Tribal politics could be dangerous for Ghana’s democracy – Hamza Suhuyini
Legal Practitioner and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communications Team, Hamza Suhuyini, has raised concerns over the dangers of tribal politics, warning that it does not only threaten the unity of a particular party, but the democracy of the entire nation.
This, according to him, should not only be an issue for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but a collective issue requiring collaborative efforts in dealing with.
During an appearance on JoyNews’ Am Show on Monday, August 25, Hamza Suhuyini warned about pronouncements with tribal and religious undertones emerging from some flagbearer aspirants of within the NPP, noting that it does not present the entire campaign in a positive light.
“Young people will be looking up to us to conduct ourselves well in both internal and external elections, and what appears to coming up about the tribal and religious undertones within the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party is something that as a Republic we must be concerned about,” he said.
The legal practitioner further added that not only has this issue been raised before within the NDC, other members of the NPP have reasons to worry as it threatens the unity they strive to build.
“It is worrying and I think that as quickly as possible they have to rally around and avoid that dangerous path to politicking that portends not only a danger to the New Patriotic Party as a political party but even to our democratic stability,” he added.
Hamza Suhuyini noted that although the NPP had previously created an impression of being immune to tribal and religious politics, the recent pronouncements by one of the party’s flagbearer-aspirants indicates that this is deep-seated issue and requires deliberate and continuous efforts to dela with.
“To those of us in the National Democratic Congress, this is not new, we cautioned against it years ago, the NPP created the impression as though they were immune to tribal politics and that they had moved away from it, but it is sad that the former Vice President is now at the receiving end of what many of us predicted and cautioned the New Patriotic Party against,” he noted.
On the chances of misinterpreting comments made by the NPP’s Bryan Acheampong with a tribal lens, Hamza Suhuyini clarified that although the flagbearer-aspirant has tried to explain, keeping in mind the current political landscape and the diverse audiences is key to avoiding a possible misconception of a message.
“Sometimes we have to take into consideration the audience we have before us and be very mindful of the kind of things we say because the likelihood of a misinterpretation can be very high, and that is why, as political actors and political players, we must not only be mindful of the things we say, but we must be mindful of the audiences we speak to,” he urged.
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