As a follow up to the Diasporan survey which showed that 80% of Ghanaians in the diaspora favoured John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2024 elections, it is fair to mention that some fundamental key point also came out of the survey.

Ghanaians today practice the politics of personality, where an individual is placed above an entire political ideology, which makes the ideology of the political irrelevant to the average voter, and this has got to stop for Ghana to rise to its envious position as the gateway to Africa (being the first subsaharan African nation that gained independence from colonial rule ).

Studies show that so long as civil groups and organisations and the masses at large continue to reduce the political ideology of a political party to the personality and character of an individual, Ghanaians would always be tribally divided because then it’s going to be this tribe against that tribe and so on and so forth. But in the event where the ideology of the party is properly amplified to the citizenry , then it would no longer matter which tribe a leader of any party hails from.

Today, the ruling NPP party is plagued with the unfortunate results of politics of personality, where TRIBE and PERSONALITY has clashed , with Dr Bawumia and his preferred running mate Matthew Opoku Prempeh facing unchartered challenges within the rank and file of their political party (NPP), and its overflow onto its supporters and sympathisers , many of whom are entrenched in this phenomenon of African politics where an individual becomes more important than the political ideology they all wish for themselves and country at large .

Until the political actors on the arena begin to understand the need to shift away from the current position where individual personalities are amplified instead of that of the ideological stance of a party/movement , to one that projects the ideology which designed to bring development and social enhancement , Ghana would continue to be marking time and not moving any step forward .

A right steps to take would be for party communicators to stop using an individuals name when talking about their party and it’s ideology, and start using the party’s name in every sentence that would have carried an individuals name , by so doing the average voter would no longer be at loggerheads with decision making , and question like “what is Mahama coming back to do” would then become “what is the NDC coming back to do “ and this change would allow the voter to look critically at the policies that each party has to offer the people of Ghana.

The Diaspora Development Network would be presenting a working document to all the registered political parties in Ghana today , to help change the narrative, with the view of bringing forth a comprehensive and productive approach towards elections in Ghana.

May God continue to bless our homeland Ghana
A. Dodoo
Social Commentator and Chairperson for the Diaspora Development Network (Holland)