By Abdul Razak Bawa
Let me start by acknowledging the source of this picture. I first saw it on the facebook wall of Pius Hadzide, but it was from my Secondary School Whatsapp platform, where it was posted that I pulled it from.
Whether the photographer who took the picture was a professional or he took it as leisure deserves credit and so I give him.
The shot was described by many of my school mates as a candid one. It is said that, a picture speaks a thousand words and this one certainly does.
In the picture, Pius Hadzide, was surrounded by pupils, who were holding a book which had his picture on it, he was in a Lacoste with Asogyaman written on it and wearing a smile.
This picture tells a million tales. It summaries what politics has come to become in this country. The only way an individual launches his political career, is to pretend to care for the vulnerable in society, by making some few donations and then boom, he is cut and ready to contest for a an elected position.
I don’t pretend to know the motive behind it, but I can say, it is setting a stage for something in the very near future. Politicians by their nature, especially our part of the world, never do anything for free, that is why they themselves coined the phrase, they is no free lunch anywhere. Even a smile from them, must be mortgaged for something.
Pius Hadzide, not too long ago was a deputy minister of Information, we never saw him make this kinds of donations. The sudden act of kindness to pupils in Asogyamn, speaks volume and is only intended to achieve one thing, i.e. to launch his parliamentary ambition first, and then possibly presidential ambition.
We are no strangers to these kinds of tactics and maneuvers, which has over the years reduced our kids, as tools for advancing peoples’ selfish interest. To be poor in this country is to become a tool in the hands of the few privileged ones to manipulate and bend to their will.
The books could have been distributed without necessarily embossing his picture on it or again, without taken pictures with the pupils and splashing it on Social Media, but because the intention behind it is not genuine, and was meant to achieve a particular end that was why he did what he did.
This is the first of many of such gestures, as we approach the 2024 general election. Pius Hadzide is not alone in this venture, as I tried to mention earlier, it is the stock in trade of politicians, who never give anything for free. The citizens, for whom they claim to work for, must always give something in return.
The admonition is that, what your right hand gives, the left must not see, this does not apply in the scheme of things for politicians. They will never give something and remain anonymous, because it had never been given from their heart.
They can’t wait to get in front of the camera and sometime the microphone. Everything they give to the vulnerable and less privileged in the society, no matter how insignificant, they want it captured on camera, for the whole world to see.
What is even annoying is that, they won’t let the people, who have been the recipients of their generosity to spread the gesture and let the whole know what they have done, they always get ahead of themselves in announcing what they have done, which is sometimes not only annoying but disgusting.
Asogyaman people, should get ready, as they is every indication that, Pius Hadzide might well be lacing his boots to contest for the parliamentary seat.
Although, Pius is not the first and will not be the last politicians for this photo opportunity, this is a negative trend that, must be stopped. These children are the future of this country; they must not be raised to think they are charity cases. They should not be made to get a sense that, in order to survive, they must depend on a politician, they deserve better training and orientation.
Politicians must learn to do things, without expecting any benefit from the people. Why this sudden sharing of books to school children, they have become the means through which many people launch their political careers, it is not wrong for an individual to come to the aid of the under-privileged, but it becomes wrong when they are used to further peoples’ ambitions.
Pius might mean well for the pupils, it could just be a genuine donation, and that he expects nothing in return, but the mere fact of embossing his picture on the books, exposes his intention.
To all intents and purposes, that was a plot that went awry. So, for me I am not part of the congratulatory party for Pius.
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