A party foot soldier in the Ghanaian political parlance can be described as the grass root supporters of a political party who are mostly unemployed or seasonally employed youth. This phenomenon did not only become resonant in our politics when President Mills and the NDC assumed office, but the NPP had their dose of it in 2001. It is however unfortunate the NPP have ceaselessly ascribed party foot soldiers as an exclusive hegemony of the NDC.
The youth who had given their unflinching support to the party—NDC, started demanding for jobs and other freebies from government with the assertion that, they’ve been starved for eight years under NPP. This scenario led to the seizure and confiscation of public toilets and other para-statal institutions by these foot soldiers. The NPP was busily making political capital out of the activities of these foot soldiers forgetting that in 2001, these same events were witnessed when they assumed office.
The NPP might have a different terminology for their grass root supporters either than foot soldiers however; this does not preclude them from joining the NDC and the other political parties in streamlining the activities of these foot soldiers. The concept has now become a generic albatross oscillating in all political traditions in Ghana and needs a collective strategy for its management in lieu of the rather partisan approach assumed by the NPP.
Unless the NPP is graciously satisfied with their place in opposition which they are good at, many of these occurrences will conspicuously afflict them which they would find difficult to solve when given the mandate to rule again. It will be in their best interest to get this problem discontinued or look at winning political power as a utopian paradise. Are they going to perform magic to satisfy all their teeming supporters when they come to power? Absolutely unattainable, so to speak. Is there any symbiotic relationship between the activities of foot soldiers and the infamous all-die-be-die comment emanating from the flag bearer of the NPP? A close examination would definitely reveal no correlation between the two and it is completely hypothetical and should not warrant any acceptance as a defense mechanism. It is very unfortunate for the NPP flagbearer to have attempted defending his record time ethnocentric and war-laden all-die-be-die comment in Ho, the Volta Regional capital by calling on the president to rather stem the activities of NDC foot soldiers.
The president as the security chief of Ghana made no mistake by asking the security services to be high alert for anyone who may want to foment trouble under the pretext of the all-die-be-die comment. Nana Addo may not mean to incite NPP supporters per his comment, but we all know that party supporters are always triggered spontaneously by comments like this to cause mayhem. It is even more worrying when such awful comments are traceable to persons in the calibre of Nana Addo, a personality that is widely and purportedly touted as the citadel of democracy, rule of law, good governance and human rights. Is it not therefore bizarre to reconcile the above accolades with the NPP leader? Certainly yes! Many Ghanaians including the writer of this piece are no longer ambivalent as to whether Nana indeed made such unpalatable comment. Commentary from highly placed NPP big-wigs suggests that the infamous comment from Nana Addo was well rehearsed; calculated and executed according to plan which for me is regrettable.
The only honourable thing the NPP presidential candidate can judiciously do is to humbly apologise to the good people of Ghana and continue to stay in the good books of his admirers. The issue has reached knee jerking stage with the printing of T-shirts boldly embossed, Action Year? All-Die-Be-Die. Highly respected NPP members are seen wearing the supposed T-shirt to the utter dismay of civil society and the religious fraternity. Please Nana, frantically stop the proliferation of these T-shirts to save your hard-earned reputation and that of the NPP.
When president Mills slipped during the state of the Nation Address by failing to acknowledge the presence of former president Kufuor and the chief justice, he remorsefully apologized and that is the beauty of democracy and statesmanship. Even it gives us more hope and trust that Ghana will never fall, considering the invitation of former president Kufour to the castle by president Mills to discuss matters of state interest.
How can one therefore juxtapose the current Mills-Kufuor relationship with the all die-be-die comment? Mills is an ivory-tower of peace just as his predecessor and the two contending political parties NDC-NPP must immediately get acquainted with this reality and stop the division. The summary of all this is that, Ghana is bigger than either of these political parties.
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