We Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable: Ghana Must End the Politics of Insults

There is something happening to our national conversation that should concern all of us, irrespective of our political affiliations.

Our politics is becoming increasingly coarse. Insults, personal attacks, unsubstantiated allegations and abusive language are too often replacing reasoned disagreement and constructive debate. Social media has amplified the problem, providing platforms where the most offensive comments can travel across the country within minutes.

I pray that we can bring an end to this culture of insulting our leaders and one another.

Let me be clear: this is not a call for silence. It is not a call against criticism. And it must never become an excuse for suppressing dissent.

Democracy requires criticism.

Citizens must question their leaders. Journalists must investigate them. Civil society must scrutinise them. Opposition parties must challenge governments. Governments and leadership generally must be held accountable for the decisions they make and the resources entrusted to them.

We must speak truth to power.

But speaking truth to power does not require insulting power.

Criticism Is Not Insult

There is a fundamental difference between saying that a President, Minister, Member of Parliament or political leader has made a bad decision and attacking that person’s dignity with abusive language.

We can say:

“I disagree with this policy, and here is the evidence.”

We can say:

“Government has failed to deliver on this promise.”

We can say:

“The opposition’s alternative is not credible, and these are my reasons.”

We can expose wrongdoing, incompetence, corruption, those involved in galamsey and abuse of office where the evidence supports it.

That is democracy.

But reducing political discourse to insults against people’s intelligence, ethnicity, appearance, families, age or other personal characteristics adds nothing to our democracy.

Disagreement does not require disrespect. Criticism does not have to become an insult.

This Must Not Become an NDC-versus-NPP Matter

Recent events should give us reason to reflect.

Ghana has witnessed arrests and prosecutions arising from allegedly abusive and offensive political commentary on social media. In July, for example, an NDC branch organiser was brought before court over allegedly offensive and false statements about former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. Thank God Dr Bawumia declared is disinterest in the case. There have also been proceedings involving people accused of abusive comments concerning President John Dramani Mahama and political supporters.

These incidents have generated legitimate debate about both the declining quality of our political discourse and the appropriate limits of state intervention.

Our response cannot depend on who is being insulted or which political party the speaker supports. We cannot say they benefited from it in the past and then do it now. Two wrongs do not make it right.

If an insult against a leader of the NPP is wrong, then an insult against a leader of the NDC is equally wrong.

If we demand tolerance when our party is in opposition, we must practise tolerance when our party is in government.

If we condemn abusive language when it is directed at someone we support, we must have the integrity to condemn the same behaviour when it comes from our own side.

Principles cease to be principles when they change according to who holds political power.

President Mahama and Dr Bawumia Can Help Change the Tone

This is why I believe the leadership of our two major political parties has a particularly important responsibility.

I respectfully appeal to H.E President John Dramani Mahama and the leadership of the National Democratic Congress, and to former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the leadership of the New Patriotic Party:

Please call your people to order.

Speak clearly and consistently against insults, abusive language and personal attacks — including when those attacks appear politically advantageous to your side.

Political communicators take their cues from leadership.

Party activists take their cues from leadership.

Young supporters take their cues from leadership.

When leaders reward abusive communicators with attention, appointments, platforms, or proximity to power, they send a message.

When leaders remain silent while an offensive communicator attacks their opponent, they send another message.

But when leaders publicly tell their supporters, “Do not insult in my name. Challenge our opponents on the issues, but respect their dignity,” that too sends a powerful message.

Indeed, Dr Bawumia’s reported request in July that the police and Attorney-General discontinue a prosecution brought in connection with allegedly offensive statements about him provides an example worth reflecting upon.

Our leaders have enormous power to change the temperature of Ghanaian politics.

They should use it.

But Let Us Not Recreate Criminal Libel Through the Back Door

Another side to this conversation is equally important.

While we should condemn insults, we must be extremely careful about using the criminal justice system simply to punish offensive political speech.

Ghana made a historic democratic choice when Parliament repealed the criminal libel and seditious laws in 2001.

