It has been their trademark since its inception in 1992. By the grace of God, coupled with the behaviour of peace loving citizens of Ghana, we were able to avoid any catastrophe and we continue to live in peace despite the provocations. I am writing about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as far as violence is concerned.
It is not for me to remind you of what the flagbearer of the NDC, Mr. John Dramani Mahama (JDM) said in the Volta Region where he told the cheering crowd that the NDC has a revolutionary background so if it comes to unleashing violence, no party can beat the NDC. Neither do I have to remind you of what the same JDM said at Techiman where he told the people that the 2024 General Election was going to be a do or die affair.
Various commentators of the NDC have made it clear that if the NDC loses the 2024 General Election, blood will flow. That is why the sages say ‘to forewarn is to forearm’. A typical example of the NDC rehearsal of their violent plans is what happened during the recent EC limited registration exercise. For now Ghanaians are sitting on tenterhooks and only God can save our dear souls if the NDC loses the coming election. And if they think such threats will make Ghanaians vote for them, they must rethink. We have passed that red line.
Their hope of winning the coming elections is anchored on the economic recession the country is facing. In fact, they sincerely know the whole world is facing similar situations but for the sake of grabbing political power they have refused to think.
Mr. Mahama knows that if for nothing at all the introduction of the free Senior High School (SHS) has come a long way to assuage the suffering of parents and they are thankful to the Nana Addo government. His threat of abandoning the project has spoiled his chance. Even in the days of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah when the population was very small, day students in Secondary Schools were not fed. Today, apart from free SHS, thousands of Day Students in all the SHS in Ghana are fed during launch time. Can you imagine the cost? They know the digitisation programme has come to save the nation millions of Cedis, and Ghanaians have been relieved of unnecessary bottlenecks.
When Dr. Bawumia said the introduction of the Ghana Card is worth more than ten overhead bridges, the NDC jumped on the rooftop to shout and castigated the gentleman but recently when he said very soon if you hold the Ghana Card, you don’t need to go through strenuous processes when you arrive at our airport, they kept silent. When Mr. Mahama was in power, he used to make ugly noises that he had built unprecedented road networks in the country.
As Candidate Akufo-Addo travelled across the country to campaign and complained that the truth is that the Mahama administration did little in road construction, Mr. Mahama arrogantly replied that the president was sleeping anytime he traveled around the country so he could not see the roads. After taking over power and communities started complaining about the deployable state of their roads, the same John Mahama joined the chorus. Human being? It is an undeniable fact that the current government has built more overhead bridges and flyovers than any government since independence. If the NDC thinks they can distract the eyes of Ghanaians from these achievements, they are tickling themselves.
I am admonishing Ghanaians to watch out because the NDC are very desperate for power and will do everything to turn the apple cart upside down. During the era of the PNDC, guns were distributed to cadres of the revolution which were not retrieved when we entered the 4th Republic. The NDC do not need to import guns to kill their opponents since they already have them. That is my genuine fear. But should we allow them to have their way? The answer is no because collectively we can nip their bloody plans in the bud. This is the time we need our security agencies most. The NIB, CID, Military, Police etc should open their eyes wide because we are dealing with a group of communist trained killers and assassins who can do anything to survive.
The sad aspect of this impending scenario is that when the guns start to boom and cutlasses drawn, those who will suffer are the poor folks. Many politicians have their children sojourned abroad and so whatever happens will be at the wrong side of their eyes. Ibrahim Mahama, the younger brother of former president Mr. Mahama has his private jet sitting on the tarmac at the Kotoka International Airport. If anything nasty happens, they will just jump on board with their families and fly away, leaving behind ɛyɛ Zu, Eyɛ Za shouting poor rubble-rousers and hooligans to suffer.
But if the supporters of the NDC think their counterparts in the NPP will fold their arms while their colleagues are butchered, they should revise their notes. In case of any violence during and after the 2024 General Election, all Ghanaians will be losers. Anyone who harbours violence in his mind should think twice because after all, nobody will gain anything from such madness.
Ghanaians patiently contained Rawlings stultifying eleven years bloody revolution and we have learnt a great lesson from that. Any well meaning Ghanaian will not allow himself or herself to be lured to a conflict which will eventually leave the country fragmented. What people must understand is that we have more elections before us as we trudge along. The do or die doctrine is pregnant with nothing but madness.
The world is already in turmoil with wars and rumours of wars. Anytime I tune in to my black and white TV and see devastation caused by wars across the world I pray to God to mercifully steer the country away from such madness. The sad aspect of political violence in this country is that, anytime politicians want the youth to go out there to cause trouble, they quickly go to the zongos for idle hands to do the dirty jobs whiles their children sit at home browsing their computers and reading their story books.
I have had cause to write in this column that anytime I pass by Nima, Agbogbloshie and other slums in Accra where our northern brothers and sisters are predominant, I curse the day I was born in Ghana. The truth is that politicians continue to commit crime against humanity when you see those slums and the abstract poverty the people there endure as compared to plush residential areas in Accra. If Dr. Kwame Nkrumah could turn Tema, a fishing village, to become what it is today, what keeps our politicians from turning Nima, which is located in the middle of Accra, the capital city to a modern community settlement like some of the communities in Tema. This is my story. This is my song. Full stop!
By Eric Bawah