'Parallels being drawn between now and June 4, '79; humans can't block change' – Nketia

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has warned that parallels are already being drawn between Ghana’s current political atmosphere at what pertained prior to the June 4, 1979 uprising.

Speaking at the 41st-anniversary of the uprising in Accra, Mr Asiedu Nketia said: “In democracies, elections constitute the main form of accountability to the people who gave leaders power at the time of elections and in subsequent elections, the leaders will account for how they have used the power and if it is the wish of the masses, they continue”.

“If, in the opinion of the masses, the leadership has abused the power, then they have the right to replace them and put in place a new set of leadership. So, any democracy in which the main means of accountability is blocked, then that democracy is headed for trouble”, he warned.

According to him, “We saw it in the June 4th [uprising]. There were conditions precedent which necessitated the uprising on June 4. Other speakers have spoken about the broken economy and I’ll like to add that the nation had a government that had actively blocked all means of peaceful change and as it has been said by earlier philosophers, change is the only constant in nature”.

He continued: “So, human beings cannot block change but it is up to us to direct change to be either peaceful or violent. It has also been said that those who block peaceful means of change are surely inviting violent ones. This is the law of nature. And, so, we’ll do well to learn the laws of nature and try to operate by them as a country if we need to move forward”.

Giving some historical background to his warning, Mr Asiedu Nketia said: “Those who didn’t know, the Acheampong-Akuffo administration at that time blocked all means of changing the circumstances that Ghanaians were living in”, adding: “They were fully aware of the frustrations but they decided to hang on to power”.

“At some point, they fabricated a concept called Union Government and tried to ask the opinion of people whether we wanted Union Government or not”, he noted.

“The referendum that was to facilitate that opinion was also rigged and, so, when they rigged the election, they thought that they had power and they pretended to give us voice, then they rigged that voice, too, and pronounced themselves as being in power because of the wishes of Ghanaians”, he recalled, noting: “It didn’t stop the change because nothing stops change. May 15, 1979, came where the frustrations of Ghanaians began to be let out. Again, those who were in power were adamant”.

“They thought that change can be stopped by brute force. So, when the leader of the revolution was arrested, as has been recounted by previous speakers, he said that: ‘Leave my men alone and deal with me’. And if you eliminate one JJ Rawlings, you’ll have thousands and thousands of JJ Rawlingses coming up. In other words, he was saying in parables that he is not the problem; the people who are trying to speak out are not the problem. The problem is the rotten society. That something needed to be done to rescue society”.

Mr Nketia advised that: “So, as we commemorate June 4, we should go back, look at the situation that led to June 4th and learn lessons from June 4th, otherwise we’ll be doomed to repeat June 4th. So, all of us, who are happy and willing to protect the democracy, we must speak up and do something about the disease that is affecting the democracy. That is the only way we can save this democracy”.

He said “some courageous people are speaking. And, again, the power that be, thinking that those who are advising are the problem, have started using the same intimidation and the methods they applied earlier on, which did not stop June 4th. Are we not learning lessons from our history?”

“I want to use this platform to call on all well-meaning Ghanaians that this is the time to speak up because already people are drawing parallels between what is happening now and what happened prior to May 15th and June 4th.

“But we can save our democracy but the only way we can save our democracy is to speak up and stop the bad things, otherwise, whoever does things the same way they have been done in the past and expect different results, is certainly not correct upstairs.

“So, let us learn lessons from our history and so we can change the course of our future. Some other big opinion leaders have decided to be quiet for fear of intimidation but this is the time where you have to get up and be counted as a true patriot who wants to save the democracy we are in and to shape a future that will help us avoid a June 4th scenario because we cannot keep going forward and going back", he added.