{
  "id": 18326953,
  "title": "The Inconvenient Truth: When parties take turns winning while the nation keeps losing",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/the-inconvenient-truth-when-parties-take-turns-winning-while-the",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-05T15:00:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
    "slug": "myjoyonline-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/the-inconvenient-truth-when-parties-take-turns-winning-while-the-nation-keeps-losing/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In political systems, the fierce rivalry between parties can lead to a situation where the nation's progress is treated as an electoral threat. This has resulted in democracy becoming a relay race, with each party passing the baton while the nation remains stagnant. The bill, as usual, is presented to ordinary citizens and future generations. The issue arises when two political parties sit in the same aircraft, one in the cockpit and the other in the cabin, eagerly awaiting their turn at the controls. While the pilots make mistakes and decisions that deserve criticism, a few passengers secretly hope for turbulence to discredit whoever is flying and feel disappointed when the ride is smooth. The pilots, preoccupied with refuting their critics, neglect warnings about the engines' condition. The nation, the government in the cockpit, the opposition in the cabin, citizens in economy class, and the economy itself holding everyone aloft, becomes an absurd situation. The NyansaKasa observation, \"only a confused passenger celebrates the pilot’s failure while forgetting that both are traveling in the same aircraft,\" highlights this absurdity. The economy does not carry a party card, and political parties emerge to present competing visions of national progress, yet competition can turn into hostility. The scrutiny of setbacks becomes essential, but there is a moral difference between exposing failure to correct it and privately welcoming failure for electoral gain. Each party should manage its own infrastructure, such as electricity grids, hospitals, and currencies, to ensure that citizens experience the consequences of their chosen party's decisions. Opposition is crucial for democracy as it exposes wrongdoing, challenges weak policies, and provides alternatives. However, the disagreement can sometimes turn into an incentive for the nation to stumble. A good idea may be resisted because its success would benefit the governing party, while a proposal from the opposition may be rejected simply because accepting it would look like a defeat. The repeated proposal of the same idea, regardless of the party proposing it, reflects the nation's dependence on political ownership. Continuity is vital for industrialization, infrastructure development, and education reform, but excessive polarization hinders this progress. When an incoming government judges an inherited project solely based on its political parentage rather than its economic merits, the nation pays twice - once for starting the project and again for abandoning it. The 11,886 uncompleted federal government projects in Nigeria, requiring an estimated 7.78 trillion naira to complete, exemplify this issue, along with the Ajaokuta steel complex, which has stood idle for decades. Continuity is essential for long-term development, as seen in Singapore, South Korea, and Botswana's successful stewardship of their respective wealth. These countries understood the importance of long-range planning, institutional steadiness, and consistent application of regulations, contracts, and institution competence, regardless of who wins the elections.",
  "summary": "When political rivalry grows so fierce that a country's progress is treated as an electoral threat, democracy becomes a relay race in which the baton is passed faithfully from party to party while the nation itself never leaves the starting line. The bill, as always, is sent to ordinary citizens and to generations not yet born.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}