Let’s deepen national cohesion

Ghana is a beautiful country and its beauty radiates through our society, the people and our interactions.

Our culture is beautiful and even impacts the way we practise our democracy.

Sometimes as a nation, we tend to focus on the few negatives rather than celebrate our uniqueness and the virtues that unite us.

Take, for instance, our recent general election and the fact that before the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, who was also the Returning Officer of the presidential election, could declare the results, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, had conceded defeat, which came as a pleasant surprise to the whole world.

This development is an exception in Africa.

The Daily Graphic applauds Dr Bawumia for that exemplary act which lowered the anxiety surrounding the elections by graciously accepting defeat in the manner he did it.

The constant admonition of the victor in the presidential election, President-elect John Mahama, and the leadership of the National Democratic Congress to their loyalists and supporters to be measured in the celebrations because there is work to be done is quite remarkable for a party which has been in opposition for eight years.

The beauty of these developments took place after a highly combative and competitive electioneering, which was characterised by name-calling, serious bad-mouthing and invective, some of which were simply below the belt.

Now, all of that is in the past and there is peace all over the country except pockets of violence perpetuated by some criminals who are now being dealt with.

This is not the end of the matter. To ensure a seamless and smooth transfer of power to the next government, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and President-elect John Mahama met on Wednesday as required by the Transition Act for the establishment of a joint transition team exactly 48 hours after the official declaration of the results of the presidential election.

While as a nation we are counting our blessings on how far we have come in our democratic journey, we need to ponder over some of the unfortunate incidents we witnessed before, during and after the elections.

There is no doubt that democracy is the backbone of sustainable and peaceful nation-building everywhere, and not just the idea of one person, one vote, but a state that fosters democratic and equal access to goods, services, wealth and a healthy environment.

We know that social cohesion is crucial for stability, security and development but this relies on members of a society having a common identity and a shared sense of responsibility for the well-being of all.

This, in turn, depends on how segregated a country is; this is the extent to which different groups within a state live in separate areas.

Then there is also the question of how polarised a nation is. This is driven by political alliances and considerations, in which people in society divide themselves into “us” versus “them”.

These are things we need to watch. We need to really have a period of introspection and act together to build the country into one that the generations unborn will feel not let down by the current and the older generations.

The quest for national unity must be pervasive and must inform the shape and composition of institutions as much as political engagement.

It must be the preoccupation of our political leadership that every person should, whether as a member of a particular social group or supporter of a political party, feel able to identify with the democratic system by seeing themselves represented in government and the country’s institutions.

As we watched the interaction between the joint transition team of President Akufo-Addo and President-elect Mahama, we want that cordiality to permeate political engagements. We are tired of the acrimony and the tensions that characterise their engagements.

The Daily Graphic is not asking for political actors who are opposed or who belong to different persuasions to be in bed, but Ghanaians are tired of the insults, tirades and all the negativity we see in their engagement.

A classic example is the drama associated with the current Parliament whose performance has been abysmal because of the constant rancour.