Dear Akosua,

When you see a cat being killed by a butcher for sale then it is because the butcher considers that as a necessity due to the exigencies of the time; likewise when you see a fisherman like your father serving you pizza for breakfast then it is because the situation has called for it.

Thus, you receiving another letter from your father without a reply to my earlier letter signifies the prominence this letter carries.

Akosua, I know you’ve not spoken a word to me ever since you were born and I am not in the least perturbed about that. I know at the appropriate time; when you start learning how to smuggle a muzzle of fufu into your system, you will react appropriately to all the letters you have been reading from me.

My daughter, the reason why I am writing you this letter is to join me waste our time on the political parties we have in this country and to finally settle on which of them we will vote for in the 2016 elections.

I know you will not be 18 years by then but choices, options, decisions abound and choosing the right and the best option and deciding well might help some people called politicians to get rich at our expense.

Remember, I, your father, do not want you to turn around in circles because turning around in circles do not equate making progress and it turns out to be horrendous when you choose the wrong option.

Akosua, about a year ago, the founder of the International Central Gospel Church, Pastor Mensa Otabil asked this important question, “Why have Ghanaians consistently kept the two main political parties; the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in power for the past 22 years?

This question, however, has remained unanswered ever since it was asked!  A legitimate question he asked? Yes! Is there any justification for voting for these two political parties? Your guess might be right.

My dear, there are currently 23 registered political parties in the country we have to choose from. As to whether all of them will contest the 2016 elections is another matter that is reserved for another day.

Our current station in life as a country has reduced Ghanaians to election machines. Ghanaians only matter and are given the recognition that they exist during the electioneering year. After the educated and the uneducated; the young and the old; the male and the female and  the fisherman and the farmer have been called upon to queue under this scorching  African sun  to elect people who will create, loot and share, our importance as a people who voted comes to an end. The politicians suddenly turn into dead goats that do not fear any knife.

Akosua, events in this country in recent times have jolted me into deep thoughts! They have left me in a quagmire of hopelessness and that is why I need you to help me analyze and scrutinize these political parties meticulously in order to make a great choice out of that.

The first party, we might consider voting for is the NDC. The NDC government that is currently in power has exhibited a lot of competence, resilience and a dead goat syndrome ever since it was given power. Their creation of jobs is unprecedented in the history of the country. Currently, as I write to you, whoever says, he or she has no job to do in the country must be considered the laziest and the craziest being in the entire universe.

Akos, it is amazing how the authorities are fighting corruption and are zealously guarding the public purse. All judgment debts paid into wrong pockets have been retrieved. Currently, no one cries at any commission sitting; all those who have cried before any commission of enquiry have ‘uncried’. There is currently an Association of Ministerial criers that have been formed to collate and collect the tears of all criers and potential criers that will attend upon any committee of enquiry to fill the Akosombo Dam- we hear the level of the water in the Dam is low.

 As you may be aware, the SADA’s Guinea fowls have successfully returned to Guinea their motherland because their name suggests where they come from, GUINEA. Don’t also forget, the SADA trees that were planted during the dry season are all blossoming and flourishing.

All statutory payments have been paid. The National Health Insurance Scheme is buoyant, efficient and effective; all claims have been paid to service providers. In the area of Education, the government has done impressively well. It has cancelled all allowances of teacher trainees; outstanding capitation grants have been paid to basic schools. The basic schools no longer have any excuse to say, schools have reopened for 6-7 weeks without chalks and other resources for effective teaching and learning. The government will go ahead to implement its progressively free SHS education when the basic schools, the foundation of the SHS are begging for support.

Interestingly, the cedi, as I write to you is dancing azonto with the major currencies in the world. Need I say anything about the Dumsor situation that is no stranger to any Ghanaian? I guess I do not need to belabor this point about dumsor. So you see, the NDC has really been outstanding in its own right.

We might also decide to vote for the NPP. Imagine in a football game where each of the teams is determined to score and when a team mate is in a position to score, a member of the same team runs to shift the goal post to prevent the team from scoring.

Of course, you've surely heard about those tiny fish in the rivers of Brazil which attack the swimmer by the thousands, eat him up in a few moments in quick little mouthfuls and leave only a perfectly clean skeleton behind. Yes! That is how the NPP has now become. Busily occupying themselves with how they will continue to stay in opposition.

Akosua, do you think we should take them serious to entrust the country into their hands after they themselves are fighting to remain in opposition? They seem more than divided in opposition and are enjoying life in opposition. They are behaving like a player who dribbles his way through to the centre line making serious incursions into his opponents post but fails to be purposeful upfront and squanders all their opportunities.

Anyway, the last time I checked on them, they were energetically exploring the option of prayers and fasting to exorcise the demons busily discharging and unleashing confusion in the party. Their chief aim of doing that, I learn  is to prevent the elephant from eating its own children. What a wow!

Apart from these two political parties which Ghanaians have been crazy about but the parties have exhibited traits of over-pampered lads, there are many a political party we can as well choose from.

A political party like the CPP has been  using  the achievements of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and promised to continue the same policies when voted for but what we do not know however is whether  the CPP may be overlooking the fact that times have changed, so has world politics. Many of their members who would have helped organize the party to attract votes only identify themselves as members of the CPP but do not vote for the party. How sad!

Lest I forget, the Progressive People’s Party led by Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom is another political party that has shown some vibrancy and a sense of purpose as an alternative to the ‘turn taking games’ the NPP and the NDC are playing with Ghanaians. What I, your father, have seen is that while many support this party with their lips but fail to vote for them, others are either NPP or NDC sympathizers who only love the red and white coloured tee-shirts but do not vote for the party. Do you think the excuse people give that a vote for the PPP is just like fetching water into a basket is fair? 

Akosua, we will consider the other political parties in our subsequent communications but remember the words of Marian Wright Edelman that people who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests.

Your father,

The Oguaa Fisherman

The writer, Richard Kwadwo Nyarko, is a broadcast journalist with JOY FM. His email is quajo2009@gmail.com. Tweet- @quajo2009. Facebook – Richard Kwadwo Nyarko.