Ballot “Police”

“But here is the shocking part…The unwillingness of governments of the Fourth Republic to publicly condemn, despise, deny and disband these rampaging party youth military organizations is a tacit endorsement of their illegitimacy. This is clearly so because some of these leaders owe their own legitimacy not to the Ghana Police, but to raucous party militia.”

Election Day gallops closer and closer, and so does the credibility of outstanding electoral violence. Somehow, Covid19 and its atrocious effects on men’s pockets seem to have eclipsed all other incendiary matters, relegating them to the back burner of national discussions as issues of bread and butter take center stage on the list of national priorities.

In the meantime, party myrmidons, foot soldiers, loose talkers, militant wings, fear mongers, atmosphere manipulators, youth formations, gunfighters, and “die harders” intensify their secret mobilizations away from the national eye ─ as they get ready for the showdown of all showdowns.

COVID-19 may have spared us as the chills of an electioneering campaign of insults, retribution, and threats of vendetta and mass mobilizations. For this, may COVID-19 be praised, for once in our generation, the campaign season seems to be enjoying some semblance of serenity and sanity, even satiety, truth be told.

But the cost of COVID-19 to national security, specific to electioneering could be cataclysmic. As the fight against COVID-19 takes center stage in our national security architecture, activities of known militant groups associated with the NPP and NDC are afoot in vigor, momentum, and hardiness, mobilizing to die for their masters.

The variations in their ferocious description is noticeable, but their militant intent is as clear as sunlight, for they ready themselves with enthusiasm to pounce on the foe like a swift bulldog at the first command of its master!

You name them…….Eastern Mambas, Invisible Forces, Azorka Boys, Bolga Bulldogs, The Hawks, Delta Forces, Kandahar Boys, Bamba Boys, Aluta Boys, Nima Boys, Salifu Eleven, Zongo Caucus, Mahama Boys, Basuka Boys, Badariba, Veranda boys, Bindiriba, Tohazie, Sese Groups, Rasta Boys, Bukurisung, Pentagon, Gbewaa Youth, Al Quaeda, Nato Forces, 66 Bench, Al Jazeera, Nana Addo Fun Club, Bugri Nabu Fan Club, John Mahama Fun Club, and so on and so forth!

How these militant youth groups have flourished under our Fourth Republican dispensation remains a colossal marvel. Good governance and political legitimacy which seems is the bedrock of democracy has its own policing mechanism, different from all these motley, disorderly amalgamation of militant party apparatchiks and hangers-on, self-elect to police our elections.

But here is the shocking part. These groups have flourished under the gracious supervision of elected governments, who lend them credibility by their overt and covert encouragement. The unwillingness of governments of the Fourth Republic to publicly condemn, despise, deny and disband these rampaging party youth military organizations is a tacit endorsement of their illegitimacy. This is clearly so because some of these leaders owe their own legitimacy not to the Ghana Police, but to raucous party militia.

These land mine of political conflagrations have been lying dormant on our political conscience for many years, awaiting a little spark to ignite. Each time we came close to phenomenal explosions, God intervened by the loud prayers of the church. But now that Covid19 seems to have silenced the courageous prayers of the church, who will save Ghana on December 7th?