IT IS now abundantly clear that the NDC has chosen to hire hooligans to hoot at the President, the Vice President and other government officials at any gatherings. It is a very bad precedent they have set and when the time comes for payback, Ghanaians should keep quiet and allow it to happen because what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander.
For four years, Ghanaians endured unprecedented dumsor. Factories suffered, people lost their jobs, cold store owners lost millions of cedis, businesses went bankrupt, and the country was plunged into darkness but nobody hooted at former President Mahama. If the whole world is in economic meltdown and Ghana is having her fair share of the pain, and the NDC decides to use hooting as a way to discredit the government because of the political power that they are hungry for, Mr. Mahama and his people should go for crush helmets. In their case, it may not be hooting but stoning. If they think their plan is working to perfection, they should better watch out because everybody has red saliva in their mouth but we chose to spit out the white one because, we all want to live in peace.
I hereby, charge the National Organiser, the National Youth Organiser as well as the National NASARA Co-ordinator of the NPP to sit up. The time has come for them too to organise NPP supporters to pay back. We are in an era of hooting so NPP supporters should get ready to join the hooting contest. The battle line is clearly drawn and no turning back. The NASARA Coordinator must make the Zongos a no-go area for Mr. Mahama and his team. If obstreperous bullying is what they understand, they will meet their match at the Zongos. After all, hooting is not created for only one political party. Since Mr. Mahama has not spoken against the hooting, it stands to reason that he has endorsed it. The man must pay for it. And the security officers cannot arrest anyone for hooting at him because no one was arrested for hooting at the President and the Vice President.
The National Organiser of the NPP, in particular, should be told that flashing his nice pictures on social media has nothing to do with organising a political party. He should be up and doing. By now, he should have been in contact with all the constituency organisers of the party to get prepared for the arrival of John Mahama in their respective constituencies and hoot at him unceasingly. That seems to be the language he understands. If Nana B fails to act, I will descend heavily on him and he will curse the day he chose to contest for that position. I want to serve notice that if he fails to pay back by organising the hooting of Mr. Mahama, I will go to town. And he should know what I mean when I say I am going to town.
If those who hooted at the President and Vice President think it is their democratic right to do so, fine. The same right also applies to NPP supporters if they hoot at Mr. Mahama. If a party in opposition can organise for the hooting of the number one and two citizens of the nation, I see no reason why the party in power cannot do same. After all, no one has the monopoly to hoot. If the NDC hoodlums could hoot at the Vice President in the presence of the Otumfuo, Togbe Sri, the Ga Mantse and other dignitaries, Ghanaians should be wary of the party which wants to rule the country again. The NDC has graduated from murdering judges to hooting at Presidents. If we allow them to continue on this tangent, next time they will shoot at the President. And they are capable of doing so considering their past records as a party born out of two bloody revolutions.
My other problem is with the BNI and the National Security operatives, for that matter. Why couldn’t they nip the actions of these criminals in the bud? This shows that if any of these hooligans were armed, they could have harmed the Vice President. We must remake the BNI immediately. We must invite the FBI from America to retrain them. The BNI, as it stands now, is a raw intelligence service that only acts when the harm has already been done. That, to me, is not preventive security operation but suicidal.
My other worry, which I have been hammering on for the umpteenth time, is the Information Ministry, headed by Hon. Oppong Nkrumah. You tune in to your TV station everyday and what you hear are the voices of uncouth half-baked so called journalists who know nothing but insult the President and other government officials. They speak as if they have madness in their stomachs. They are hired to do the hatchet job but they do it so openly that you begin to think if they are cultured at all. They profess to know everything from rocket science to economics but in actual fact, they are ignoramuses who try to eke a living by selling their consciences.
The question is: ‘How do we dilute this poison which is gradually killing journalism in this country?’ The Minister of Information has a key role to play here. He should also assemble fine and refined journalists to go on air on the TV stations to set records straight and put these hirelings in their rightful places. Sensible and intelligent people will be able to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff. Majority of Ghanaians are smart enough to know the truth from lies. As it stands now, people believe whatever these crooks say because, no one comes out to challenge them. Today in Ghana, if you want to become popular and get rich quick as a journalist, you have to learn how to shout, insult, rave and rant like Asomasi of Onua TV and swagger on air to make people think that you too matter in the scheme of things. In fact, you have to throw caution to the dogs and go on an insulting spree to be paid more money by your paymasters who in the first place, will not let their children stoop that low. Engage them in any academic discourse and you will see that they are as raw as uncooked cassava. They are just braggarts who are practising jungle and yellow journalism. Those who glorify them are equally gullible and halfwits, if not nitwits.
MMDCES must also get ready for these Hooters Club Members anytime they host the President or the Vice President. They should organise NPP supporters to meet these hooters boot for boot. If blood starts to flow and skulls get cracked at one place or the other, where these hoodlums try to hoot at the President, they will think twice when they are approached to do the dirty job. This is not the time for niceties or unguarded politeness. Is anyone listening? Ah, yooo!
BY Eric Bawah