Some of us were old enough in 1992 when the ban on partisan party politics was lifted in Ghana.
It was a crazy period. Crazy because many young people in Ghana heard the phrase "political party" for the first time. Many were confused about the meaning of the concept.
Until then, all some of us ever heard about a "party" was an event where one went to gather with other people in public to eat rice and soup and drink Fanta.
PNDC was in power with chairman Rawlings large and in-charge. When the ban was lifted, the PNDC was no more provisional. It metamorphosed into a national democratic congress NDC. The structures of the NDC were already on the ground for nineteen years during PNDC.
The National Patriotic Party which later became New Patriotic Party(NPP) however, had to create entirely new structures from the bottom up..they had to be wickedly creative.
Having been in opposition since the 70's, the elements who came together to form the NPP chose to adopt an incendiary tactic for mass organization and mobilization. This method had implications for our national security then, and still persist today.
The primary tactic adopted by the NPP in 1992 was to "touch base" with "aggrieved gates" or "minority factions" in every local traditional area. In other words, where ever the NPP found out that there was a power struggle in any local community - be it over chieftaincy, land, etc - what they did was to align themselves with the weaker party in the power struggle.
They didn't only align themselves with these minority aggrieved groups, they also mobilized and organized them along their common interests.
Throughout Ghana, from Bawku to Yendi, from Ga Mantse to Alavanyo and Nkonya, from Wa to Bimbila, the NPP cultivated and motivated aggrieved and minority groups to join their ranks with the promise of turning the "tables of power" of the various communities in favor of the aggrieved gates should NPP be voted into power.
This incendiary tactic largely worked for the NPP. Though in the minority from 1992, they succeeded in sustaining that "aggrieved base" for eight years until year 2000 when the tables of power turned in favor of the NPP and their various "aggrieved allies" throughout the nation.
And what did we see beginning in 2002? There was suddenly a resurgence of conflicts spearheaded by emboldened minority groups within various local communities throughout Ghana with the tacit endorsement of state machinery under President J.A Kufour.
Check it. The 2002 Yaa Naa's murder in broad day light in Yendi was supervised by Military officers under the command of President Kufour. His interior minister Alhassan Malik Yakubu is a native of Yendi and a member of the minority aggrieved gate in the Yendi chieftaincy conflict.
For eight years, the NPP and President Kufour could not find the Yaa Naa murderers. Of course, NPP could not find them. NPP are the murderers. In my books, if a crime of such a gargantuan magnitude is committed next to a military barracks, and the state is unable to arrest the culprits within the shortest possible time, it goes without saying that the state itself is the culprit.
In a word, the murder of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II was the fulfillment of a campaign promise of the NPP to murder him and instal a new overload from the "aggrieved rival gate". The murdered Dagbon King has still not been buried 'up till tomorrow'!
The people of Bawku lived peacefully under one overlord until the NPP took power. They turned the town into a war zone. They armed the aggrieved gate in the town and endorsed their impunity. They failed to arrest people who were riding motorbikes in town with guns hanging on their shoulders and shooting as and when they felt like. Today, natives of Bawku cannot even go home because of insecurity.
Men, for several years, can no longer ride motor bikes in Bawku town. Their freedom has been taken away for political expediency. Business has come to a halt in that commercial and border town.Thanks to the NPP, President Kufour and their incendiary tactics.
The NPP are pure machiavellian. For them, the ends justifies the means. If they have to murder to capture and maintain power, they will always do it. That's why they now say "all die be die".
It is little wonder, that the NPP now want to lie their way into power. Character assassinations is now their modus operandi. If the NPP wins power again, they will not assassinate characters, they will assassinate people.
All peace loving Ghanaians must think twice about ever allowing the NPP back to power. For if a so-called "gentle giant" had the temerity to murder for power, can we imagine what a war mongering desperado like Nana Akuffo Addo will do to capture and maintain power? His may be "ethnic cleansing" or "Genucide".
Amenga -Etego Akaabitono SaCut - The writer is a Ghanaian political journalist, political activist and ghost writer
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