Alas! The ‘Do or Die’ Rehearsal Has Started

THE SAGES say no matter how much you dislike the pig, you must give it credit for its prowess in lovemaking. Mr. John Mahama has been making some statements which are very true but some Ghanaians did not understand him. He once said Ghanaians are forgetful and short sighted which to me is very true. How could Ghanaians so soon forget the atrocities visited on them when the PNDC, led by the late Flt. Lt. Rawlings, the founder of the NDC, was in power?. The caning of women between their thighs, the slapping and drilling of respected chiefs in public, the forceful disappearances of more than two hundred and sixty full-blooded Ghanaians and the 1983 famine, etc., have all been forgotten by Ghanaians.

In the run-up to the 2020 general election, Mr. Mahama told the people of the Volta Region that 'when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can match the NDC because the party has a track record of violence'. And that too, is very correct. The NDC, which is an offshoot of the PNDC, was born out of a violent revolution and the tradition goes on. The truth is that the NDC has no room for any intellectual brainstorming on issues. They result to violence to settle matters and the spilling of innocent blood is what makes them happy.

A few months ago, Mr. Mahama went to Techiman in the Bono East Region to visit and console family members of the three NDC supporters who were killed when the NDC stormed the Bonokyempem Hall where the results of the Parliamentary Election were being collated. The NDC leadership in Techiman had gone to a local FM station to call on the supporters of the party to arm themselves and storm the collation center because they had the belief that the EC was going to change the results. The NDC supporters, mainly from the Techiman Zongo, armed themselves to the teeth and stormed the center and in the ensuing violence, three of them were alleged to have been shot by the security forces in self defence.

When Mr. Mahama went to Techiman to commiserate with the bereaved family, one thought he could have acted like a statesman, having been the Vice President and President of Mother Ghana before. But Mr. Mahama did not show any conduct comparable to that. Rather, after visiting the family members of the fallen supporters of the NDC, he seized the opportunity to speak on the same radio station where the leadership of the party in Techiman had gone to invite the supporters to storm the collation center to broadcast to the people of Techiman, and for that matter Ghanaians. Listen to him: “The NPP should be warned that the 2024 General Election is not going to be child's play. It is going to be do or die affair and we are ready for that. Nobody should take the NDC for granted,” the Osama Bin Laden of Ghana politics has spoken and so shall it come to pass.

Last week, a group of NDC supporters organised a press conference to express their displeasure at the way the incumbent Bono East Regional Chairman of the party was undermining the immediate Parliamentary candidate of the 2020 elections. Another group of the same party also organised themselves to confront the first group with machetes, cuddles and some sharp implements. The result was a bloodbath. Skulls were crushed and limps were cut like the way the butcher cuts cow meat. As at the time of filing this piece, one person was still in coma following a very serious cutlass wounds he sustained during the madness. Coming events cast their shadows. The rehearsal of the 'do or die' mantra has just started. Thankfully, it started from the home of the NDC and that is good. Call it a taste of their own bitter medicine and you will not be far from right.

Ghanaians are asking: How do we confront this 'do or die' threat to the relative peace and tranquility that we are enjoying? A political party which professes to be a democratic congress is calling for violence to settle issues concerning election and on the prowl. What Ghanaians should remember is that the NDC supporters are the heirs of the revolutionary cadres who held the country at ransom years ago. Their ideology is to sacrifice human life to serve their radical visions. The revolutionaries who served the Rawlings junta killed people not to only end lives but to disrupt and end a way of live. Many of these cadres who killed, maimed and destroyed the lives of many Ghanaians are still alive and serving the NDC. With every atrocity they commit, they hope that Ghanaians will grow fearful and succumb to their whims and caprices.

They stand against majority of Ghanaians because a greater number of Ghanaians stand in their way. By abandoning every value except the will to power, they will continue to follow that path till they achieve their aim to misrule the country again. They did it to Ghanaians for eleven good years. They promised Ghanaians probity and accountability but at the end of the day, they never accounted to anyone and neither did they probe their regime which milked the nation dry. They have perfected in the art of bullying the citizenry to achieve their aim. We must not be deceived by their pretences to being democrats. The 'do or die' mantra should serve as a notice to all Ghanaians. We are not safe with Mahama and his desperate goons lurking in the bush. The watchword should be vigilance. This is my story. This is my song. Those who have ears should listen.

BY Eric Bawah