Ghana celebrated its 63rd Independence anniversary on 6th March 2020 and posterity shall be the judge of the generation of Ghanaians born between the year 1950 to 1970 many of whom are currently aged between 50 -70 years should they fail to educate the current generation, especially the youth aged between 18 years to 30 years; on which political party (political tradition) is the enemy of progress in Ghana. Today’s youth especially those going to vote for the first time on 7th December 2020 must know the identity of “the enemy within” and Ghana’s political nemesis.
The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana has so far enjoyed the longest continuous run spanning 28 years of multiparty democratic political governance and has recorded three consecutive political transitions and smooth handover of political power between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Credit for successes chalked so far by Ghana’s fourth political adventure having hitherto witnessed three unsuccessful attempts at multiparty democratic governance during the failed First, Second, and Third Republican Constitutional dispensations goes largely to ordinary Ghanaians who participated in the Consultative Assembly following the boycott by representatives of the nemesis of Ghana’s democratic political governance, and their proxies in the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
The misadventures of the “Men on Horseback” as described by Professor Albert Adu-Boahen (Emeritus Professor of History and NPP’s first presidential candidate under the Fourth Republic) notwithstanding, Ghanaians owe a depth of gratitude to the enigmatic Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (First President under the Fourth Republic) for the success and progress chalked so far in Ghana’s democratic credentials.
“The truth cannot be deceptive, and one who sees it cannot be deceived” – (Said Nursi, Turkish Theologian)
How many Ghanaian’s remember the 13-year-old schoolgirl Elizabeth Asantewaa who lost her leg when a bomb concealed in a bouquet of flowers she presented to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah exploded during a presidential visit to Kulungugu in the Upper East Region of Ghana on August 1962? The young schoolgirl now Madam Elizabeth Asantewaa is still alive, and her survival of the Kulungugu bombing is a reminder of what the “enemy within” is capable of doing to Ghana, and to an innocent schoolgirl?
How many Ghanaian’s remember Police Superintendent Salifu Dargati, a bodyguard of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who laid down his life and sacrificed himself by taking an assassin’s bullet to protect the president in an assassination attempt at the Flagstaff House, the official seat of Government and residence of the president?
How many Ghanaians know that there were five unsuccessful assassination attempts on Dr. Kwame Nkrumah before he was eventually overthrown in the 1996 coup that was sponsored by elements of the “enemy within” in collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA?
How may Ghanaian remember that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) won genuine “free and fair” democratic elections supervised by British colonial Election Administrators including the landmark elections held on 19 June 1954 that the CPP won 72 out of 104 seats when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was in jail at the Ussher Fort Prison in Jamestown?
“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished” – (Nelson Mandela; “Long Walk to Freedom”)
What Ghana is currently experiencing under the Presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo is reminiscent of what happened at the dawn of Ghana’s Independence and up to the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1996. The present activities of marauding NPP vigilante groups and paramilitary forces like the Invisible Forces, Delta Forces and their implants inserted in the illegal “National Security Regiment” etc. is no different from the “faceless insurgents” who terrorized Ghana even before the euphoria of Ghana’s Independence from Britain had died down as they started throwing bombs and carried out assassination attempts on Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and innocent citizens of Ghana many of whom had only committed the “cardinal sin” of supporting Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and CPP.
What crime did Dr. Kwame Nkrumah commit in spearheading Ghana’s Independence from Britain on 6th March 1957, and also declaring Ghana as a Republic on 1st July 1960? Is there any connection between the first mischief committed by President Nana Akufo-Addo shortly after his presidential inauguration on 7th January 2017 and during his first “State of the Nation address” when he signaled that going forward 4th August was to be celebrated as a public day – “Founders day”? The significance of the date 4th August is that it signified the date that the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) a political party founded by his grandfather Nana Sir Ofori-Atta 1 and Uncles Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah, and William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) had established. Equally important was Nana Akufo-Addo’s decision to cancel the celebration of Republic Day 1st July as a public holiday a date that signified the day Ghana fully severed its political umbilical cord from Britain and became an independent Republic State.
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived” – (Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian Diplomat, and Philosopher)
The bizarre political developments currently being witnessed under the Nana Akufo-Addo and Mahamudu Bawumia NPP presidency such as the dictatorial tendencies, political intimidation, and political intolerance, muzzling of the press critical of Nana Akufo-Addo and NPP, the monumental acts of “nepotism and cronyism”, “acts of conflict of interest”, and contamination of independent State and Public Institutions like the Judiciary, Military, Police, Civil Service, Electoral Commission, etc. with hardcore unapologetic party card-bearing sycophantic NPP activists, is a hallmark of the politics and governance style of the Busia-Danquah-Dombo political tradition, the forbears of the NPP, and the archenemy of democratic political governance in Ghana.
The Fourth Republic bears testimony to the anti-democratic tendencies of the NPP and their refusal to accept the outcome of “free and fair” elections that they genuinely lost. To buttress this the following represents some of their anti-democratic election behavior:
- Publication of the book titled “The Stolen Verdict” when Professor Adu-Boahen lost the 1992 presidential elections.
- The “Amicus curare” incident in 2008 where an act akin to sleight of hand was initiated by lawyers of Nana Akufo-Addo whom on a weekend (public holiday) sought to place a Court Injunction on the Tain by-election which all political parties contesting the 2008 presidential elections had agreed was to be the decider for the presidential elections.
- The 2012-2013 unjustified Supreme Court Election petition which placed Ghana on an animated suspension for 10 months during which period Government business and the Ghanaian economy was brought to a standstill.
- Finally, in 2016 Nana Akufo-Addo won an election and became president on his third attempt. Interestingly Kennedy Agyapong, NPP Member of Parliament for Assin Central publicly stated that Nana Addo didn’t win the 2016 elections fairly (Reference; Ghanaweb 5th July 2017)
It is my humble contention that the “enemy within” and archenemy of democracy in Ghana is the Akyem Kyebi wing of the NPP. The Ashanti wing of NPP as exemplified by former President John Agyekum Kufuor are true patriots and true democrats.
Ghanaians should not for a moment think that the incidents by the so-called West Togoland secessionists are genuine isolated incidents because they bare the tell-tale signs and could be an orchestration by elements of the “enemy within”.
I appeal to Ghanaians to seek the face of God and divine intercession and pray that Nana Akufo-Addo doesn’t hesitate to concede defeat after the results of the 7th December 2020 elections are declared.
Opanin Archimedes Owusu-Ababio
Eastern Region
The views and opinions expressed herein are the private views of the contributors and do not reflect the views of the organization Pulse.