As the 2012 general election which will determine who controls Ghana’s oil draws near, these inevitable and haunting questions- of what awaits the NDC in 2012 should the power players within it end up unable to rise above the bitter struggle that has ensued and engulfed our internal body politic, of whether or not NDC founder Jerry John Rawlings will root for President Mills in 2012 general elections which will determine who controls Ghana’s oil despite his vote of no confidence on him, questions of whether the former first lady of Ghana and NDC flag bearer contender NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS will join forces with President Mills against Nana Akuffo Addo of the NPP or will she stamp her foot even more indelibly in our body politic by running as an independent candidate- these questions will remain lingering in our minds and the more often we ask plus the louder we do the asking, the quicker our experience of the answers. And I dare say that the question of building bridges within the NDC not just for the purposes of winning power against the NPP in 2012- for the exercise of sovereign power without principles underlining it is even more detrimental to the sovereign or general will of a people- but to enable the NDC soberly return to the fundamental values that form it’s bedrock and its quest for power- these questions may come in different forms but the answer is in one man’s hand- President Mills. Yes, he must answer the moral question.
I’m emphatic about this. I get people asking me these questions whenever I’m available to answer them via every medium. And what I notice is that many people are only looking at it from one side- the wrong side. Yes, unity must come from our collective quest for it. Even with the different interests within the NDC, our opposition to a third interest- the NPP-should produce a harmony between our internal diffrent interests. That’s what the fundamental thinkers in moral and political philosophy have said. Be that as it may, the moral mandate comes into force here. And yes, President Mills may personally have little- if at all- to loose in the event of a failure of the NDC to unite and retain power in 2012- after all he has made it succinctly clear to us all that a one-term presidency for him is as good as that of a two-term as long as ‘his maker’ is satisfied with his performance as president. Meaning; God is the judge of his performance as president not the people. So: if a people judge him and the NDC out of the presidency, it will be a no judgment and he will be unperturbed.
If this is the premise, will the re-unification of the NDC party to ensure and secure victory for 2012 be such a priority for the President our leader? It doesn’t seem like the answers are coming as fast and loud as the questions. It was a good gimmick when President Mills stated in his speech after congress in Sunyani that he is cognizant of the indispensable element of unity that must follow the primary campaign bickering. He got applause for the speech. Events, actions, inaction, private and public statements and comments emanating from the president and his loyalists following the speech have all been aimed at achieving within the NDC the exact opposite of what the moral mandate requires of him- disunity. I wonder if the president and his surrogates are still getting applause.
I have learnt that lying can be very addictive and especially to oneself. When you tell a first lie, you are bound to tell another to sustain the first lie. When the cycle continues, it gets to a point you become captive to your own delusion. And that’s exactly what I’m seeing here in my dear party NDC. Looking at the posture of our brothers and sisters with power in the castle led by President Mills, it would seem to some of us that, they will have to behave as if unity in the NDC especially with the view to bringing on board the Rawlings’ for campaign 2012 is an insignificant factor in the NDC’s chances for victory- and this new lie just to be able to sustain the provably false notion that President Mills is 96.9% massively popular enough to secure a victory- even if a 3.1% bold and principled significant and critical minority is indifference.
From sending their media allies out there to make unfounded claims and tell pure lies about so-called ‘conditionalities’ from the NDC founder in exchange for his support in 2012, they have now proceeded to maliciously poison party members against meeting NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS on her nation-wide thank-you tour with the reason that she is intending to run as an independent candidate and destroy the NDC. See who are talking about destruction of the NDC? The same people who have diluted, corrupted and even conveniently buried the party’s values and created deep cracks within are now talking about the destruction of a party that now needs rescue. All this is meant to perpetuate the existing disunity. Why, we went for congress and there was a verdict. The President- the winner- has not taken a single step- not even an empty unifying statement- towards bringing on board his contender in the primaries. What President Mills’ supporters are busying their selves with at this crucial time rather is to throw out uninformed speculations-turn poison out there among the rank and file based on their own calculations of what next political step NANA KONADU WILL take. And guess what? Their speculation can only be boarded around the theme of disunity- as though they actually want to encourage Mrs. Rawlings to run as independent candidate. Well, maybe that is what they really want. They certainly must be wild dreamers.
Interestingly, some people who used to think like some of us- people who were critical of this same attitude from the presidency- are suddenly apologetic- even if covered in insincerity and for opportunistic motivations. They have started issuing so-called ‘selective apologies’ for ‘selective statements’ made about president Mills and his government in the past. ‘There is the need to build bridges, we were first NDC before we were FONKAR OR GAME’ said one self-styled ‘Rawlings disciple’ AKA RAS MUBARAK. Excellent speech but my questions remain unequivocal; who is to initiate the building project? Who is to draw the plan for the building of the bridges? Who is to sponsor the bridge building project? President Mills- of course.
