NewzThe Head of the Department of Communication at the University of Ghana, Professor Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin, has urged Ghanaians to reject politicians who use insults to gain popularity, warning that society’s tolerance of abusive political conduct encourages political parties to reward it with appointments and other opportunities. She said citizens could influence political behaviour by withdrawing attention from individuals who repeatedly use invectives, refusing to engage with their content on social media and demanding greater accountability from political leaders. Speaking during a Joy Prime dialogue on the topic ‘The Politics of Insults: Where Do We Draw the Line?’ at Labadi Beach on Friday, October 16, she argued that organised partisan politics appeared to reward such behaviour rather than condemn it.
Yeboah-Banin said politicians were more likely to appoint individuals whose popularity could help them secure votes, suggesting that public acceptance of insults was contributing to the problem. She urged Ghanaians to recognise their collective power to influence political parties, stressing that politicians depended on the electorate and would respond if citizens made it clear that abusive conduct was unacceptable. “They will play the music as we want to dance,” she said, arguing that citizens had increasingly allowed politicians to dictate the tone of political discourse instead of using their influence to demand better standards.
She called on the public to stop supporting media platforms and social media personalities who repeatedly promote insults, saying a change in audience behaviour could signal that the Ghanaian public no longer tolerated such conduct. The communication scholar also urged Parliament to hold ministerial nominees accountable for their public conduct during vetting, including considering whether their behaviour set an appropriate example for Ghanaian youth. She said lawmakers should question nominees whose conduct undermined the standards expected of people entrusted with positions of responsibility, and consider such behaviour when deciding whether to approve them.
According to her, visible public opposition to controversial appointments could discourage future presidents from nominating individuals whose conduct was inconsistent with the expectations of public office. She warned that rewarding people who use insults coul… She said young people who witness individuals gaining recognition and political appointments through verbal attacks could come to regard such behaviour as a legitimate pathway to success.
Yeboah-Banin said political behaviours often began on university campuses, where student leaders could gain visibility and build connections with the country’s major political parties. Drawing on her experience as a former vice-president of Akuafo Hall at the University of Ghana, she said she had later realised that some of the student leaders she worked with were already aligned with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the New Patriotic Party (NPP). She argued that when individuals were noticed and elevated despite engaging in abusive conduct, it sent a signal to other young people that similar behaviour could help them secure political influence and appointments.
“Because for as long as it seems rewarding, young people would emulate that behaviour,” she said. Yeboah-Banin cautioned that the trend could spread beyond a few individuals, creating a political culture in which young people believed they had to use insults to become successful. She said the responsibility for changing this pattern extended beyond politicians to the wider public, which she argued had become too tolerant of abusive political discourse.
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