Ghana Tearing Itself Apart: - Alban Bagbin

Nadowli-Kaleo Legislator Alban Bagbin believes political polarisation is the Achilles heels of Ghana�s democracy. ��These days I hear different voices - polarisation - we are tearing each other apart because of our differences. Why should that be so? It should not�, the former Minority and Majority Leader said in Parliament on Thursday. He was contributing to a statement made on the floor of Parliament to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the death of Dr JB Danquah, who was one of the �Big Six� and founder-member of the pre-independent United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Dr Danquah died at the age of 69 while in prison at the Nsawam medium security facility. He was one of Dr Kwame Nkrumah�s political detainees. Dr Danquah was arrested and imprisoned without trial under the Preventive Detention Act/Order of 1958 and 1961. The law, according to staunch Nkrumaist Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa was meant to emasculate terrorists who attempted assassinating and sabotaging Nkrumah�s Government. Using the rift between Nkrumah�s Convention People�s Party and the UGCC to buttress his point, Mr Bagbin said: �The only way that we can learn lessons from the past is to learn to agree to disagree�. �Mr Speaker unfortunately I�m not sure we still, as a country, understand the concept of multiparty democracy�, he bewailed. Explaining his point, the multiple-time MP said: ��Multiparty democracy is built on the principle of agreeing to disagree; and if we accept that, there should be no need for bitterness because we are created differently�. �We cannot be the same. We can�t reason the same. We can�t like the same things. It is because of the collective good that we need to bring everybody on board� to make life more beautiful, more interesting, more complete, more enjoyable. That is what life is about�, Bagbin said.