Election 2008: NDC's swan song

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.

This man and his followers, comprising mostly the coterie of obsequious, incompetent but ironically unmitigatedly arrogant men and women, want a return to power to continue this unfinished business. In their campaign toward the December 2008 elections, they have given clear indications that they are desperately power hungry people and that they have intentions about our country and its wellbeing that are not only not honourable but decidedly evil. They have served clear notice that their single-minded pursuit of the power they lost in 2000 will brook no let or hindrance or scruple.

So far, the behaviour of most Ghanaians does not show that we are seriously worried about the language and behaviour of the NDC and its "founder and leader". Our civil society leaders choose not to take notice of this clear threat that looms; when they decide to know, they prefer to resort to dissembling or "double-speak" instead of acting forcefully against it.

A people with a habit of shunning decisive action, are courting trouble: tragedy even! By remaining unconcerned about the NDC intentions, we are giving them free hand to continue their mischievous game, which encourages the lunatic fringe, of which that party is generously endowed, to do something damaging to this country.

It is plain that the NDC leadership will accept nothing short of complete destruction of the country should they lose the elections ¬as they surely will! Some, including the NDC' Presidential Candidate, have clearly stated this and have threatened to unleash "the Kenya and Zimbabwe experiences" on Ghana. This should ginger all of us to make this week's elections the NDC's swan song.

Unacceptable means to win power

Rawlings was being prophetic when he warned his followers before the 2000 elections that their party was doomed to stay in opposition probably for ever if they lost in that year. He foresaw the superior governance, the better management of the country's economy and other positive acts of the NPP that will win over the people of Ghana permanently. Thus, the NDC lost this year's elections when they lost power in 2000.

In fact, NDC leaders have never had faith in themselves and do not believe in their ability and capability to win free and fair elections. They came to power when the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) transformed itself into a party; they have survived on the myth of Rawlings's popularity which they used to steal two elections - 1992 and 1996.
The defining facts of Rawlings's claimed popularity were the shameful exploitation of incumbency, including actually using state funds and resources, massive rigging and the ruthless use of intimidation and other forms of violence during the 1992 and 1996 elections. In 2000 and 2004, the NPP won victories because it effectively neutralized the incumbency exploitation, rigging, the intimidation and violence to expose the so-called Rawlings popularity for the myth it has always been.

Now, as they no longer are in control of state resources, or in the position to use the security agencies to intimidate the opposition, they are trying to achieve their objective through one of two ways: discredit the elections by attacking the integrity of the Electoral Commission which has and which enjoys very high reputation worldwide in order to force the Kenya scenario on Ghanaians, or provoking civil strife in order to snatch power through the barrel of the gun - as they did in their previous PNDC manifestation.

There has always been, and will continue to be, tension every election year because tensions are inevitable in any competitive situation - like an election. Granted that the stakes in this year's election are so very high, there is a clearly frightening increase in tension. This is not due merely to the fact that all the political parties are approaching the 2008 elections with a determination to win. Rather, it is because of the concentration of the NDC leaders on a campaign of vilification, of false claims and allegations and the issue of threats and actual acts of violence perpetrated by their followers.

They not only are they hurting grievously in opposition, they are aware that defeat is almost certain to result in the complete destruction of their party.

Thus, they have more to lose, the leaders have elevated the elections to a do-or-die affair, and have turned the campaign into a contest in which there is no place for ethics and values. The irony here is that the NDC leaders' resort to vituperation, attacks on the person of opponents - particularly, the NPP candidate - and threats of violence, the NDC is reaping the peoples' ire, not their approval.
The saddest part of all this is that a man who should command respect, at least, for his academic achievements, is debasing himself in being party to all these. Many people are left wondering every time they hear Prof John Evans Atta-Mills utter some inanity, makes a clearly illogical and, oftentimes, untruthful claims or engages in an action that one expects from some of the NDC's Azorka boys.

The advertisements about him are often laughable. Take the claims that he is a leader who can be trusted, free from corruption, is sincere and would fight corruption. Just an example or two expose these to be mere campaign rhetoric.

Prof. Atta-Mills was Acting Chairman of Accra Hearts of Oak football club when Shamo Quaye was transferred to a club in Europe. When the player's $50,000 share of the transfer fee got to him, it was short by $5,000. Prof Atta-Mills' role in the missing $5,000 was covered up by a Committee set up to investigate it. So, this uncorrupt, trustworthy, caring man helped a poor semi-literate but skillful young player to his grave through as yet to be explained means.

