Politics is an advance auction of stolen goods

This Is Not Rated For Politically Sensitive- Charged People.

The “Foot Soldiers” Are Footing, Techimanhene Was Tripping, And NDC Is Droning.

Beware folks, the politics-fatigued Ghanaians are not getting any break anytime soon because it's getting very ugly out there and we seem to love it: The NPP and NDC supporters are still fighting for the remains of politics instead of policies.

It was blow by blow. The NPP and NDC Sympathizers were at it again at the Court House in Accra, while Techimanhene was busy practicing his vigilante justice — like a robust cop on the beat.

The bad blood between NDC and NPP sympathizers is nothing new. And the idiocy of allowing two enemies in proximity of the court house was a recipe for a disaster. Unfortunately, perhaps the participants of the mayhem were those who could hardly afford the rent in Nima, Maamobi, Teshie or Old Tafo, yet they were willing to die on the instructions of the people who can't account for the national resources, they were given the mandate to administer.

The ongoing toll of the dirty- politics is beginning to emerge because we're all towing party lines.

As tragic and shameful as the brawl in Accra was and the abuse- of -power incident at Techiman, they all had an underground source — the dirty body –politics — of which its political flood water is beginning to seep into the national conversation. Nobody should be surprised because in Ghana we eat, drink and sleep with politics. Everything we do is wrapped around politics.

Weighing in on Techimanhene's brouhaha :
By now it's no longer news that Techimanhene was a “bounty-hunter” who went around kidnapping anyone who went against him. He was a self-appointed police officer, a judge, and prosecutor and probably had a party creed in his hands while performing his “civic duties”.

What kind of society do we live in? Don't you want to know?

Is this 21st century Ghana? I'm just scratching my head as I began to search for answers!

I don't know the degree of Tuobodomhene's crime, which warranted his “majesty” Oseadeeyo Ameyaw Ekumfi to kidnap him. But, given what went wrong, someone's Rights were grossly violated---not to mention how he (Techimanhene) was allegedly stripped naked his victim and disgracefully exposed his 'libido club', which supposedly wasn't on steroid at that time.

Honest to God, I'm not making this up. It was rumored that the victim was ridiculed by his kidnapers for not possessing an Olympics- standard size libido club.

Come to think of it, I'm tempted to ask: Was there any audition for sexescapade in Techimanhene's repertoire at that moment? No pun intended!

Well, doesn't it worth pausing to dwell on what went wrong on that fateful day or night?

Now, let's just pretend for a moment that Tuobodomhene committed a crime beyond any reasonable doubt, and supposedly went into hiding - in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. Let's further say the police have been looking for this dude. Does it mean that the Techimanhene should be the “bounty hunter”, who takes money in return for his services to bring “fugitives'' to justice? Wouldn't that be a nice prospect?

Given the fact that there are so many “wanted” individual criminals, many of whom have committed insidious crimes against the state and other Ghanaians, and able to stay under the police's radar and roam around --his service will be needed in Ghana.

Maybe, we should seek the services of Techimanhene in order to bring those people to justice. It will be cheaper and the police could surely use more hands in their crime-fighting arsenal.

In all that, it took the voice of a concerned Ghanaian - Asantehene - (not the government) to raise the red flag to stop the insidious action of Techimanhene. It was all a matter of will --that's a political will to call a spade a spade. We needed an immediate weight of the government to end that abusive situation. But it wasn't forthcoming until an alarm was sounded.

As I was sitting in front of my Pc and started looking back at all the bad things that had happened over the years in Ghana--- where every political fist-fight and lawlessness (including kidnapping) - were supposedly done by “lone fanatics”. I began to think how would that be possible without any political infusion? How could people do all that without any politics in their DNA?

Did Techimanhene acted on his own accord, without the chromosome of any politics in his system? Don't you want to know?

Do those party “sympathizers” or fanatics who are roughing and rocking things around the country ever tell their party officials when they are going to act or who is their next target? So they just, felt the need to take over the offices of NHIS in Zabzugu, in the North, to entertain themselves, right? What about the barbs they traded at the court house?