That reform was important to the growth of Ghana’s media, freedom of expression and democratic culture.

We should be careful not to recreate, through other criminal provisions, the very culture of criminalising offensive criticism that the repeal of criminal libel was intended to move us away from.

An insult can be reprehensible without necessarily requiring imprisonment.

An offensive political statement can deserve universal condemnation without automatically requiring the coercive machinery of the state.

Civil remedies exist for defamation where reputations have been unlawfully damaged.

There are political remedies.

There are social consequences.

There is the right of reply.

And there is the powerful sanction of public condemnation.

The criminal law should not become the normal instrument for protecting political leaders from insults.

At the same time, we must distinguish insults from genuine threats, incitement to violence and other conduct that legitimately engages the criminal law.

Freedom of expression is not freedom to threaten someone’s life.

The state has a responsibility to protect citizens and public officials from credible threats and violence.

But we must not collapse these different categories into one.

Criticism is not insult.
Insult is not necessarily a threat.
And a genuine threat is not merely political criticism.

A mature democracy must be capable of distinguishing among all three.

Where Are Our Religious and Traditional Leaders?

This conversation cannot be left to politicians alone.

I respectfully appeal to our religious leaders — Christian, Muslim, Traditional Religion and leaders of our other faith communities — to add their voices.

Our pulpits and religious platforms have enormous moral influence. Let us use them to teach that political disagreement does not remove our obligation to respect the dignity of another human being.

I make the same appeal to our traditional leaders.

Our chiefs and queen mothers are custodians of a Ghanaian culture in which respect for others, particularly elders and persons entrusted with leadership, has always occupied an important place.

We need their voices.

We need the National House of Chiefs.

We need our eminent traditional rulers.

We need the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Office of the National Chief Imam and other religious bodies.

Not to take political sides.

But precisely because they should rise above political sides.

They can remind us of something politics sometimes causes us to forget:

Before we are NDC or NPP, we are Ghanaians.

Social Media Cannot Become Our National Gutter

We must also look at ourselves.

Politicians alone did not create this problem.

Every time we forward an abusive video because it is funny, we help amplify it.

Every time we celebrate someone for insulting a politician we dislike, we legitimise the behaviour.

Every time our radio and television stations repeatedly replay the most outrageous insults because they generate audiences and engagement, we reward the deterioration of our public discourse.

And every time we condemn an insult against “our person” while laughing at an insult against “their person”, we contribute to the problem.

We cannot outsource responsibility for our national culture.

We all create it.

Let Us Raise the Standard

Ghana’s democracy has travelled too far for our political discourse to descend into a competition over who can manufacture the most vicious insult.

We can do better.

Let our young people see political leaders disagree vigorously over ideas and still shake hands afterwards.

Let them see government and opposition challenge each other fiercely on the economy, education, healthcare, jobs, corruption, mining, infrastructure and the future of our country.

Let the contest be about ideas.

Let it be about evidence.

Let it be about competence.

Let it be about integrity.

Let it even be passionate.

But let it not be about who can insult the other most viciously.

We can hold our leaders accountable without stripping them of their dignity.

We can oppose a President without hating him.

We can disagree with a former Vice-President without abusing him.

We can reject the policies of the NDC without insulting its members.

We can reject the policies of the NPP without demeaning its supporters.

That is the democratic maturity Ghana should aspire to.

Our culture teaches us respect even when we disagree. That does not mean unquestioning obedience to authority. Respect and accountability are not opposites.

Indeed, the strongest criticism is often the criticism made calmly, factually and courageously.

So let us raise the standard of our public discourse.

Criticise where we must.
Challenge where we should.
Question our leaders.
Demand accountability.
Speak truth to power.

But let us not insult.

And to our political, religious and traditional leaders, I respectfully say: please add your voices. Help us reset the tone of our national conversation.

Ghana needs vigorous democracy.

Ghana needs fearless citizens.

Ghana needs accountable leaders.

But Ghana also needs civility.

Because ultimately, we can disagree without being disagreeable.

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