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12.06.2019 Feature Article

NDC are Still Calling the Shots Although They are in Opposition

NDC are Still Calling the Shots Although They are in Opposition
12.06.2019 LISTEN

For NDC to be still calling the shots while in opposition leaves sour taste in my mouth. The gentility and the overly subscription to the rule of law by the NPP "book long" and coat-clad leaders and members have made it possible for the NDC to be emboldened to dictate from the back seat to the driver in the front seat. How come? No wonder that things are falling apart in the country with the centre unable to hold.

What is meant by calling the shot? "To call the shots means to be the person in charge, to have control over the progress of a situation or a course of action". How come that the NDC are able to dare the NPP government to arrest Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, their Chairman, to see if they would not make the nation ungovernable or cause insecurity in the nation? Ofosu Ampofo should have been arrested and dealt with long ago if it were in the civilized Western world. Here is a man who has been named by some arrested criminals to have had a hand in their committed crime. Again, here is a man whose voice is on a leaked tape strategizing some NDC communicators and members to resort to arson, kidnapping and to denigrate certain members like the Chair of the Electoral Commission. By his strategy, the nation will become insecure to make the NPP government unpopular so that the people will turn against the government and subsequently vote out the NPP come Election 2020.

When it comes to the crunch, with the noose tightening on his neck, this coward Ofosu Ampofo turns around to say the tape has been doctored whereas one Kwaku Boahen has claimed on air that the voice was that of Ofosu Ampofo. He went on further to assert that himself and others in the meeting concurred with the strategies devised, and told them, by Ofosu Ampofo, hence the rounds of applause they gave him.

With all that the NDC have planned unfolding by the day as could be ascertained from the spate of arsons, armed robberies and kidnappings taking place, the NPP seem to be helpless. To be in government is not to sit for things to take their natural course. No! The government must bend fate to suit her aspirations and objectives by ensuring that law and order prevail without succumbing to needless threats from whomever.

Let NPP, especially His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government understand that if they over-subscribe to the rule of law to govern the nation, then they have failed. Why should Ofosu Ampofo be allowed to play hide and seek with the security agents for so long? Why are the courts not speeding up the processes to get him trialled but dilly dallying? Why should the government be scared of the nonsensical noises the NDC are making to cow the NPP government, as though the nation belongs to NDC and they are the sole persons with the right to rule Ghana?

The police arrested Ofosu Ampofo, interviewed or held him for five hours, seized electronic gadgets from his house and released him to the ovation of a teeming NDC faithful camped outside the police area where he was being interrogated. This is a joke, the seizure of the electronic gadgets at such too late a time. His house should have been raided when he first became a suspect or was accused or charged. With this lengthy time lapse, even if he were a fool, he would by now have destroyed, disposed of, or taken to hide somewhere any thing that could link him to the crimes he had been charged with or suspected of. He will be a fool not to have obliterated by now most of the traces linking him to the suspected crimes of which he is alleged to be involved.

The NDC are succeeding in their strategy if not already succeeded. Now, internationally, Ghana is seen not to be a safe place hence Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia etc., issuing alert warning to their nationals living in and/or travelling to Ghana. Ghana’s image is being tarnished and should it continue downwards any further, then either the NPP will lose Election 2020 or a military junta will use that as an excuse to step in to reverse the downward trend of insecurity in the nation. This is all that the NDC are wishing for. No one can fault me on this.

SUGGESTION:
The president has Executive powers to act to forestall the NDC’s agenda by deploying the military to assist the police to fight and detect the arsonists, kidnappers, armed robbers and their paymasters. The Attorney General in whom I have no much confidence, must expedite work on the possible trial of Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and any other official suspected of malfeasance. The police must solicit the assistance of the public to finding those behind some committed crimes that are making the nation insecure to the nationals and foreigners living or coming into the country. Informants can be of great help here. Money offers to those able to help arrest some criminals are to be made and announced in the media to the nation and the whole world. Such inducements will encourage the public to volunteer the much needed information to nab the culprits. The NPP government must act as a government but not to sit down to be dictated to, or controlled, by, the NDC. Deal with whoever falls foul of the law without fearing their political colouration. The NDC have taken the laws into their hands in such an absurd manner that they need to be told STOP, we have had enough of your uncouth machismo behaviour.

CONCLUSION:
The onus of getting the nation back to normality is on His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his NPP government. Once he allows the nation to dribble further into insecurity with foreign nations issuing threat alerts to their nationals, then the NPP’s days in government are numbered, as wished by the NDC. The president must assemble security experts, even if it calls for seeking foreign assistance from our experienced white contemporaries, he had better do. I hope the president will not take the events happening in Ghana lightly, knowing kidnapping is foreign to us. The NDC sensing danger that should the president be allowed to rule, realising his promises gradually and by the day, they may linger in opposition for long, have resorted to their maliciously deadlier tactics or strategies of causing insecurity in the country. The president must wake up and deal with it.

In democracy, it said, your freedom ends where someone’s nose begins. Therefore, anyone who accuses the president falsely, as once done by Appiah Stadium, who claimed the president was a heavy "wee" smoker and dealer must be sued but not let go scot free to propagate their lies meant to tarnish one’s hard earned reputation all for their silly stomach politics. There is a Kevin Ekow-Baidoo Taylor of a Friday Editorial who goes out every week accusing the president and some people with or without solid evidence. Can he not be sued to come and prove his case in court rather than letting him go scot free fabricating and disseminating harmful lies capable of costing the NPP votes and their credibility? The president, the NPP government and the good people of Ghana should not be afraid of the NDC and their machinations but are rather to mobilise against them should they continue to threaten the efforts by the government to deal with rogues and criminals in the country among whom is Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the NDC National Chairman.

Finally, I suspect the Dr Kwesi Botchwey’s report on why and how the NDC lost Election 2016. The fact that they are keeping it secret with the content known to just a handful of the top members of the NDC makes it a suspect. He might have suggested evil strategies some of which Ofosu Ampofo told to his NDC audience in a secret meeting but of which by the grace of God, it has become public knowledge through the leaked audio recorded tape.

Rockson Adofo
(Wednesday, 12 June 2019)

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