A nation in crisis
A few days ago, a certain Kanbo Naa descended upon the house of the special aide of the Roads and Highway Minister in Tamale and fired shots from his firearm. The action was said to have scared persons in the neighbourhood.
Earlier, a middle-aged man was assaulted in the Ashanti Region for making the change gesture now associated with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
These are but a few of the flashes indicative of the proliferation of small arms in the country and the fact that the canker is nowhere near being abated as impunity by persons linked to the government is on the ascendancy.
It also suggests the lip-service persons at the helm of managing the country’s internal security are playing to this critical subject even as we get closer to a general election.
An office for the control of small yet lethal arms has been operating for many years now but with politicians sometime being the culprits in the proliferation of small arms, it would surely be business as usual.
Some think that many more unlicensed weapons are in the country than they were in the past years.
It is instructive that the abuse of firearms and the association of the phenomenon with ruling party activists is gaining a worrying currency.
President John Mahama, in his ‘love-letter’ as it were to his compatriots, a subtle campaign ploy, said his tenure is associated with law and order.
This would suggest that such instances of impunity are things of the past and that the BNI never ignored a court order and moved South African suspects back to their custody.
That happened and we were the wiser as people of this country about the kind of government we are saddled with.
We have witnessed enough of the arrest and detention of persons suspected of not being lovers of the NDC government and how these suspects were released without any charge preferred against them. Does the President want us to shower him with plaudits for being an outstanding defender of the rule of law?
With ample examples of breaches of the law by persons who are players on the corridors of power, we have cause to sneer at the President’s clapping for himself.
The ruling party activist, who went to the residence of an aide to a minister to fire a weapon, is reported to have escaped; the Police gave the assurance that they are on the tail of the suspect.
We doubt if the Police can go beyond announcing that they are pursuing the suspect and even asking that persons with information about his whereabouts should contact them.
As for the man whose change gesture nearly had him killed by the President’s machomen even as he licks his wounds, the love letter is nothing but a tale of inaccuracies.
Majority of Ghanaians think so too. The spirit of the country is troubled, as state institutions are unable to live up to the expectation of the people.
When a general election is around the corner, it is a period of apprehension as we are witnessing today. It is doubtful if we have progressed appreciably as a nation.
The woes of the nation are too many and only those who are insulated from the mammoth challenges in which the country is enmeshed would smile at the President’s Love Letter.