THE HIDDEN MESSAGE OF 2016 ELECTION DROLL.

My mother, Mrs. Elizabeth who has stayed in the capital region of Ghana for more than two decades once told me, that the Gas [who reside in Greater Accra region] are very known for their talent in the creative arts industry. "They can really dance, Kwabena. Even the average man who is not good in dancing, can give some daring moves, trust me", she said.

Antie Lizzy, you said it and it is true; come for your stone. Honorable Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye is a Ghanaian, a Ga and and a former sports minister nailed it during one of his campaigns in the capital city. He was giving some heavy dancing moves to ShataWale’s recent hit songs before selling his message to the entire populace at the gathering. I had not taken notice of this video until I visited Michael Ohene Aboagye's - a friend on facebook’s timeline to discover a video he shared from Modern Ghana Web's facebook page in January 2017.

I loved it and instantly spotted a proverb crawling through my mind. It goes like this: Even when the animal [housefly] has nothing to offer, it rubs it's palm [aboa no nni hwee koraa no, )posa ne nsa mu]. Mr. Nii Lante Vanderpuye did not just rub his hand, he shaked the stage and hypnotized the audience with his secretly learnt moves from #ShataWale, the dance hall artiste's music compilation.

Before then, he is not the only politician who has indulged in this act of dancing to party dignitaries and sympathizers during last year’s elections. Our president, his excellency Nana Akufu-Addo, and our ex-president John Mahama also did same at different times to different tunes on stage during their campaign thrill. It was awesome to behold the first gentleman of the land and first lady Laudina dancing to one of SM’s song titled “Mahama paper”.

Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was also seen on the airwaves cooking with the lovely people from the Northern part of Ghana whereas honorable Oko Vanderpuye was also seen cooking and plating the hair of some Ghanaian women in their homes.

It was awesome to see these figures do some of these things to grace the occasion and that made us all to understand, that “they are human after all”.

What am I driving at?

The year 2016, was a year we all need to retrospect as citizens of this nation. We need to keep many instances in the archives and fetch them for future reference. Our political figures showed maturity and conscience in the process of campaigning. On a lighter note, it was funny as they did this to attract their people, yet there was something far beyond these endeavors and must be chalked down.

Many are the traces our politicians left on the soils they were treading on in our local environs to persuade and win the heart of the eligible voters for power. They danced to our local tunes and showed their support for our Made in Ghana celebrities in the music industry. They cooked our local dishes and dined with us. Many of them did these for the purpose of indirectly selling their message[s] so well and Ghanaians discerned to keep some people and eliminate others especially, the parliamentarians.

Many of these parliamentarians were so professional, they were so lovely and sober in the process, many of these acts which were done, were done with the right intentions. They bonded with us and we felt this sense of togetherness and the pride of belonging to one ethnic or the other. And this will be repeated because that is the spirit of Africa. That is our root and this is what we are made of!

These lessons are symbolic. These are the lessons we ought to trace back from sunset to sundown and sing of their tunes to the next generation. We need to fetch these traces of footsteps on the grounds they walked on and keep for life. That is their real-self demonstrated in these minor acts. That is the soul of the Ghanaian people and that is the African way. We love being real and using some little mediums to show who we are and what we stand for and through such endeavors we learn.

I recall Hon. Alfred Vanderpuye was found plaiting a lady's hair, went out cooking, and pictures were splattered on social media. The vice president; his excellency Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia did same and so on and so forth. We are Ghanaians and this is our land, this is our people. All these were intentionally done by the leaders to show us one thing: love for the nation and love for all is supreme.

Though the amusing part cannot be faded, but the dominant message I keep spotting on is, living together in harmony to shame the greedy man of the West who once visited and saw the beauty of our life and so, planted enmity among us and succeeded [somehow] in manipulating our thought and simultaneously painted a different picture about our culture.

He often thinks the Blackman has a long way to go in terms of democracy. That is a sham.

The time is here and the time is now; that "the black man is capable of managing his own affairs" [Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, 1957].