SIBLING IN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP CONTEST: Could it work in Ghana?

I awoke this morning to a different day because, I was greeted with an unusual early morning news which engaged me in thought for a little while. As I gazed at the TV screen awashed with the news of the announcement of the Labour Party's leadership contest, I was equally contemplating the time and energy that will be expended by the British Sunday papers in glaring journalistic  efficiency on the carriage of the news on its front pages.

Despite my virtual amazement on hearing the news, I was nonetheless pretty happy for politics and democracy. Politics and democracy not so much about how it is done in the civilised world, but how it could be made to work magic when it is well learnt, planned, followed, achieved and delivered in our societies.

As I pondered over things, I was not doing so, much because of the significance the news carry for the Labour Party and British politics, but its relativity to the democracy and politics in many thriving democracies in the world, especially Ghana, the one I have  detailed awareness. In a minute, I thought, "well, ignore it because, the news is for the consumption  of the British public" but then  I realised that there was something far more important about the news which surpasses the common reason behind it - that the most favoured to win of the brothers had been trounced.

What could that be? I kept asking myself. Could such news be of any benefit to the people of Ghana? "In politics may be"  and I guessed frankly right because, I suppose any Ghanaian who shares my belief in the uniqueness of this news will agree with me that, in spite of the news being an obvious healthy development in British politics, its invaluable relevance to Ghana as a source of political learning was what mattered.

As I stood in my sitting room in shock gazing at the big TV screen, I could finally ask myself the one important question - could this have happened in Ghana, my home country where everything else is eschewed at the expense of politics? No!  absolutely not. Well! may be, after some long time, were my thoughtful guesses. But then, could politics with or without such competition be healthy? And indeed, the answer may lie in how stable and healthy the society itself is.

The early morning news of the triumph and thrashing of one brother by the other is a fascinating one. Obviously, because, it has many tenets that could make or undermine society. But this contest didn't - the sibling rivalry and its effect on family, the nomination process, the campaign, financing, competition and most importantly, the low key, 'level headed' prominence it generated in the British body of politics and the less disenfranchising it became to the national affairs of things, all had tones of positivity.

I am saying this because, we all have heard, if not witnessed at all, the state of panic and worry politics is carried about in Ghana - to mention but a few, the  character abuse, anxiety, dishonesty, distasteful rivalry, the fights, human loss and so forth  that accompany the nomination of party leaders and the intolerance or should I say the tolerance the average Ghanaian is made to go through during the balloting and again not to forget, the agonising wait they sometimes have to endure for the results, are just not reflective of what true democracy is.

With all the interest the Labour Party leadership contest carried, it must be on record to have been one of the most humble political contest ever with a milestone, only civilised, organised and responsible society such as Britain can chalk. It had taken four months to reach its finale yesterday. Yet, not many  a British citizen would have noticed  or made enough noise about to cause a problem of any magnitude. What happened is that, it left the state of affairs untouched, unshaken and grossly as strong a democratic society it is touted as being. It can only happen in a society like Britain, and leave much to be desired if we as Ghanaians, crave to emulate this kind of political dispensation.