Lithur’s Letter: How Vigilante Groups Are Shaping Ghana’s Democracy

Lithur’s letter made me sneeze three times on Sunday morning. She must have laced it with jalapeno pepper and ginger. I could feel it, I could smell it, and I could taste its recipe. The message depicts a worried citizen----seeking protection for her inalienable rights, like someone lost in the woods trying to find her way home amid encircling gloom.

It portrays a peace-loving people seemingly losing their peaceful habitat to a group that mimics the zombies. The language was carefully crafted using emotive plea and civility at the same time hammering home her core message.

“Protect our right to security, our right to human dignity and preserve the rule of law in Ghana. Freedom and Justice,” screamed the letter.

Lithur’s letter brings to memory the famous line perhaps every preschooler and elementary school pupil often say when one wants to attend to nature’s call. ‘Please teacher or Madam may I go out…’

“Mr. President, Minister of Interior, National Security Advisor, please address with urgency, the operation of vigilante groups and the unlawful extra judicial unorthodox methods being used by the Invincible Forces, Delta Force and other vigilante groups to seek justice or address issues in Ghana,” wrote the former Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection Nana Oye Lithur .

Indeed, Lithur’s letter reminds me of a piece I wrote some weeks back concerning vigilante groups’ operation in Ghana.

At the time it was the Invisible or Invincible group of the NPP. A member of the said group was alleged to have manhandled a guard at the Flagstaff House. And today we have a sister group--Delta Force which purportedly forced itself or invaded the Ashanti regional security office on Friday 24 March 2017.

Is it how we are shaping our democracy?

Not long ago the president spoke about this troubling issue. His demeanor said it all. He wasn’t happy at all about the activities of these vigilante groups.

“It appears these events are predicated on some concept of equalisation, as they happened in 2009 and were repeated in 2017. I condemn all such conduct and call on all political parties especially NPP and NDC to ensure that this the last time such undignified acts occur during our periods of transition,” President Akufo-Addo said.

Did they get that call? I ‘m afraid it seems his call didn’t resonate. We are rather witnessing an emboldened group whose activities are undermining the very principles of our entrenched laws and our fledgling democracy. And when must we say enough is enough. I think it’s about time the mandated state institutions--- security agencies cracked the whip. The police must ensure that the actions of these groups are thwarted and if possible crashed before they grow wings like the Right-wing paramilitary groups in Columbia --the armed groups that claim to be acting in opposition to revolutionary Marxists-Leninist guerrilla forces and their allies among the civilian population.

That’s how Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria started. And that’s how even most political parties begin. They start as movements and pressure groups. Therefore, we must be careful we don’t raise an army of wolves thinking we are tendering sheep.

Lithur’s letter seems to suggest that government is sleeping and perhaps out of touch with reality.

“The forceful removal of a lawfully appointed public official was violent and blood was shed, with Government property being destroyed. This adds on to the list of forceful seizure and management of state property, that is, the Kintampo Falls tourist facility, seizure of toll booths, seizure of vehicles etc.

…There have been numerous reports of extra judicial and unlawful violent acts by these groups. Ghanaians are peace loving and law abiding. We have been sustained as a nation by respect for the rule of law. We do not want this violence to escalate; neither do we want this situation to degenerate.”

What do we do with the groups: Integrate or disintegrate them?

Some have argued that they must be integrated into the regular security services in the country, for example, the military, the police, the prisons, the immigration and the fire services. It is believed this would help mitigate the morbid agitations and violence being orchestrated by the groups. Those for integration also think that leaving them at the mercy of the world could cost the nation. They hold the view that there would be crime wave. Armed robbery, murders and other social vices could reach an alarming proportion, which would in the long run have a toll on the country’s security.

However, those against think the earlier they‘re (the vigilante groups) disintegrated the better. ‘Crash them and ban them,’ they suggest.

Well, I don’t know if that method would work to the hilt. This is Ghana it’s hard to trust our politicians--- be they the NDC or the NPP. Remember when the Supreme Court ordered the police and valuators to go to NDC bankroller Woyome’s residence? You know what happened.

There could yet be a third rail, i.e getting the young ones in the group some education. The argument is that most of these members are not educated; if true how do you integrate them into say the police or the military. You would end up putting a square peg in a round hole. Or worse still enlisting crooks and lootees into the regular services.

Public Reactions
The Friday’s onslaught by the Delta Force has sparked a huge reaction from the public. A social commentator Sydney Casely-Hayford has expressed this sentiments. “It boggles my mind. I do not understand how something like this should go on. At least someone should be in jail and we should look forward to their prosecution… We are too close now to allowing all of this to continue and I am very disappointed in government that after two, three days of this happening, there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to try and deal with these groups.

“People invading political party headquarters with cutlasses and machetes and fighting among themselves and nobody is arrested? This is where it is all going wrong…Because we think it is politically not going to help us, we will not do the right thing. It is too much. I am tired of it.”

Reacting to the attack the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako condemned the attack on the newly appointed Ashanti Region Security Coordinator but says the newly created office flouts the constitution.

According to him the existing Regional Security Council, which is made up of an assembly of Executive appointees, security personnel, and civilians, is sanctioned by law and would serve the same purpose as the newly created office.

“Where is the legal basis? Where is the legal regime?” he questioned of the regional security coordinator office. It is not clear what the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator has been tasked to do, but the name suggests a planner of security activities of sorts.

However, Mr. Baako thinks the membership of the constitutionally recognised Regional Security Council is well thought out and adequate for the purpose of linking the local government to the central government on security issues.

Also a member of the Ashanti regional communications team of the NDC Francis Dodovi has wondered why Delta Forces will besiege a place like the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (ARCC) and conduct themselves in the manner they did wondering if President Nana Akufo-Addo has not already started sleeping on the job.

O’ how I wish our politicians would stop groping in broad daylight. Stop pretending that wrong is right and right is wrong. Rather they should be bold and call ‘spade a spade’. They must stop defending the indefensible, stop signing petitions to free contemnors and thugs under the guise that all is well and cool. ..Because they very often behave like a selfish mother:

See, the love of a good mother to her child never wavers. It doesn’t matter whether s/he is young or old, good or bad. Also it’s only the mother who understands her child better, if for example he’s a brat. And even though she knows her child is a nuisance to society there’s still that love, that bond and that selfish element that cling on.

It’s like an umbilical cord she can’t let go until the baby’s born. Still the mother’s love will live on and the bond will be solidified. The child could be a thief, an armed robber, a murderer, a monster, a nincompoop or a first-class rogue the womb that bore that child will stand by him.

But she must consider this: She must learn not to condone crime or overlook evil-doing perpetrated by her adorable child. She must learn to let go that selfish element (that shepherds the brat kid) just as she allowed the umbilical cord to be severed during birth or delivery.

There should be a time a mother must let her child know she cannot continue to be selfish while society is plunged into a sea of disorder and violence. She must let the child know that when he commits the crime he must as well be ready to serve the time. That’s a far cry for being unloved or breaking an existing bond. That’s called tough love.

He who pays the piper calls the tune. The rogue child must learn to accept responsibility and be aware that he cannot take society for a ride. Also he must learn that his right to movement, his right to speak, his right to form a group or a movement doesn’t infringe upon one’s rights and freedom.