Reject political parties which speak ill of parties in power — UFP

The United Front Party (UFP) has called on Ghanaians to reject any of the political parties in opposition that speak ill of the party in power to score political points as the nation prepares to go to the polls come December 7.

A statement signed by the Founder and National Chairman of the UFP, Nana Agyenim Boateng, better known as ‘Gyataba’, a copy of which was made available to the Daily Graphic, stated that the UFP believed that the practice of parties deliberately closing their eyes to the good things parties in power did needed to be renounced.

“We at the UFP believe that it is about time opposition parties renounced the practice of closing their eyes to the good things governments in power have been doing rather than concentrating on only the bad ones. We need to combine the two in a democratic environment,” it stated.

The statement said Ghana was young in its practice of liberal democracy and in order to breathe more life into the political system of the country, all opposition parties would need to learn to commend parties in power on the good things they do just as the parties condemn the bad things that happen.

It made reference to the regime of Ghana’s Premier President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, saying that when Dr Nkrumah led the “Big Six” to secure emancipation for Ghana, Ghanaians at the time showered praises on him but political parties who wanted to overthrow Dr Nkrumah’s government saw nothing good Dr Nkrumah and his party did to develop Ghana apart from independence.

Flashback

The statement expressed worry that this practice had continued since 1992, recalling again that when Ft. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor and Prof. John Evans Atta Mills led their respective parties to come to power these governments added value to what they came to meet.

It said it was, however, disheartening that opposition parties at the time did not see anything good they did but when they left office till now, these same parties make reference to them by mentioning one or two good things they did to develop Ghana.

“So we at the UFP are entreating all opposition parties of today not to only condemn the ruling John Dramani Mahama-led NDC administration. Of course, Mahama since he was declared winner of the 2012 election had done both good and bad, so in as much as opposition parties are interested in speaking the ills of his administration, we should also be interested in the good things of this same administration,” it reiterated.

The beauty of democracy

It added: “This should be the beauty of our democracy; we commend where commendable and condemn where necessary, to appeal to the senses of the electorates for them to vote for any political party of their choice. Such is the beauty of our political discourse”.

The statement, however, said with a few months to the 2016 general election and in order to give democracy a defining shape, the UFP would not hesitate to call on Ghanaians to reject any of the parties in opposition that speak “only ill” of the party in power.