NDC Has Imprisoned and Tortured Journalists When No Elections Were Being Held

He must be the most ridiculous politician alive in the history of the country, going around telling Ghanaian journalists and media operatives to be on the high alert, because operatives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were scheming to rig the 2020 general election. And that if they do not take steps to ensure that the right thing was done, Ghanaian journalists would be the first to be felled by bullets, once an aggrieved or disgruntled National Democratic Congress (NDC) decides to go on the warpath, in the certain event of the latter’s massively losing the 2020 general election to the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (See “You’ll Die First If There’s War; Be Critical on EC – NDC to Journalists” Starrfm.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/4/19).

This must be the dumbest joke ever told by Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the longest-reigning General-Secretary of Ghana’s largest opposition political party. You see, Dear Reader, it is a dumb joke because in the aftermath of the 2012 general election, in spite of the very professional vigilance of Ghanaian journalists, nevertheless, the man popularly and derisively nicknamed “General Mosquito” told the world that it was the abject lack of vigilance on the part of Akufo-Addo polling agents and observers that had enabled the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress to brazenly rig the election in order to secure a narrow victory for the then Interim-President John Dramani Mahama.

It is also ironic for Mr. Asiedu-Nketia to be damning Ghanaian journalists for being deathly silent or mum over what General Mosquito claims to be ongoing shady activities at the Headquarters of the Electoral Commission that are calculated to ensure victory for President Akufo-Addo. The fact of the matter is that historically, any journalist or media operative who was deemed to be eagle-eyed and hard-hitting in the opinion of the leaders of the National Democratic Congress, against the electoral shenanigans of the latter, and other forms of shady dealings by the Rawlings, Atta-Mills and Mahama Posse, ended up behind bars and tortured. So, this nonsense from Mr. Asiedu-Nketia demanding that Ghanaian journalists become vocal on political and/or election matters is simply absurd and diametrically opposite of what the NDC always stood for when it came to the active participation of Ghanaian journalists – as watchdogs – in the national political arena.

To be certain, what Gen. Mosquito is really saying here is that Ghanaian journalists would be better off banding together with these scofflaws and infamous robber-barons and terror-mongers to ensure that the NDC operatives successfully rig their way back to the Jubilee-Flagstaff House, come December 7, 2020, or thereabouts, as they did in the 2012 general election. Indeed, it goes without saying that nearly every journalist who has served a prison term within the last 30 years, in Ghana’s Fourth Republic, did so on the orders of a sitting National Democratic Congress’ leader. And so it is nothing short of downright preposterous for Mr. Asiedu-Nketia – aka Bui Dam Woyome – to suppose that he can lecture the media on its duties and obligations.

To be certain, “When guns are being shot,” it would be the duty of every intelligent and sensible Ghanaian journalist to think of his/her safety first before allowing political scumbags like the NDC’s double-salary scamming robber-barons to pump bullets into his/her body. Plus, these days, the technology is so sophisticated and advanced that it is much easier for journalists and other media operatives to cover low-level wars in Third-World countries like Ghana with greater personal safety than used to be the case not very long ago. But then, who said that in case of the eruption of war, congenital cowards like General Mosquito and/or any member of his family, wherever they may be living or hiding around the world, can be assured of their safety?

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

Held
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
June 9, 2019
E-mail: [email protected]