Doors to Diplomacy 2006 Project 4234, Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, Ghana
Interview with
Honorable John Akparibo Ndebugre-
member of parliament, MP
TEAM: what is politics?
Hon. Ndebugre: politics is generally the science of human relationships relating to the management and organization of the social needs of the community.
TEAM: do you think the people of Ghana are practicing politics by our definition.
Hon.Ndebugre: definitely people are practicing politics even in the home. Everyday, they are, according to my definition, which says “politics is generally the science of human relationships relating to the management and organization of the social needs of the community”.
TEAM: do you think politics should be a peaceful relation.
Hon. Ndebugre: yes, politics must be a peaceful one, and there is a need for it to be .we go back to the definition, if the purpose of politics is to organize society to satisfy its needs, it is necessary to be peaceful to useful.
TEAM: who is a politician?
Hon. Ndebugre: a politician is a scientist who organizes and manages society in a manner in which society can meet its needs. I think everybody is a politician in different degrees, and the difference between all other people and myself is that I am in competitive partisan politics.
TEAM: what do you think should be the role of the media in politics?
Hon. Ndebugre: the media acts as a tool of communication. So in order for effective and efficient organization of society to realize it’s objectives and satisfying its needs, there is a need of information flow, because society is not uniform. Society has different parts and sections, it is divided into towns, clans, villages, regions countries, etc and the world is interdependent, and there is the need for the free flow of information among the various sections and sectors of society. And this is what media should be doing.
TEAM: Will you say the media, especially, Ghanaian media are performing their function?
Hon. Ndebugre: I don’t think the media, especially, Ghanaian media are doing their work absolutely well. There is no institution that is perfect. The media are doing their best. Some of them are very objective and have at the back of their minds the interest of society as their primary objective and they try to approach social issues, in our case, national issues from an objective point of view so that they will not cause injury to society, but rather they do things that will advance the interest of the nation, help realize the goals of society and help satisfy the daily needs of the community. But some sections of the media are known for the purposes that do not generate to national development. Some of them are mess nary that is they use the print and electronic media to make money for themselves. They do get advantage in terms of partisan politics without considering the needs of the larger society.
TEAM: What is democracy?
Hon. Ndebugre: Democracy is simply, as defined by Abraham Lincoln some many years ago “Government for the people by the people and of the people”. Let us take a family of five, father, mother and three kids. The father is the head of the family followed by the mother and the children in order of their ages. The father will not go far if he takes decisions all by himself. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if you are the head of a group you are the wisest among them. You may make decision that you think are right but at the end of the day it will be unnecessary and not in the interest of the group. It will be useful for the five to sit down to decide on matters so as to make implementations of work easy. Because they all understand why such decisions were made which involved all of them if they set an objective everyone will work on that objective, but only when one member that is the father or mother unilaterally takes decisions it might be harmful not only to the other people of the family but also to him or her self. In that case you are not making a family or unity progress. If you take this illustration the country(Ghana) is more than twenty million and that is why group of persons are represented by a person such as a member of Parliament or District Chief Executive. This is to have a country in which the views of each individual is adhered and address by channeling it through these representatives. This is called decentralization and is what brings about progress in the country therefore there can not be effective or efficient politics without democracy. And the other side of democracy is tyranny and dictatorship, just like in the military regime where one man decides and make up decrees whether you like it or not it has been passed. But we have 230 MPs and they must agree before some matters becomes binding to regulate our lives.
TEAM: Some countries are not practicing democracy yet they are doing very well, what do you have to say about that?
Hon. Ndebugre: I do not think the number of parties determine the level of democracy if you take Ghana for example there are two main political parties, the National Democratic Congress(NDC) and the New Patriotic Party(NPP). The other political parties I belongs to one them are small and as time goes on, organizing political party involves a lot of money, time, energy and knowledge and as time goes on these parties become extinct because their funding and human resources becomes a problem and also growing of strength also becomes a problem. So we are there but every time we talk of NDC and NPP and also as NDC continues to loose elections then NPP becomes stronger as the NDC becomes weaker. Therefore we might move towards a one party state we have not prescribed the number of parties but the parties have not been able to grow. In conclusion I think democracy is what every society needs.
TEAM: Is democracy helping Ghana?
Hon. Ndebugre: Definitely, there is a great or drastic change from the pre- 1992 till now, we have being improving everyday. The people are beginning to think for them self, they are not being asked to do things against their will.
TEAM: What is Freedom of speech?
Hon. Ndebugre: It is everybody’s right to express him or herself without restrain provided it is within the law and you have at the back of your minds that your freedom ends at where my nose begins. Freedom of speech does not pre suppose that you should malign other people but you express those views freely under the armpit of the law. Societies with freedom of speech are groups which express their views without fear.
TEAM: Is criticizing the government important?
Hon. Ndebugre: Yes it is important that is the purpose of freedom of speech but you should criticize constructively.
TEAM: Do you think politics should be infused into sports concerning the black stars qualification to the world cup?
Hon. Ndebugre: The world cup or any sporting competition is an International one therefore we should stand as one and together as a nation. Also we have a ministry of education and sports which organizes sports and education, if the government is not doing well that is allocating funds to the sector then you don’t expect sports to progress just like the other endeavors. It is needed on paper that during one regime or government the sports sector either suffered neglect or had attention but when other regime came they allocated more funds and appointed a efficient people to man the sector and as a result they succeeded, why not?
TEAM: What advice do you have for those who wish to enter into politics?
Hon Ndebugre: Well, if you wish to enter into politics you must be honest, academically sound, knowledgeable and hard working because you hardly have a private life you have to be smart “upstairs” in your daily affairs you have to be efficient, articulate and have some resource base.