Now, the die is cast. When we were young, we thought the small (six-sided) cube for playing Ludo was called ‘dice’, little knowing that one of that object is ‘die’ (French: des) and the plural is ‘dice’. Once you have cast the die, you cannot get it back to its original position. The free-wheeling die will stop and fall on the position you like or may not like, and as in Richard II “I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die.” It was later in our history lesson that we learnt that Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, in 49 BC crossed the Rubicon and he uttered the famous words: “The die is cast. I’ve crossed the Rubicon.” (Lacta alea est…)
Tuesday marked a turning point in the calendar of the Electoral Commission. Twelve presidential hopefuls picked their positions on the ballot paper as they will appear on December 7. NPP, that is Nana Addo, the President, had number 1 picked for him, and John Buadu called the position ‘Primus inter pares’ (first among equals); an NPP die-hard says it falls in line with one district, one dam, one constituency, one million dollars, one this, one that. Another NPP die-hard says the position is anointed by God: God the father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit – all as ONE. Critics say: “The position of one indicates that Nana Addo will have one term Presidency. The NDC, that is, John Mahama had number two position picked for him. To Otokunor, that is exactly what they were praying for: it means the second coming of John. Interestingly, NPP die-hards think the 2 indicates that John Mahama will be whipped the second time as 2016. The other participants will not go quietly either. The third placed GUM. Christian Kwabena Andrew says it is the father, son and the Holy Spirit – three persons. Mr. David Apasera’s (PNC) ninth position indicates a birth (or a rebirth) of Ghana; Mr. Alfred Kwame Asiedu Walker walked away with the 12th position, saying when you combine Akufo-Addo’s one to John Mahama’s two, you get 12! Numerology, mysticism and divinity on the prowl. Some spiritualists, mallams and Christians (or church goers) have a field day.
Numerology is the belief in the divine or mystical relationship between a number and coinciding events. Placing faith in numerical patterns makes one tend to draw pseudo-scientific inferences from them. St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) wrote: “Numbers are the universal language offered by the deity to humans as confirmation of the truth.” The teachings of Pythagoras of Samos (570-495BC) and other philosophers including Philolaus of Croton had a great impact on Nicolaus Copernicus (who insisted that the sun (not the earth) is at the centre of the universe). Johannes Kepler (laws of planetary motion) and Isaac Newton (laws of motion and universal gravitation). There is controversy as to the belief in numerology and Islam. The Qur’an says, “No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow,” (Luqman: 34) and the Prophet (PBUH: Peace Be unto Him) charges us: “Do not associate with the astrologers.”
The two major political parties, NPP and NDC have launched their manifestos. The smaller political parties have looked at their structure and posture, and either launched a modest manifesto or nothing at all. These include the Liberal Party of the Great Consolidated Popular Party and Akua Donkor’s Ghana Freedom Party. Should they win, they can afford to muddle through. The masses are unenthused about the contents of the manifestos, and like Nikita Krushchev, they argue, “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even where there are no rivers.” Academicians are haggling over the “relevance” or “irrelevance” of manifestos.
In separate interviews with one of the daily newspapers, Dr. Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampa, the Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) talks on how manifestos can impact positively on national development. Dr. Mensah–Abrampah insists that manifestos are “key ingredients in the national development process.” It is a constitutional requirement (1992 constitution) for a sitting government to present its manifesto to Parliament to explain what it intends to do in sectors of priority covering the entire country.
Dr. Mensah–Abrampah narrated how a political party could have about 20 promises in its manifesto but when it came to implementation, the development plan helped the government to prioritise its projects, starting with the most implementable to the least. He explains what they do at the NDPC: “…what we do at the NDPC is that when you have your manifesto and are in power, we help you to draft the coordinated programme which synthesises what you intend to do, and put in the framework, which is in line with our national perspective.”
Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, the former Director General of the commission posits that a manifesto is a political document which could impact national development when it is translated into a coordinated programme and social development policy. Dr. Thompson noted that so long as the country had no long term vision, “Ghana will never develop, we are going nowhere.” He reiterated that even though manifestos were vision documents and the intent of political parties, a long-term vision for the country was critical. He argued that there was a difference between a political party manifesto and a national vision.
Professor Peter Quartey, a professor at the Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research noted that the current arrangement where party manifestos constituted the development blueprint of the nation was inappropriate. Manifestos were a mere collection of the intentions and promises of political parties that were mostly not properly thought through, lacked details and some were oblivious of the aspirations, limitations and opportunities of the country, not costed and not broad-based. Dr. Mensah–Abrampah is upbeat about a long-term national plan dubbed Ghana @ 100 with a brief indication of “where we want to see ourselves in the long term.”
You can trust the NDC to make the biggest noise about their manifesto. Whatever issue is raised, they are quick to refer to their well-drafted manifesto, referring to chapters and pages to support their case—disregarding the fact that they had run the government before, and so there should be palpable evidence to refer to! The NDC has again found airtime on television station to explain “things” to the electorate, and guess who hosts the programme – Sammy Gyamfi. Some of us save ourselves from missing a heartbeat by switching our set to “National Geographical” to see birds, snakes, crocodiles, elephants, tigers in their natural habitat or “Blitz” to entertain ourselves with sports.
In Hamlet, when Polonius asked Hamlet: “What do you read, my Lord?” Hamlet replied: “Words, words, words.” By repeating ‘words’ three times, Hamlet wanted to suggest that what he was reading was meaningless!
We were in a campaign trail to a village in Amansie in Ashanti, blurring our microphone to tout the “vision” of our leader. A farmer, who was among the few, who had remained behind (and not gone to farm), approached us: “Give me whatever you have brought; like all the other parties, you are never likely to come back here again when you win power…” “Asem se be.”
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