Very soon, Ghanaians will go to the polls to elect a successor to his Excellency, John Agyekum Kufour, whose two year term of office expires at the end of this year. The fourth Republican Constitution bars him from seeking a third four year term. There are a number of political parties whose flag bearers are vying for this enviable position, but it seems the candidates for the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress are the most serious contenders.
By the end of 2008, both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the national Democratic Congress (NDC) would have ruled for eight years apiece in this fourth Republic, not counting the eleven ignominious years of the military dictatorship of the PNDC, which metamorphosed to be the NDC. It must be recalled that the PNDC strongman, Flt. Lt. JJ Rawlings, who was the head of the repressive and atrocious PNDC military junta, turned the whole PNDC government machinery into a Political Party, with himself as the sole founder and owner, no challengers.
The recent vituperations by the former junta leader JJ “Yokegari†Rawlings on the campaign trail, deputizing for his anointed perennial presidential candidate, Prof. John Atta Mills should not come as a surprise to students of Ghana Politics. Here is an angry man who usurped power because he could not afford “yorke gariâ€. After his putsch, he lined up three former heads of state and other senior government officials and murdered them in cold blood for perceived wrong doing without giving them a fair and open trial.
Later on, he will come again, this time unleashing the worst kind of terror unimaginable on his fellow countrymen, the same people he says he had come to save. There were public whippings without cause, confiscation of assets of hard working people without cause, sale of state enterprises without accounting for the proceeds, arbitrary arrests, detentions and secret murders, bribery and corruption never seen before. No wonder, today, Rawlings is the single richest Ghanaian alive.
On December 7th 2008, Ghanaians will have a choice to make. Both the NPP and the NDC have records to run on and defend. In 2000, the NPP inherited a bankrupt economy left by the defeated NDC. By dint of hard work, we are all witnesses to the achievements of the NPP so far. To mention a few: 1. The National Health Insurance scheme 2. The school feeding program 3. The school capitation grant 4. The National Youth Employment Program 5. The Metro Mass Transit Buses 6. Free pre-natal care for all pregnant women 7. The Massive Construction of the country’s road network 8. Improvements in health, education infrastructure, good governance with freedom of speech, expression and many, many more.
In contrast, Mr. John Mahama, the running mate to Prof. John Atta Mills says there is no need to compare records. How funny and disingenuous. Leadership in the past is the best predictor of the future. Apart from their dismal performance in government for over nineteen years, the P/NDC’s biggest single problem is its hypocrisy. a. It talks about democracy while it stifled participation, freedom of the press and the judiciary. Dr.Obed Asamoah and others left the NDC because of lack of internal democracy. It banned free expression with violence and quelled dissent. b. It violated basic fundamental human rights while blathering about human rights. c. Claims to promote rule of law while scoffing at laws it considers inconvenient to them. d. To the Rawlings Corporation, it is illegal for hardworking people to acquire wealth, businesses but legal for them to steal and own state properties. e. The NDC divested many state institutions for peanuts leading to massive unemployment and poverty.
For the P/NDC, hypocrisy and lies are their bread and butter. They can lie between their teeth like nothing happened. To them, it is better to lie to the public than to have knowledge of the truth. It is the only political party in Ghana with a propaganda Secretariat. Truly, their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
It is almost election time, and all the political parties have intensified their campaigns. But how a politician campaigns tells you how he/she will govern. To the P/NDC and Mr. “BOOM†Rawlings, there is no positive record to run on and have decided to run away from their dismal and murderous past. At campaign stops, instead of telling Ghanaians what they will do if voted into power, there are blizzards of lies, attacks and insults on the person of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. These P/NDC people are the meanest kind of pimps, malignant conspirators, murderers, infidels, bribers, liars, thieves, etc. In their resolve to ruin or rule Ghana, the P/NDC has resorted to spin, deceit, smear and character assassination. Their hatred of the NPP knows no bounds, and is convincing in making the point that their leadership will say whatever they think will get them back to power.
To the P/NDC, telling the truth to Ghanaians and themselves are non existent. They have been intentionally dishonest with Ghanaians and intellectually dishonest with themselves. It is a program with the P/NDC operatives, under orders from JJâ€Yokegariâ€Rawlings, with weeks leading to December polls, to try and keep the country unstable by creating false propaganda to deceive the people, instill fear, teach tribal hatred so as to cause confusion and disaffection among the people. But this is not 1979, when Ghanaians followed him blindly and later, were sacrificed on the altar of greed for his own personal aggrandizement. Today, he is dealing with the horrors of reality, insanity, emotional torture and drug addiction.
There is no living Ghanaian guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than JJ Rawlings. His vituperations are a thin veil to cover up his savage crimes against humanity. I would entreat JJ to search his conscience, (if he has any), remind himself of the murders, abuses, bribery and corruption, etc. and when he has found them, will agree with all reasonable Ghanaians that he is the master of revolting barbarity and shameful moral hypocrisy.
On December 7 this year, Ghanaians should make the best choice of voting Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP to the Presidency to continue the good works of the current administration. It will be a disaster to vote for John Atta Mills who will cede power to JJ “Yokegari†Rawlings. The P/NDC, having been in political wilderness for the past eight years will turn Ghana into a one party dictatorial State. Remember Mr. Segbefia of the P/NDC, openly telling Ghanaians earlier this year that the P/NDC could have refused to hand over power in 2000, should send fears into the spines of all freedom loving Ghanaians. This tells what they will do if Ghanaians make the mistake to vote P/NDC back to power.
So my fellow brothers and sisters, come Sunday, let us make history by voting wisely for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and the New Patriotic Party.
EYE OSONO, EYE SORO HO !!!!!!!!
By Felix Gyabaa-Mensah Chairman, NPP-USA Cincinnati Chapter
