The coup enthusiasts solipsism, the irrational tribunal system, and human rights abuses: Despotism or democracy?

Let us remind ourselves that the National Democratic Congress(NDC) is a progeny of truculent coup d’états, and therefore it is understandable if the party loyalists do not have a soft spot for democracy.

Some of us, regrettably, witnessed the squeamishly ugly events during the coup days of the NDC founders amid the irrational and ostensibly ludicrous tribunal system that mainly targeted the political opponents of the P/NDC regimes.

It is against such background that some of us, who were old enough to have witnessed the revoltingly ugly scenes back then, are not jumping for joy over the idiosyncratic introduction of the dowdy and incommodious tribunal system once again in Ghana.

It has been well-stencilled that in their desperate attempt to hold on to their illegitimate power, the founders of the NDC ghoulishly set up various paramilitary organs such as People’s Defence Committee (PDC), the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO), which was popularly known as the Militia, and the Workers Defence Committee (WDC), where the last two organs were later reorganised and renamed as the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), whose collective mandate was to defend the revolution by hook or by crook.

The PDCs and the WDCs (Workers Defence Committees) had their own courts(tribunals) and meted out justice according to no established legal procedures[Amnesty International, 1983).

It is with the deepest regret to venture to state that innocent citizens lost their inherent dignity and human rights in the days of the hopeless coup d’états.

Unfortunately, in recent times, we have been witnessing human rights abuses amid the arrests and detentions of the NPP operatives over free speech and freedom of opinion.

When the coup enthusiasts (the founders of NDC) burst onto the scene, they went haywire, set up tribunals and barbarically tortured and murdered people with minimal offences.

I hate to admit though, but the fact remains that there is nothing wrong for a group of people to come together and identify themselves as the coup enthusiasts, or the ideologues of transparency, probity and accountability.

However, it is hypocritical and somewhat deceitful if a group of people who claim to be the exponents of such ethos turn around and commit the same crimes they inexorably preach against.

It has, however, been documented that when the coup enthusiasts (the founders of NDC) burst onto the scene, they went berserk and tempestuously tortured and murdered people with more than two vehicles.

But as I write, the same coup enthusiasts are hypocritically in possession of not less than two vehicles per household. How deceitful?

My dear reader, you may take my word for it, the vast majority of house owners were punished severely for having more than one toilet facility in their households.

But the last time I checked, the vast majority of the so-called revolutionaries have uncountable toilet facilities in their luxurious mansions. How pathetic?

Besides, the founders of the NDC unabashedly exhibited their communist ideals by going into war with business men and women in the country.

The founders of NDC, regrettably, tortured and murdered innocent business men and women, many of whom were bizarrely accused of legally borrowing meagre sums of money from banks to support their businesses.

Strangely, albeit veracious, the so-called revolutionaries who repugnantly collapsed innocent peoples businesses now own business outlets all over the place. How unfair?

Some innocent business men and women, through the tribunal system, were abhorrently humiliated and their businesses were either seized or destroyed by the despotic NDC founders.

Worst of all, through the ludicrous tribunal system, billions of cedis (in 50 cedi denominations) were impertinently and capriciously seized from ordinary Ghanaians, albeit without a trace. How bizarre?

The NDC founders, ironically, replaced our educational system with that of a communist model, while deceitfully turned around and sent their children abroad to study in what they saw as a superior educational system.

In their attempt to get rid of alleged sleazes and corruption, many Ghanaians were unjustifiably murdered or tortured mercilessly for apparent infinitesimal offences.

The human rights violations were so cruel and rampant to the extent that many citizens seized the slightest opportunity and left the country after the 1992 general elections.

But, what incensed some of us so much is that despite their much touted mantra of transparency, probity and accountability, we have been witnessing so much scheming guiles, sleazes and corruptions in the successive NDC administrations. Who are they trying to deceive?

Astonishingly, the successive NDC government officials have been committing the same crimes (bribery and corruption) their party founders killed many innocent people.

As I reiterated elsewhere, there is absolutely nothing wrong for any individual to tag himself/herself as a proponent of transparency, probity and accountability. But it is somewhat hypocritical and deceitful when a group of people who claim to be the exponents of such ethos would then turn around and dip their hands into the national purse as if there is no tomorrow.

After all, aren’t the NDC apparatchiks claiming to be the exponents of transparency, probity and accountability?

So why are they refusing to practice what they have been relentlessly preaching to us all these years?

Are they wolves in sheep’s clothing?
Indeed, it is an illustrative case of false prophets, who are relentlessly nagging their followers that ‘it is written in the Holy Book that thou shall not steal’, while they turn around and dip their hands into the church offerings bowl as if the judgement day will never come.

We should not lose sight of the fact that there is mutually reinforcing relationship between democracy and human rights. In effect, democracy and human rights are inseparable. Therefore, one cannot claim to be practising democracy without giving the due attention to the inalienable human rights of the denizens and citizens.

These values are encapsulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which enshrines a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies (UN).

Suffice it to stress that democracy deficits, weak institutions and poor governance are among the main challenges to the effective realization of human rights.

Interestingly, however, democratic governance stresses the role of citizens without any hindrance or exclusion — in moulding their human growth and the human advancement of societies.

Needless to say, individuals can only make such contributions when their collective potential is harnessed through the enjoyment of human rights.

K. Badu, UK.
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