Stephen Ofosu Agyare
Politicians are expected to conduct themselves with utmost decorum, especially in public.
Children and others outside their brackets look up to those in this category for positive inspiration. When politicians therefore fail to live up to expectation in this regard, they lose the quality to be considered role models and to be listened save for amusement. In fact, foul or intemperate language make them toxic and therefore not fit to have their ways emulated by the juvenile generation.
The media has become so toxic today that irresponsible politicians who have worsened the already bad ambience are making observers think twice about politics.
One of the factors informing the decision by some governments to consider restricting access to social media to persons below age 17 is about protecting those in this bracket from the toxic and irresponsible language of adult delinquents.
Today, some politicians who should know better their special role in society have joined the long list of irresponsible talkers who hardly consider the impact of their utterances.
In a society already reeling under the worrying impact of a teacher’s sexual escapade with a female student he is expected to protect from societal ills inter alia, we woke up to a politician in the Awutu Senya East Constituency or Kasoa narrating his explicit sexual encounter with a colleague when he was in an anger mode on social media.
Such media trading of invectives, especially when they border on sex, have the tendency to go viral with a touch of a button. This was exactly what happened and, shameful as it was, we have not had any elder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) come out to condemn the nonsense.
The women in the constituency have done so with a call for the suspension of the chairman. Any irresponsible outburst towards a woman when it is about an explicit sexual narration should not be entertained because this is a breach of our values as Ghanaians and human beings if we can stretch it.
The Awutu Senya East Constituency NDC Chairman, Stephen Ofosu Agyare, is a man regarded as a gentleman. He lost it however when he could not hold his anger in the face of what he felt was a provocation from the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Phillis Naa Koryoo Okunor, with whom he has an axe to grind.
Shouldn’t a misunderstanding between them be tackled indoors within the confines of the constituency office? While we are not taking sides in this matter, we would be quick to explain that our beef is that the Chairman was not circumspect and discreet in his outbursts.
Regardless of the provocation from the MP, he is the one in the eye of the storm generated by the explicit outburst.
Our children are listening to such toxic outbursts in a setting where there is no social media restriction. This is our concern.