Human reality of political partisanship

The famous admonition to do what the Romans do whenever one finds oneself in Rome was not lost on me during my recent short visit to the United Kingdom.

Of course, I am fully aware that I am not an Englishman from Cheshire or Devon, but a thoroughbred Asante Kwabre native from Ankaase. So, I was acutely aware of my limitations and acted accordingly.

That said, however, I decided, for instance, to take a break from waakye, fufuo and other local delicacies and ‘re-experimented’ with Thai, Italian, Turkish and Indian cuisine, among others, and be a Londoner for a change.

My good friend from my Legon days, Abdul Latif, graciously treated me to an evening of fine dining at an exquisite restaurant by the River Thames near London’s Canary Wharf. It was quite an experience.  

British current affairs

Another sphere in which I went almost full-scale ‘Roman mode’ was with regard to the media.

I decided to pay little or no attention to Ghanaian current affairs, with its bear pit raucous politics, and whenever I found the time, I would delve into British news and other developments in politics, law, social policy, labour issues and others captured by their media.

The 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq was being marked and BBC Television, for instance, provided an almost unending analysis from so many different angles in interviews with those who mattered then and/or still do in the scheme of affairs, digging up historical video footage to boot.

The parliamentary hearings into the conduct of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with respect to COVID restrictions and rules, when he was in office, was quite a sight, as one watched him grilled by his peers.

I also made time to plug into some of my favourite TV shows and programmes from the time I lived there.

Parliamentary drama back home

As with all good things, my trip had to come to an end, and after what seemed like a split second, I found myself on my way back in Ghana, and therefore had to prepare to do what Ghanaians do.

For instance, I had a couple of funerals lined up that I needed to prepare for.

I also ploughed into the local news and what hit me first was the parliamentary drama surrounding vote on the approval of Ministerial nominees following their vetting earlier.

Apparently the National Democratic Congress (NDC) leadership had decided to take what it believed was a moral high ground and ordered its parliamentary caucus not to approve any of the President’s ministerial nominees on the floor of the house.

It was the party’s way of protesting against the size of government and hoping to hold it to ransom.

Ultimately, even with its razor thin majority, the government won the vote by decent margins in the case of each nominee, which of course meant that some NDC MPs voted in defiance of their party’s orders and approved all the nominees.

For instance, Bryan Acheampong, Minister-Designate for Food and Agriculture, polled 167 YES votes, when his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has 137 MPs, and 98 NO votes, when the NDC has 137 MPs. This is quite telling.

With the voting done by secret ballot, it was impossible to tell which MP on the Minority side had voted for which ministerial nominee. For flourish and flavour, there were a few spoilt and rejected ballots.

The pain, fury and angst of some NDC elements both in and out of Parliament was as predictable as it was amusing, with pained shouts of treachery in exchange for what they believed were 30 miserable pieces of silver, as Judas did to give up Jesus, or in the case on Esau, a pathetic mess of potage in exchange for his birth right.

Perhaps the sentiment in the party was best captured by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on his Facebook wall thus, “There is no knife that cuts so sharply and with such poisoned blade as treachery.”

Precedent

Whilst I agree with the MP’s statement in the general sense, I am of course delighted by the government’s win and will not call the rebel MPs traitors, neither will I shed any salty crocodile tears for the NDC.

In all of this drama, my mind reverts to the birth pangs of this Parliament in the wee hours of January 7, 2021, when it came to choosing the Speaker of Parliament for the next parliamentary term during a very stormy session that saw ugly, unedifying scenes.

Traditionally, the Majority has always had the opportunity to prevail with respect to who becomes Speaker and 1st Deputy Speaker, with the Minority shooing in a candidate for 2nd Deputy Speaker.

On this occasion, however, the NDC, fully cognisant of the fact that both sides had won 137 each, that the NPP did not have a clear, comfortable working majority and could, therefore, only count on the benevolence of the MP for Fomena, and Independent (technically speaking, of course), smelled blood and went for the jugular.

The House ended up with Alban Bagbin, a former NDC MP, as Speaker. It was a major coup for the party and the smirk on the faces of its MPs was evident.

The pain and confusion on the NPP side was equally evident, as whispers and rumours circulated as to who the ‘Judas’ had been, with the result that the NDC had been handed over such a prized asset because an NPP MP had voted with the NDC. Again, the secret ballot had helped to hide who the person might have been.

The NPP side in Parliament, quite rightly, must therefore have felt a sense of sweet vengeance and utter delight over the emphatic vote margins in Parliament last week over the nominees. 

Human reality

The reality of politics is that whilst its fault lines may meander superficially on the basis of political party or even ideology, its human relationships often transcend them in a much deeper way.

In many cases, family, ethnic, religious, social or even personal connections go a long way to cement relationships, in many cases occurring long before those concerned even thought of entering politics.

This is because at the centre of all politics is the human being, a complex and therefore unpredictable creature.

I am, therefore, not surprised that some NDC MPs defied their party orders and voted for the nominees.

After all, they sit together in the house to conduct business, they have personal friendships and other relationships, may owe each other personal favours and so many other variables that they found difficult to breach.

What, therefore, happened in the house the other day was simply human beings being human beings.

Treachery?

Maybe the real treachery would have been if they had sacrificed friendships and/or other relationships for party orders they probably did not even believe in or agree with, in the first place.

Politics is a complex game with many facets.

Like football, one needs a heart of steel to drink deep from its chalice.

I believe the NDC will heal from its broken heart on this issue and move on.

Time is a great healer, as the NPP found out following the election of the current Speaker and have since learned to live with the reality. 

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng

Head, Communications & Public Affairs Unit,

Ministry of Energy,

Accra.

E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com