LOYALTY should be reciprocal, or it becomes a liability. The governing party has become a victim of the disloyalty of its own supporters entrusted to implement their policies and programmes in communities and institutions, because most often those appointed to serve the people begin to serve themselves at the expense of the populace, which they oftentimes treat with disdain and disfavour. This has become the bane of the Government, which has lost much support over the years because of this predisposition of many officials that they trusted losing sight of the core guiding principles of the Government and becoming power-drunk and greedy. Government’s strength in macro management of the nation’s affairs has many times been stymied, not merely through Opposition gerrymandering and power-plays, but in application of its developmental goals by the very persons they have entrusted with the micro-management of those goals – at grassroots level.

And therein lays the success of the AFC during the 2011 elections. As one former PPP/C supporter turned AFC member remarked: “Boat done gone a falls”, because the disillusion and distrust engendered by the inability of the ordinary citizen to access justice and/or requisite assistance from public officials, who jump up on platforms and make lofty speeches and dramatics, which are never translated to existential dynamics, whereby the ordinary man or woman could receive the services that are their bounden constitutional right.

Crowds do not necessarily transform into votes, and daily life is still fraught with difficulties for many, still unaddressed by public officials. The results from the latest NACTA polls are a frightening reminder of the dangers inherent in complacency by the ruling party and its erstwhile supporters; because the Opposition is intent on accessing the corridors of Government, and they are well-versed in accessing and retaining power through unconstitutional means – especially through the proxy votes.
And so it is incumbent upon the Government to ruthlessly weed out the thorns from its leadership. The cries of the victims are often suppressed because they have no forum for complaint where their concerns could be listened and effectively addressed.

Government’s very existence, or at best its parliamentary majority, are once more threatened by the disloyal actions of the petty officials who are often supercilious and arrogant when dealing with members of the public they are sworn to serve; thus it is necessary to the spot of being imperative that the administration disassociate itself from and weed out the thorns that are damaging the fabric of its developmental programmes and strategies for growth –at both individual and national levels, within communities and in public institutions.

The corruption and administrative ineptitude may not be present at the sources that are being incessantly accused of these, but they exist nonetheless – at the levels of what former President Dr. Jagdeo once described as “tin-gods”. The Government has a greater duty to be loyal to its constituents rather than the officials who are empowering and enriching themselves through negligence of their duties, or self-enrichment/self-aggrandizement actions, because the “tin-gods” are threatening its very existence and the future of the nation, so they need to be ruthlessly exorcised – dealt with condignly without compunction for the Government to be enabled to govern with more efficacy at grassroots level, which is the base of their support.