With every party official sleeping, they tiptoed to the court house in Accra and fought because a conspiracy theorist allegedly claimed that “Rawlings burnt his own house”. If JJ wanted to be a homeless so bad that he was willing to put his own family on the line to achieve his objective then we have a problem - I mean a megawatt problem. So was that the only reason for a group of lowlifes to constantly steer the 'directions' of the country with impunity? Are we serious?

The odds of negative things happening around the country without the knowledge of both parties' honchos defied logic. But, who is going to admit that?

For one thing Ghanaians don't know is how to recycle their former leaders. And since our leaders don't write books, the only way to tap the knowledge and wisdom of our present and former leaders is to protect and preserve their longevity. So let's leave Kufuor and Rawlings alone in peace. We will one day need their political wisdom. Let's allow them to live so that we can live because Ghana is more than Rawlings and Kufuor.

As to the speculation that “Rawlings burnt his own house”, I'm going to hold my comments on this one, because the webmaster is definitely not going to allow me to say what is on my mind. Anyway, at some point we have to decide as a country to say enough is enough.

It's a fact, NDC is a party NPP loves to hate and NDC also hates to love NPP. So the finger-pointing will never end. Each party has more or less given its people the broad latitude to attack and distort news to make things harder for each other to succeed in any endeavor. Because buried deep in the sympathizers' and parties' minds is the freedom to do what they want in the name of party politics.

It appears more glorious to take the law into one's own hands and attack opponents with impunity when one's party is in power.

Will the perpetrators be “found” and prosecuted? Well, the security forces should keep an eye on areas where flames have been doused because the political arm twisting has rolled over with the elections and vigilantes are on the loose.

When we merge all that into Techiman -Tuobodom's equation things don't look good on the surface.

Did the perpetrators of Techiman incident knew that they could get away with it because our public officials were too busy thinking of what they could stash away? Or a few of them were blissfully and permanently asleep with amnesia. Thank Goodness, Ashantehene woke up in time to sound the alarm bell.

The never-ending political cage –fight is gradually finding its way into the social arena. The so- called 'change', (we hope for) is actually moving at its own galactically glacial pace and the stakeholders like that ride.

Well, the NPP lost the election to NDC a year and some months ago, but the only thing greater than their will to keep the party intact is the need for “revenge” .NDC is in power but, NPP still denies the legitimacy of NDC to rule the country. Please don't shake your head—you know I'm right on the money.

NPP is willing to drag the NDC into the ocean, if it had the power. And NDC supporters have ran afoul of the law so many times with impunity that people have stopped counting. It makes me wonder who is running the show.

As to the Techimanhene's lawlessness, there's nothing else to say. I haven't regained my faculty yet, ever since I read about it on the web. I'm trying to recuperate from the shock I sustained from that. Nevertheless, the real culprits are those who looked the other way when one of Ghana's citizens literally got stripped naked of his rights and dignity-- that is the issue.

I know he would get off sooner than later. But, if he did I'll silently grit my teeth—not because I hate him or know him personally. It's because the law should weigh up its weight and set the tone for the future vigilantes, traditional rulers and any other Ghanaian who wants to live above or below the laws of the land.

My question is: Where are we going from here? Just wake me up when everything is all over!

If I were an NDC or NPP strategist (may God forbid!) I'd be very worried and concerned about the infertile political ecology in our part of the world. That can easily ruin the sleep of any politician, especially when the main political parties are generating most negative publicity all the time.

Dang, am I late coming to the fight? Am I missing something? Maybe, I'm a little naïve here or else I must be missing something.

I never knew that we were going to witness a fight after fight a year after the election. We had an election and NPP lost. That should be the end of the fight. Nah!

I admit I wasn't surprised at all. Were you? Not that I had wanted the NDC to win but, losing the election was a way for the party and its members to seriously take a good look at things in its rear view mirror. Sometimes it takes a 'disaster 'to re-focus on your goals, objectives and to take stock of what is important.

Now, I know that some people are going to get pissed off at me because I was not all choked -up and weepy when NPP lost the election.

But, there is a lesson that needs to be learned here: Don't ever underrate Ghanaians' intelligence. Anyway, NPP needed to lose the election to fight its elitist image, if it really wants to attract new souls.

