Common man’s logic on democracy
It was on point Mr Kwasi Pratt, Jnr, prophesied that the day cometh when the masses of this country would put the feet of Ghana’s electoral democracy to fire and ask themselves what development it has delivered.
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If they conclude that this democracy is useless and irrelevant as far as their housing, feeding, water and electricity needs, employment opportunities etc. are concerned, your guess about their reaction and the fate of the highly educated political elite would be as good as mine. Unknown to Mr Pratt at the time of prophesy, he had my friend Elias, living on the Spintex Road in Accra, in mind.
Indeed, a brief chat with Elias provides sobering insights. A little bit of context is, however, relevant to the story that unfolds.
Elias is married with two children, including a three-month-old. He lives in a self-constructed wooden kiosk on a somewhat ‘deserted-looking’ piece of land. He is, however, not an encroacher. This is because he has a landlord to whom he pays monthly land rent. Though trained through apprenticeship as an electrician, he has been officially unemployed for over two years.
He has survived on unreliable “little jobs and contracts for individuals.” His dream to own an electrical shop as a more reliable source of income from which he can purchase supplies for his jobs still lives on, unfulfilled. In part, this is because the cost of renting “land by the roadside to position your container” is incredibly prohibitive!
Our conversation unfolds naturally as we journey together on a Saturday trip. I start off asking if he votes and whether or not his expectations of party and candidate have been met over time. Elias has only voted twice in six Presidential and Parliamentary elections since 1992: first in 2000 for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and second in 2008 for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
I chuckle at the thought of a floating voter from the Volta Region, his home region! Elias voted for President Kufuor because he wanted a change in national leadership. He voted for President Mills because Kufuor disappointed him.
“Only some people were getting jobs.” But Mills also disappointed him. This is because he felt “Mills was dull and weak and things did not go the way I wanted them to go. I didn’t see people living comfortably the way I wanted. But I have to say I liked the Christian side of President Mills.”
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When the evaluation of President Mahama comes up, he is equally blunt, “I am not comfortable at all. I thought that because he was younger and healthier, things would be better, but things are hard.” I press for details at which point he explains his protracted joblessness, high costs of utilities, absence of construction contracts that would have spawned electrical jobs in his domain etc. “Even the contracts that are coming, they don’t pay you well.”
I draw attention to his recent two-month-old job at a textile company as an electrician. He is quick to counter this he still does not know how much his salary will be or when he will receive his first pay despite asking. Meanwhile, his expenditure soars— GH¢10 for land rent, GH¢15 for water, GH¢30 for electricity and GH¢8 for the use of toilet facilities!
In addition, he has responsibility for his youngest sibling whose school fees is GH¢350 per term in addition to GH¢250 per term for his first born, quite apart from their daily feeding and transport. These mounting costs constitute a great burden.
“We want a system whereby we can all be comfortable. When you have to pay your school fees, you don’t complain. You can look after your wife and everything will be fine. If it is like that then we can thank God.”
Finally, he blurts out– he might vote for the NPP in 2016 under one condition; if they present a better candidate! “What do you mean?” I ask. “Akufo-Addo is a strong candidate,” I point out. As I listen to him, I gain an interesting perspective into simplified grass-root analysis for electoral decision making.
“I just don’t like the way Akufo-Addo talks. He talks with some authority. I also feel that he does not have sympathy for the poor people!” How are you able to determine whether or not he has sympathy based on how he talks? What specifically has he said? Are you aware he lives in the heart of Nima where he mingles with the people you talk about? Are these actions not sufficient to give you comfort that he understands the plight of common people? What about his flagship free SHS policy?
“How can someone who has not bought gari and beans on credit before understand poor people? This is what he used against Rawlings some time ago. As for me, I am not comfortable with him” Elias says with conviction. I point out how unaware I am of this particular statement by the NPP’s candidate. As I press him on which of the NPP’s potential candidates he will vote for in 2016, he drops a name!
Elias may or may not vote in 2016. If he does, it will be more because it is his civic duty. What is the use of this democracy (defined by him as voting) or politics (defined as loud arguments) to Elias if all it translates to are four yearly long winding queues that have no bearing on the state of the road that leads to his concrete jungle? To the political leaders who have ears, let them hear the language and logic of the common man!
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