Will I not be 100% right to conclude that Ghanaians have witnessed numerous
unnecessary instances of official accusations of, and arrests for, "causing fear and
panic" in the year 2010? The until now confused and directionless NDC government in
place with her politicized police force is trigger-happy to invoke Article 208 under
the Ghana Constitution - "Causing fear and panic". The propensity, at which the
article is invoked - on trivialities, arouses suspicion of political persecutions
and the resolute determination by the Atta Mills' administration to intimidate
Ghanaians.
Ghanaians will recall that the indiscriminate citations of the article protuberantly
started with the case of Nana Darkwah, my own Kumawuman compatriot. Nana Darkwah had
opined on radio that Former President Togbe Avaklasu Jeremiah John Rawlings was in
all probability the author of the conflagration that gutted the Rawlings' house on
the night of 14th February 2010. Barely had Nana Darkwah expressed this personal
opinion when he was bundled by the police on orders, and at the signal crack of the
fingers of the notorious Kofi Adams, the Spokesperson for Togbe Avaklasu J.J.
Rawlings. The Ghana police force that is currently lopsidedly NDC-supportive,
absurdly without hesitation charged Nana Darkwah with "causing fear and panic" in
public. How can alleging that Rawlings set fire to his own residence cause fear and
panic to the public? If Nana Darkwah's allegation was as baseless as believed by
most of the NDC sympathisers who are quick to react but slow to
think, he could at worst be charged with libel on request by Rawlings. His claim
was nowhere near crime that is prosecutable by the State yet; the seemingly misfit
and oppressive NDC administration through their political opaque lenses shamelessly
saw him as a big time criminal and treated him as such. Anyway, the case in the end
collapsed like a pack of playing cards according as predicted in my published
articles in defence of the rule of law apparently infringed upon by the Atta Mills'
government.
In quick succession of the exhibition of the ignorance, biases and obviously loathed
politicization of the Ghana police, one Ato Dadzie, Amina Mohammed and another guy
in Kumasi were all arrested on same charge of causing fear and panic in public, just
to mention a few. In all these incidents where cautious investigations devoid of the
ongoing nonsensical applications of "fear and panic" were required, the police
blundered again and again to the amazement of many a discerning Ghanaians.
Is it not rather the government and the police that are causing "fear and panic" in
Ghana by their unreasonable arrests of those volunteering information - Amina for
example? To the NDC, instilling oppressive fear in the governed is political
correctness. This is epitomized by their lawless-inhered so-called foot-soldiers who
in many documented ways have inflicted acts of lawlessness on many Ghanaians
especially, those perceived as NPP members or sympathisers with impunity. Are they
not recompensed for their acts of lawlessness by the government? Did Atta Mills not
publicly order all his government Ministers to receive these foot-soldiers, listen
to their problems and resolve them? A good President would rather have requested of
his Ministers to find means to resolving the problems confronting the entire youth
of the nation but not specify that the individual problems of the foot-soldiers be
looked at and resolved. These are NDC for you with their policy
of segregation or divide and rule at its best.
Just last week, the NDC gurus led by Paul Victor Obeng, a classical corrupt entity,
headed off to Cape Coast. Their main agenda was to devise a stratagem to winning the
2012 national elections. I laughed my head off when I read about their intention. In
the midst of the NDC being obviously rudderless, the economic hardships confronting
the nation, the flagrant prevalence of insecurity, the great NDC strategists have
the shameless indecency to reconvene to discuss how best to win election 2012. What
a Ghanaian politician's short-sightedness in pursuit of their socio-economic
emancipation. Do the NDC take Ghanaians for fools? Their immediate concern is not
about addressing the current umpteen problems facing the nation but about how to
linger on as the ruling political party for many more years to come.
The NDC top brass are piling up pressure on Rawlings to eschew his waywardness which
may be a recipe for disaster to the NDC party come 2012. He is now being treated
like a bad boy who needs to be hit hard after refusing to listen - "if you don't
hear it, you will feel it" Rawlings is said to have realised how his yobbish
attitude has caused tensions within his own founded political party. Back to his
senses, he is now chastising his own wife for aspiring to contest President Mills
for the NDC's flag-bearer's slot for the year 2012. But will the obstinate wife
listen and stay away? We live to see. It must be noted that "Obstinacy is the cause
of the horns of the hornbill" The damage caused to Atta Mills by the Rawlingses is
only reparable if and only if, they will lick back their vomit. Let us see how this
arrogant couple will swallow their pride to say sorry to Fiifi Mills, the NDC, and
the nation.
I expect the NPP to win election 2012. Most Ghanaians are beckoning to the NPP to
come back saying, "San beware me me yere dadaa" But winning the election for the NPP
will be an uphill battle. I wish they don't condescend to their usual sloppy
complacency which attitude cost them election 2008.
Most Ghanaians find themselves at crossroads in their socio-politico-economic
emancipation. They look forward to the NPP to liberate them from the ongoing
political suppression and dehumanization under the current NDC administration.
Should the NPP fail to help them realise their dream, then they will say to the NPP,
"In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our
friends" - Martin Luther King Jnr.
Rockson Adofo
