Gboyega Bello
The crowd, at the best of its form, or the mob, at the worst of the notion of the tribe, is emotive and visceral. Bereft of well-considered reasons as a collective, its disparate members often launch into actions that seldom stand the test of time. This nature of the crowd or the mob the world over has historical antecedents from Caesar’s time till date.
Were the crowd that yelled in approval of the presence of Captain Ibrahim Traore to have acted from the precinct of reason, it would have realised that the Burkinabé leader was a mismatch and an anathema at that occasion.
The event marking a peaceful passing of baton to President Dramami Mahama was the epitome of the intrinsic value of democratic party polity. It demonstrated the celebration of liberality that true democracy spawns in which though individuals do differ in respect of their political beliefs and orientation, they are nonetheless of higher order to collaborate and reach consensus for a peaceful administration of a political jurisdiction.
Taraore represents a different spectrum; his presence polluted that gathering that epitomised the triumph of democracy, of collaboration despite differences.
We are not new to the false hopes which men in jackboots offered at one political trajectory or another in Africa. Even our very country’s history reeks of the facade. For all the listed strides he was said to have achieved, being on the ground in that country offers ocular confirmation.
But that crowd, the crowd that yelled an approval of Taraore in Ghana was a disgrace, in my reckoning, to the very value of democracy. It offered the worst of wrong signals, naively playing into the hands of enemies of democracy.
The point is that it is hypocritical of Traore to grace that occasion, to grace it in his uniform, to shine as if he were a symbol of democracy, as if he represented any thing positive to liberal polity. He represents a rape of democracy, to say the least.
His people might like him. He might be meeting their expectations, but he ought to have stood clear of a different spectrum in which he is an exact opposite of.
To me, I am not really impressed by Mahama actions so far. For one thing, how he had time for photo ops with idle Nigerian politicians baffled me in the first instant. Excepting the understandable presence of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu at the occasion, I am of the opinion that almost all others just went to blow our Forex in Ghana.
Mahama needs to watch it. He shouldn’t start on a false note.