Hold on! I have seen a hand raised at the back row, “Are you a covert NDC man?” “Nope, I'm not”. “Aren't you an NPP supporter?” “You're wrong again!” I'm neither an NPP supporter nor an NDC sympathizer. I'm a hardcore, fully- registered member of AGG Party (Anything Good for Ghana.) In other words, I'm not part of the modern day political parties' chromosome. I'm too radical to fit in, too out-front and optimistic to accept the status quo .So count me out.”

Well, if my memory served me right during the NPP presidential campaign one's personal looks became the theme for some of the candidates .One's physical stature became a criteria for “qualification” as if the NPP presidential aspirants were auditioning for a beauty pageant but , no female candidate was pushed by the party or placed on the ticket - very ironic! That alone was a turn-off right there.

To add salt to injury, an unfounded allegation was cooked up by some faction within the NPP to derail Nana Akuffo-Addo's candidacy. As a result his gold-plated political capital and reputation were ruined by his own party members way before a single ballot was casted in the primaries — how sad!

So in effect he went into the national election with unwanted baggage and unwanted attention, he didn't deserve. He was a wounded soldier before the war started. Party surrogates were also used to do the entire dirty job for Nana's enemies within the party; who were waiting in the wind to Alan-Cash in on Nana's downfall.

That entire internal rift worked against the party before the national election. So I wonder how NPP is going to come out of that political crisis relatively unscathed.

The second thing that really sent the NPP into the pit was the sheer display of cash during the aspirants' campaigns. Most voters were turned off and tuned out. “Where did these aspirants get their monies from?”, was the rhetorical question every voter, including those whose pockets were being lined to vote for a particular aspirant, asked without expecting any credible answer.

NPP came across as too arrogant and thought of as a party full of itself. Some of its members had a false belief that their party is ordained to win any general election with ease as things stood at the time. “One-touch!” Do you remember? But, now they're walking around in state of shock: “Holy cow”, they were saying to themselves, “how did that happen?”

Enough is enough. The election is over, NPP lost; Nana Akuffo- Addo lost and gracefully accepted defeat. It's about time we moved on as Ghanaians, not party followers, but as people with a common destiny.

But, there is no peace inside the NPP and NDC families. With no disrespect, I have the feeling that Nana's chance of becoming the party's front- runner again is gone with the wind and out of the window. At least, if and when NPP comes to power it would come without Nana. And, this is the gospel according to the political weather vane, on top of my house at Atobriso.

Hey you didn't hear it from me but, Nana is considered as an Achilles' heel” of the party. The NPP helped to write Nana Akuffo-Addo's obituary long time, even before the election. And that has left a permanent scar on the party and its presidential candidate. I hope Nana Akuffo –Addo's trust for the party and its officials will be granted cautiously and judiciously when he's dealing with party issues in the future.

Nevertheless, how the party is going to reincarnate itself and sail through all that political rough waters undaunted; or without any bleeding nose would be sorted out by social scientists and historians years to come.

Through all that, Ghanaians of every political stripe are sick and tired of being unsolicited spectators of in- party rift and political witch-hunting. It is not the time to gamble with Ghana's future.

You NPP supporters, you should take a chill pill: The NDC 'foot soldiers' are busy doing the bidding for NPP, to the extent that they would promote a voter backlash in the next election. But, in the long run, it's bad for the country when the young arm of a party is dethroning their elected and appointed officials and seizing up offices.

So those who are still holding on to the elections' results or using their political positions as a shield should B-e-a-t it. After all, “politics is still an advance auction of stolen goods”, that are perishable.

Politicians have a short political life. One minute they're losers. The next they're sharing chest bumps and high-fiving each other. No situation is permanent so we have to learn how to treat the little people who need some basic personal security and protection from being stripped nakedly and dragged into a chief's palace for interrogation.

Shame on all of us for turning blind eyes to the vigilantes and for sheltering other useless party elements.

If the NDC Youth had to kick Carl Wilson - the chairman of Confiscated Vehicle Allocation Committee — out of his office before the government could see his iniquities then we have a problem!

They're literally kicking butts because the government hears and sees no evil. Go guys, you earn my support on that one!

Anyway, the “foot soldiers” are footing because the government is not doing a damn thing about the behaviors of its rank and file. So while Techimanhene was tripping his brethren in the south were rocking and roughing things all in the name of party politics.

Shame on all of us, one more time!
Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi (The Voice of Reason)
NJ, USA

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