Also, one expects that a lawyer like Prof Atta-Mills would do the lawyerly thing by allowing the law to take its course when somebody is accused of a crime. But the NDC Presidential Candidate encouraged his party goons to besiege a court house when the wife of Mr Jerry John Rawlings and some of her associates were charged under the criminal laws of the land.

The truth is that NDC leaders, including Prof Atta- Mills, take their inspiration from the "founder and leader", Mr Jerry John Rawlings, former President of Ghana, and his colleagues of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC).

Rawlings's world view is chaos, destruction and despair. He savours others' suffering and is happiest when he is inflicting pain. He burst on the national political scene through violence and has, since then, continued to prosecute a policy whose ultimate aim is to ensure that, either Ghanaians continue to accept him as overlord, or the country burns.

These are facts that every sober, patriotic, and honest Ghanaian knows. And this is the source of the current tension that threatens the security of the nation: the over-powering hunger of a political party's leadership for power which they realize is slipping from their grasp permanently.

It is clear from the nature of the people who run the NDC that they are not the kind who would be persuaded, shocked, cowed or reasoned with to acceptable, logical and peaceful behaviour. Theirs is the nature that responds only to being pursued, tracked down and their faces forced into the realities of violence as could be seen in the Liberia, Sierra Leone and other such examples. They are ready to gamble nation's fate in their single-minded pursuit of power. Loyalty to self is the only constant in that group and they have amply demonstrated this over the years.

No perceptive Ghanaian expects the NDC to come back to power any time soon for very compelling reasons and knowing this is the reason why what one hears is the NDC refrain of "NPP is planning to rig the elections." There is no truth to this, but there is truth in the assertion that the NDC has done more to increase voter disenchantment with its campaign class than it could have hoped to gain from it.

Message

There is no more explicit confession of ineffectiveness after 24 months peddling its message to the Ghanaian voting public, than the NDC pinning its hope for victory in December on the entirely unconnected victory of Senator (now President-elect) Barack Obama in the United States elections. This illogicality can be perpetrated by people who have come to terms with the fact that their message for the voters during the past 24 months was pedestrian from the start and has, therefore, failed to catch the attention of its intended target.

In fact, as it was heavily laced with insults on individual NPP leaders, it began to offend. And when Rawlings pitched in with his divisive message on ethnicity and his attempt to rabble rouse, it turned people off most decisively. The NDC message was, in other words, not intended to win hearts and votes.

One NDC parliamentary candidate, Mohammed Mkubarak Muntaka of the Asawase constituency has, even, declared on a radio programme in Kumasi that, he intends to incite his followers to engage in violence if he fails to win.

Although it is unnecessary and unwarranted in our political culture, we have come to accept the intemperate language of hotheads, and other unmanageable and wild types in all political parties. But in the case of the NDC, even people we have tended to regard as decent, civil, well-bred or intellectual in their approach to affairs, have let politics get to them and are leveling unprovoked, unsupported and, often, reprehensible accusations against the NPP leaders.

Indeed, interestingly, the Ghanaian perspective in politics has become so warped that Rawlings calls people punks, "gyimakpla", thieves, "boolui" and other such unacceptable names and receives no rebuke from civil society. On the other hand, Kufuor uses an inoffensive Akan expression "Mo ngyae no, oye abonsam" (Leave him be, he is a satan, that is, tempter or mischief-maker) and both those who do not understand the expression and those who do descend on him like a swarm of ants on a dead cockroach.

Significantly, while President Kufuor realized his error in expressing himself in a manner that made for an interpretation other than what he intended, he readily apologized. Has anybody heard Mr Rawlings apologize for the abuses he heaped and continues to heap on NPP leaders and members?

We have lived too long with the self-righteous pseudo¬revolutionary blather of the NDC types. We have allowed ourselves to being hoodwinked to accept the adolescent politics of the NDC. Clearly, our politics have been hijacked by men suffused with hate and envy and actuated only by self¬aggrandizing ( authoritarian) anarchism.

Their poisoned discourse that has nothing to do with the progress of the country has been tolerated for too long.

They look for every opportunity to foment trouble for Ghana. The NDC, by its propensity for violent politics, has robbed Ghana's politics of the moral passion that should be the lynchpin of a developing democracy and progressive politics.

It is time to end the NDC menace once and for all. We must all come together to ensure that election 2008 is NDC's swan song.

Credit: N. Adu Kwabena-Essen

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