Halt That Vicious Circle

A vicious circle is said to be a self-propagating disadvantageous situation, in which a solution leads to another problem, whose solution, in turn, leads back to the first problem in a more severe form. So it happened in 2009, when the NDC won the general elections of 2008. Identified NPP activists were openly attacked; some […]

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A vicious circle is said to be a self-propagating disadvantageous situation, in which a solution leads to another problem, whose solution, in turn, leads back to the first problem in a more severe form.

So it happened in 2009, when the NDC won the general elections of 2008. Identified NPP activists were openly attacked; some were evicted from their places of abode; some were removed from their duty posts, and some were forced out of public buses. Some had their properties seized, and that included the seizure of the current president’s private SUV.

Need I add that what was due political appointees were denied them? So was the sad situation, where people manning the public places of convenience, as well those at duty post at toll booths were chased out and their places occupied.

The NDC Northern Regional Minister pitched camp in the office of the Northern Regional Minister and stayed put until a substantive Regional Minister was appointed into office.

In early 2008, the Ghana Police Service advertised for personnel to be recruited. This exercise went on smoothly in accordance to legal/constitutional laid down procedures, and by March or so, the new personnel were at post. In 2009, those police personnel were discharged from the service, they smelled too much of NPP.

The ministries reported rampant transfers of personnel known or suspected to be opposition activists. Those were difficult days to be NPP.

Come 2016, the NDC was wildly rejected in the polls, and NPP came back to power.

Suddenly, post-elections violence started again, with the heat turned on the NDC. Some youth, alleged to be NPP, had intensified their search-and-substitute operations, aimed at removing personnel serving at toll booths, public places of convenience, and other government/state institutions which were deemed to be NDC.

The story broke that youth, believed to be NPP activists and members of the Invisible Forces, stormed a vital and sensitive installation of no less a place than the Passport Office, demanding to take over security there.

This is absurd, to say the least, considering the breach of security in such a high security zone. Gladly, it was alleged that the NPP acting Organiser, Mr. John Boadu, talked the youth out of whatever intentions they had, and sanity prevailed.

It must be well noted that in this case the NPP hierarchy brought about sanity, unlike those days in 2009, when the NDC youth broke lose all across the country. Those were the days that some Ga youth, urged on and led by Nii Lante Vandepuiye and some other top NDC gurus, drove ex-President J.A. Kufuor out of an office he was constitutionally allowed to occupy.

With the good news that the NPP youth were under control, there were some other installations and institutions invaded and occupied by the youth. Another high security destination, the Tema Port, was occupied by some youth. Tamale was also under invasion, as some youth took over the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and youth Employment Agency (YEA) offices.

It can be assumed that some hooligans could take advantage of the current transition dispensation, and go wild to commit crimes in the name of vengeful politics. These hooligans could come from any camp, NDC or NPP, or even floaters, and with evil minds choose to go for broke and make it seem to be political motivated.

This is where I will ask that the state security apparatus must be more professional in tackling this issue, and make sure that more investigations are conducted to uncover those behind these crimes.

Having said this, I will, however, plead with all NPP youth to stay out of trouble. It does not pay to go on vengeful sprees and create uncomfortable situations for other Ghanaians, including members of the NDC.

Very Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, the Catholic Archbishop of Accra, had this to say about the need to turn the other cheek. He made this statement to some youth way back in the 80s. He went like this: “When someone hits you and you hit back, most likely, two things could happen. First, you might hit him harder than he did to you, and he might say that he did not hit you that hard, so he will demand his pound of flesh.

Or you might hit him softer than he did, and you will decide to go for a second shot to square up. Both situations will become unacceptable to either of you, and there will be more give and take.”

Yes, it is true that the NPP suffered a lot under NDC hooligans during JEAM’s rule. One cannot forget bye-elections which resulted in the Chriponi shootings, the Akwatia harassments, and the mowing down of youth in Atiwa by Auntie Anita Desooso, the NDC National Women Organiser, who drove her SUV over the youth sitting-in around ballot boxes protecting their votes. In fact, this was after the Azorka boys were allowed access and full protection by the police to bully the innocent and peace loving citizens of Atiwa, basically to have the opportunity to change the votes.

One would want to go all out to avenge such barbaric acts, however, in the end, we shall create problems which can never be resolved, since it could develop into a vicious circle, very difficult to break.

Calling on NDC members to go all out to defend themselves, and to pay violence for violence, as urged by NDC top gurus, could aggravate the already bad situation, especially, if it turns out that the NPP youth are not involved in this carnage. Ideally, the security agents must be allowed to resolve this.

As a nation, we need to look at this holistically, and find a lasting solution.

I will suggest that the role of employing those to man the toll booths and public places of convenience must be assigned to the private sector. In order to have youth of all political divides feed into this, I will further suggest that the employment is made based on decile form of sharing from the percentage of votes won by each party in the constituency where the job is located. So if a party gets, say 25% of votes, it must receive between 20% and 30% of the jobs allocated, based on mutual agreement.

Also these jobs must have a four-year tenure, beginning from the year after the President is sworn in. This will breed sanity in the transfer of posts, especially when it does not take place during those heavy days of post-election climates.

Also, when each political party knows that it has youth at these posts, any decision to use violence to remove them will be thought of twice.

At this juncture, I will highly commend John Boadu in talking the Invisible Forces out of the Passport Office. It was a highly responsible act, which protected the integrity of Ghana. However, more needs to be done. There should be dialogue on this matter with the NDC hierarchy, and also allowing the security forces to be on the high alert to nip any such attempt in the bud. What the NDC could not do, this NPP government must be seen to be doing.

I vividly remember a festival of gratitude after the Homowo, where the Ga traditional elders and priests go to commercial areas where people render gratitude unto them with gifts freely given. It was called Ayeeekoo.

Unfortunately, some youth hooligans took over and went on looting sprees in the markets and other commercial places, taking what they want without waiting to be given. Traders lost not only wares and produce, but daily sales as well. The traditional council sat together and resolved to cancel that festival of gratitude.

One could imagine if this festival is allowed to stay to this day and age. It could turn bloody with lots of casualties.

We must not wait to see this quadrennial acts of hooliganism develop into a full scale status, which could one day reduce this country into a violent conflict area.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

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