Author: Kofi Agbeko || Political Analyst
Ghana’s democracy is bleeding—and the weapon of destruction is not the gun, but the smartphone. Each day, social media platforms are flooded with insults, fabricated stories, and malicious attacks against national leaders.
What should be platforms of debate and innovation have now become gutters of disrespect.
Let’s be clear: criticism is healthy, but insults are poisonous. Debate builds nations, but falsehood destroys them.
In our blind rage and reckless partisanship, many forget a simple truth: when you insult the President, a Minister, or any national leader, you are not merely attacking the individual—you are desecrating the very office they occupy.
Respect the office, even if you disagree with the occupant. The presidency is bigger than the President. Parliament is bigger than the Speaker.
Ministries are bigger than the men and women who hold them. When we drag these offices through the mud of insults today, what will be left tomorrow when our sons and daughters rise to occupy them? A nation that ridicules its own institutions is a nation paving the road to its own disgrace.
But let us not only point fingers at anonymous keyboard warriors. Some political figureheads are the very architects of this culture of insult.
They sponsor social media “foot soldiers” to rain abuse on opponents, circulate doctored videos, and peddle outright falsehoods—all in the name of partisan advantage.
To these so-called leaders we ask: what kind of legacy are you building? Today, your opponents are insulted on your behalf.
Tomorrow, when the political tables turn, the same venom will be directed at you. He who digs a pit of insults will one day fall into it.
It is shameful, hypocritical, and unpatriotic for leaders who should model integrity to instead fuel the fires of disrespect.
When leaders are insulted daily, authority loses its moral weight, and governance becomes a mockery. Insults deepen political divisions, turning citizens against one another instead of uniting us in nation-building.
The young generation, witnessing insults as the currency of politics, grow up believing that abuse is power and disrespect is boldness. What kind of future are we building when our national discourse is reduced to trading insults?
Capable men and women will avoid public office because they fear the torrent of insults that comes with it. Ghana loses great leaders before they are even born.
Enough is enough. Ghana must rise to cleanse this cancer. Strengthened cyber laws must punish deliberate online insults, harassment, and falsehood.
Let fines, bans, and even jail time remind abusers that freedom of speech is not freedom to destroy. Political parties must be held responsible when their foot soldiers engage in abusive campaigns.
Sanctions must fall on the very leaders who fund and enable these behaviors. Fake accounts must be unmasked, and citizens—especially the youth—must be educated on digital responsibility.
Think before you post: your words shape Ghana. Social media can either unite or destroy.
Imagine if every tweet, post, and WhatsApp message was used to promote innovation, showcase talent, debate policies with facts, or build businesses. Social media for nation-building, not nation-breaking—that is the Ghana we deserve.
An insult against leadership today is an insult against yourself tomorrow. The office you mock today is the same office you may occupy in the future—how dirty, how disrespected will it be when it finally becomes yours? Raise ideas, not insults.
Respect is not weakness; it is wisdom. Criticism is not insult; it is patriotism. Freedom of speech is not freedom to destroy; it is a responsibility to build.
The time has come for a national campaign against social media insults. Government, civil society, faith-based organizations, educators, and above all the youth must rise to reset the moral compass of our online space.
Let us silence the merchants of falsehood, expose the enablers, and reclaim social media—not as a gutter of abuse—but as a fountain of truth, respect, and progress.
By:
Kofi Agbeko
Political Analyst
