Johnson Asiedu Nketia
Jimmy Cliff’s mid-1970s hit, Time Will Tell, captures the things happening on the political space of the country today.
So many things happened ahead of the last elections, some of them being untenable promises during the campaign trail of the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the demonstrations against illegal mining otherwise called galamsey.
These were powerful demonstrations which sought to pitch the people of Ghana against their elected government. The demonstrations fueled by the NDC demanded that a state of emergency be declared as a means of combating galamsey.
The then President Akufo-Addo did not think that a wise thing to do and was condemned for thinking so.
The invectives which he incurred for standing his grounds were enormous. The demonstrations were unusual because those partaking in them were mostly academicians who presented themselves as neutrals, not belonging to any political party; they have been exposed as being not what they wanted their compatriots to believe them to be.
These were well choreographed demonstrations intended to facilitate a regime change and not really stem illegal mining.
The demand for the declaration of a state of emergency was a cornerstone of the demonstrations. The NDC appreciating the drawbacks of a state of emergency wanted the government to tread that tangent and suffer the challenges.
Yesterday, the sound bites of Asiedu Nketia, Chairman of the NDC, trended on social media because of the inherent irony. When a man in less than a year changes his position from ‘declare a state of emergency’ to ‘declaring a state of emergency is dangerous for our democracy’ then he and his party have no principles.
Theirs is ‘seek power by all means even if that means not being principled and lying.’ The party chairman is reported to have said that if human sacrifice is required to achieve power, so be it.
What has changed that has warranted the party chairman saying that a state of emergency would be an affront to our democracy?
He and his party are being real, no pretentions; they have no room for principles. To therefore think that something has changed in their psyche pushing them to be on this tangent would be a waste of precious time. We just have to take note of the kind of people at the helm of the country’s affairs and respond accordingly.
Former President Akufo-Addo was right in not acceding to the demands for the declaration of a state of emergency. In his estimation, it was unwise, something shared by the NDC even though at the time they were unwilling to say so. Today, they have said it; a subtle endorsement of ex-President Akufo-Addo’s wisdom.
There will be no declaration of a state of emergency as a result of galamsey, both the NDC and New Patriotic Party (NPP) have acquiesced. The noise and the demand for it when the NDC was in opposition was balderdash. This is politics according to NDC. Pregnant time has been delivered of its content.