A political disagreement in Ghana rarely stays on policy. It often veers sharply into personal territory. The National Commission for Civic Education has noted a rising tide of insults, degrading descriptions, and personal attacks dominating the digital public space. What begins as debate over appointments, records, or policy quickly becomes a critique of appearance, family, gender, accent, or personal history.
The commission’s observations come amid growing concern that cruelty in political discourse is becoming a kind of currency. “The sharper the insult, the faster it travels,” the report states. Political culture in Ghana is shaped daily beyond Parliament or party conferences—in homes, schools, newsrooms, churches, mosques, traditional institutions, and on screens watched by children. This environment, it warns, risks teaching a generation that political participation is about commanding attention rather than ideas, service, or responsibility.
Democracy requires disagreement. Citizens must challenge governments, opposition parties must criticise, and journalists must investigate. Freedom of expression is meaningless if it only exists when words please those in power. Yet, the commission stresses that freedom is not the absence of responsibility. Governments have the right and responsibility to respond, especially when claims are inaccurate or misleading. Democracy cannot mean one side speaks while the other simply absorbs accusations.
The commission points to a troubling shift: arguments moving from ideas to destroying the person who makes them. Instead of debating policy effectiveness, opponents question intelligence or character. Personal attacks replace evidence, and humiliation becomes a shortcut to relevance.
This trend aligns with what the commission calls an “attention economy.” Outrage travels faster and farther than reasoned debate. A sharp insult or confrontation can put an unknown voice before thousands. The quieter, more competent voices focusing on policy knowledge and community service are often left behind. The commission warns that if outrage is the fastest route to relevance, the problem is systemic, not just individual behaviour.
Political ambition itself is not the issue. Ghana needs people who want to serve and lead. But it questions how power is understood. An Ewe saying goes: “Ame ko fia,” meaning the people carry the chief. Authority depends on the trust of the people. The methods used to pursue power often shape how it is exercised. If humiliation is normalised and personal attack mistaken for strength, the country risks reproducing the same culture from different seats.
The commission asks whether every political disagreement must become a cycle of insult and counter-insult. Government has a responsibility to deliver on jobs, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social protection. It must be held accountable. But nation-building cannot belong to government alone. Many Ghanaians contribute quietly, without cameras or hashtags. Redirecting collective energy toward such contributions is also civic participation.
The report highlights the urgency of these issues for gender. Women in politics often face attacks that go beyond policy to appearance, family, sexuality, and expectations of behaviour. A young girl watching might conclude this is the price of being heard. Boys observe too. In a culture where aggression is presented as strength and silencing opponents as power, the commission asks what this teaches about leadership. Does masculinity require domination? Does humiliating others mean winning?
Men occupy significant spaces of influence and can model a different kind of strength: disagreeing without degrading, challenging without humiliating, apologising when wrong, and recognising dignity is not weakness. Women, young people, journalists, traditional and religious leaders, and ordinary citizens share this responsibility.
The consequences extend beyond politicians. When parents are publicly insulted or ridiculed, their children can face teasing, stigma, embarrassment, or isolation. What adults dismiss as “politics” can become a child’s lived experience and emotional burden.
The commission calls on institutions beyond politics to recognise the social and psychological effects of public political attacks. The Ministry responsible for Gender, Children and Social Protection, the education sector, child-protection agencies, the Cyber Security Authority, media organisations, schools, political parties, and civil society all have roles in addressing these issues.
UNESCO’s Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development emphasises that education shapes how people understand the world and treat one another. It promotes critical thinking, empathy, intercultural understanding, gender equality, and responsible engagement with digital technologies and information.
The commission’s warnings come as Ghana’s political discourse increasingly features personal attacks that cloud policy debates. The challenge lies in whether the country’s political culture will shift or continue rewarding outrage and humiliation as routes to power.
According to 3News.
