Editorial: Richard Quashigah�s Earthquake Rubbish

The National Democratic Congress� (NDC) internal electoral exercise ended in Tamale with no visible incidents, safe Founder Rawlings� vile innuendos including the Atta the Mortuary Man narration. The party membership should be patting each others� back for not being violent and staying close to the confines of civility. The horsewhips were not used, thanks to the activity grounds becoming one great prison, with five gates leading to the inner chamber. For a party whose proclivity to violence is not in dispute, we were not surprised at the extra efforts put in place to create a semblance of normalcy at the WAEC Hall in the Northern Regional capital. When at the end of the day the leadership dwelt considerably on the party�s ability to come out of it all unscathed, doing so with glee, we were not surprised. After all, the reverse could have been the order. One of the officers elected to manage the propaganda machinery of the party has left us in no doubt about his intention to damage the political atmosphere in the country. Politics is not a matter for verbal brutes who would descend to any depth to achieve their objective of being recognized by their paymasters. Richard Quashigah spiced the wild earthquake rumour which shook Ghana on Sunday night with something beyond decency. For such a character in politics, the end justifies the means and we think his like can only muddy the political waters to win the hearts of his bosses. Just as Ghanaians were smarting from the earthquake hoax, Richard Quashigah, overwhelmed by his victory at the NDC polls, foisted the mendacity that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was behind the seismic story. We are saddened to think that such characters are players on our political turf at a time when we are striving to give politics a better name. When such elements don the garb of politicians and set out to open their stinking mouths uncontrollably, the political temperature can only rise above the normal acceptable level. Sandwiched by persons whose integrity we cannot vouch for, we do not think that there is an end to the nonsensical effusion. To think that a political grouping in the mould of the NPP would, as a matter of policy, release such a dangerous rumour in the country is to belittle the importance of politics and underscore the imbecility of the source of the mendacity. With people like Richard Quashigah, the political schism can only continue to widen to the detriment of national development. When an educated person, a teacher of Integrated Marketing Communication for that matter, erroneously concocts or even misrepresents facts for political expediency, we can only turn to God to deliver our country from going down the abyss. Indeed, his aping of the lie, baseless as it was, is an apt expose about the stuff the character is made of. Although nowhere near Paul Joseph Goebbel (1897-1945), the most notorious Nazi propagandist who passed for a cynical and opportunist personality under the nose of Hitler, Richard Quashigah has sounded the knell of a decent political culture. Must decent-minded Ghanaians turn their eyes away from such a character who seeks to destroy overnight what we have worked to establish over years? Spewing nonsense such as Richard Quashigah has done and ready to do in the unfolding months, cannot be part of political civility and must be condemned by all and sundry.