Feature Article : "The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com."

What political party would, in the midst of a hectic election campaign, reject out of hand, an invitation by a rival party to plan together for peace before, during and after the elections? It has to be a party that has determined that peaceful elections run counter to its political agenda.

To the bewilderment of all peace-loving people, both Ghanaian and the country's well-wishers in the rest of the world, the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected out of hand such an invitation dated October 3, 2008, from the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Peter Mac Manu, asking Dr Kwabena Adjei, his contemporary at the NDC, to join him at a meeting to be held under the auspices of reputable state institutions to plan for peaceful elections on Sunday.

The excuse given by the NDC's General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, for rejecting the invitation was that the party's leaders doubted the sincerity of the NPP National Chairman in extending the invitation, but offered no reasons to justify the doubt. Later, both he and other NDC officials claimed that they rejected the invitation because "there could be no peace without justice."

This, surely, is insanity of the worst kind. It is a claim that flies in the face of logic, as so aptly captured by the Ghanaian saying:
"Ye' nngyina nkrane mu nntutu nkrane" (You don't attempt to pluck soldier ants from your body while you are standing in the midst of a swarm). However, it is an observed trait among most of the NDC bosses to make their own determination of a matter and attempt to force others to accept it as a given. In their world, they do not countenance anybody other than themselves deciding anything - like what is unjust - or finding solutions to problems. Therefore, the question of sitting down with others in an atmosphere of peace, or to seek ways to promote peace, does not arise at all for NDC leaders.

It is a reasonable assumption to make that if the leaders of the NDC meant well, they would not have rejected an invitation to plan for peaceful elections. In fact one can deduce from certain of their utterances and their activities that peaceful elections would undercut their strategy for Election 2008.

The truth is that when the Chief of Okere said last September that "Ghana does not need a prophet from heaven to tell us that the NPP is going to win the elections," he was stating what all alert observers of the Ghanaian campaign had observed. At this stage of the national campaign, the overwhelming evidence points to an unassailable lead by the NPP countrywide, notwithstanding the fly, the deliberate efforts by vested interests to paint a rosy picture of the NDC's chances. The NPP is on course to win a massive "one¬touch" victory on Sunday.

This leaves the NDC with only illegitimate options to achieve its aim of returning to power. The party's leaders started by attempting to undermine the entire electoral process by claiming that the NPP was preparing to rig the elections. They also tried to demonize the Electoral Commission and attacked the neutrality of the security services. When these failed to fly due to the sophistication of Ghanaian voters, they sought to provoke violent conflict, hoping to take advantage of it to topple the government by coup.

The NDC was, apparently, encouraged to push hard at achieving its aim through these means because influential voices among the Ghanaian population remained silent. Thus, unrestrained, the NDC leaders have managed to force the country to the point where our peaceful way of life is seriously threatened. This confirms the point that when you do not act when things begin to go wrong, you end up facing an insoluble problem or situation, or you create for yourself another problem whose solution is very costly indeed.

It is the reason why voters should make Election 2008 NDC's swan song because it has been, and will continue to be, a menace to Ghana unless it is uprooted completely from this country's political landscape.

It is to the credit of all Ghanaians that, excepting the wild, immediate pre- and post-independence days when we, admittedly, were learning to school ourselves in the Westminster political system - with pardonably unrefined behaviour patterns - most of our political campaigns, have been relatively civil, precisely because we, as a people, are a demonstrably decent, law-abiding, and peaceful community.

Political campaigns, like the one we are engaged in at the moment, are meant for political parties to persuade voters to choose "our party", not the "other party or parties," because ours has better quality men and measures to deal with the nation's problems. Parties like the NPP that are led by people who are conscientious, well-meaning and capable, do this through a well-packaged policy document - the party's Manifesto - that meticulously and clearly states the party's programmes to be pursued when it wins power. This the party then sets about to sell to the electorate through advertisements, rallies and other means.

We have largely avoided the flagrant use of bellicose language and unrestrained, irresponsible behaviour -- that is, until our country was assailed by an affliction called Jerry John Rawlings.

As we have seen most graphically in this campaign for the 2008 elections, some parties offer to the voters, distortions and outright lies about other parties and, in some cases, threats of mayhem should they lose the election.

It is disturbing to observe that many Ghanaians are clearly dissembling in the face of the growing evidence that a rabid, nihilistic and power-drunk screwball and his minions are doing everything within their power to plunge our nation into chaos.

Rawlings's Inimical Legacy

From his time as Chairman of both the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) to his two term presidency with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the former Head of State has been a source of pain and suffering for most Ghanaians.

In an unprecedented lust for blood, Rawlings needlessly slaughtered a number of senior military officers, including three heads of state. He has since claimed that the bloodshed was to satisfy his other ranks supporters. However, as far back as his AFRC days, Rawlings was exposed as a man consumed by jealousy and envy and was, also, an unsurpassed con-man.

He is shown to possess a terrifically cruel nature: he heartlessly and fraudulently collected peoples' fifty Cedis notes for his own use, offering one of the most fatuous of excuses for an exercise that broke the hearts of practically everybody and led to the death of many poor Ghanaians who lost all their savings. He pummeled an old man, the late Vice President Kow Nkensin Ackaah, who was instrumental in getting the approval of Mr J.O.T. Agyemang for Rawlings to marry Nana Konadu Agyeman.

"Operations" ordered by Rawlings, and carried out by such notorious members of his special operations group as Amedikah, Azangodo, Gormelesio, Michael Jandu and numerous others, led to the death or disappearance of hundreds of Ghanaians, many of them picked up from their homes never to be heard of again. Through his "democratization of violence" doctrine, he made violence the preferred pastime of those sections of the Ghanaian population who delight in inflicting pain. Small arms he distributed to tailors, masons, journalists, lawyers, accountants, labourers and all manner of people are part of the arsenal of armed robbers who have made life so unpleasant today.

Even in his "benign" persona as a civilian President, Rawlings's ruthlessness found expression in many acts of brutality. For example, among his less brutal acts: a driver and his mate who crossed him on the airport road "died in custody" under mysterious circumstances. A taxi driver who did the same at Accra New Town was luckier; his vehicle was overturned and burnt.

He has thoroughly debased and badly lowered standards of education by his decision to tinker with the system he inherited. His assault on our culture has saddled our society with anew, largely, depraved value system. He kept all of us under curfew for three years for no really rational reason.

The litany of tormenting acts that Rawlings is associated with is endless. Just one other biting act: the national economy did not merely nose-dive as a result of the incompetent and corrupt management by Rawlings's three separate administrations; we were headed for a crisis of stupendous dimensions when the good people of Ghana, finally, managed to boot out Mr Rawlings.
 Continued    Source: N. Adu Kwabena-Essen

"The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com." To have your articles publish, please submit them to editor@modernghana.com.