Therefore, no one within the NDC- especially not insignificant persons- can claim to be taking initiatives towards ‘bridge building’ when indeed, it is nearly evident that the President and his friends don’t believe in ‘bridges’ especially if these bridges are going to link them to the RAWLINGS’. Why would they want to be linked with a family and legacy they have worked religiously to delink from? It is as if we don’t know that the same people with the moral mandate to initiate this so-called bridge building are responsible for the collapse of the bridge that we must now be building to rescue the NDC. I’m even wondering, and I wish those going to the President to apologize in their quest to build bridges, would tell us, with hand on heart, if indeed, President Mills welcomed their moot effort or he showed absolute disdain for it. I can always guess the stand president Mills will take any day. So: those who request some of us to also apologize our stands against President Mills must know that some of us are neither naïve nor are we blinded, unprincipled and uncalculating opportunists. In my books, apologies or bridge buildings must be led by the leaders who are the architects of our present culture as a party in government. After all, our dissenting voices have largely been a product and a reaction to the newly introduced separatists’ culture within the NDC also known as the ‘new NDC’ led by president Mills.
If you want to tell what president Mills truly makes of those of you making a mockery of yourselves with your apologies to him, just watch how his teaming ‘primitive loyalists’ are reacting to your actions. Some of them in their extreme naivety and over exuberance have even written and spoken privately and publicly that ‘all the Mills critics within the NDC or rather all the NANA KONADU supporters who are now privately apologizing to the president should rather go back to the mass media through which the criticisms were made before apologies are accepted’. And this is coming from some of the most insignificant supporters re-echoing the words of their masters and exposing the inner pettiness that is actually our bane. Does this signal something significant to those apologizing? Well, it does appear that some people in power hate unity within the NDC with a passion though they talk about the need for it.
Whiles all these intrigues are going on, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is getting more and more confident of victory in election 2012 to the extent that all their work to recapture power in 2012 has been reduced to just a prayer. And their prayer is a simple one which can be practically answered without a need for a miracle. That: the NDC founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife not campaign for President Mills and the NDC- the last obstacle and only real obstacle to their quest to recapture power. May be since the President is such a pious Christian, his natural inclination will be to intercede to have the NPP’s prayer answered. But I say to President Mills BE BOLD to undo the lie that you’re your own man within the NDC and Ghana politics without the unflinching support of the NDC founder before you’re crushed by the opposition NPP. And to make matters worse, the former President and NDC founder has been deeply involved in humanitarian work as an AU high representative in the search for peace in Somalia and fight against famine in the entire horn of Africa. With his active involvement in this crucially humanitarian endeavor, I wonder what it will take for president Mills to have the NDC founder on the campaign trail in 2012. Plus, the founder has stated publicly that he will not campaign for Mills in 2012. It will be interesting to see how president Mills and his new friends will manage to bring this man back home for a political campaign they themselves have believed and insinuated publicly and privately that the founder will not influence its outcome. And this yet another palpable lie needing sustenance.
All this brings me to one temporary conclusion: With former president Jerry John Rawlings’ almost certainly out of the election 2012 campaign for the president, the only other CROWD PULLER for the NDC to match the NPP is MONEY. That was the tool used by the NPP in 2008. They cannot even deny it. They are still very much reliant on it for the next election. The people have fully commercialized our universal suffrage. Go into any community of your choice in Ghana now and ask for hundred (100) people to come listen to you talk to them without paying them for walking from their homes and see if you will get an audience the next time. It is a pity but it is true.
The BIG question is where will the money come from for the crucial election 2012?
In my books, there are two main sources for all leading political parties in Ghana. May be three. The third source can’t secure any of the political parties’ victory because it is the honest source of money-honest contribution from members and supporters. The first source is DRUG MONEY, the second is STOLEN MONEY. At first, there was deterrence in Ghana especially following from 79 when public officials paid the ultimate price for their involvement in stealing state money. I doubt if that still exists as President Atta has been widely perceived to be encouraging it with his policy of ‘let things be’. It remains a risky avenue though as some of us will continue to crusade for accountability by public officials any day. Be it NDC or NPP officials. Drug money is the perpetually UNACCOUNTABLE SOURCE. As we get near the crucial election, the cartel will sure be more than king makers- they will determine for the people.
According to a recent and detailed report on Ghana titled ‘GHANA, assessing risks to stability’ by the center for strategic and international studies (CSIS) a US-based organization which provides strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to decision makers in government, international institutions, the private sector and civil society in general, the development of Accra as a hub for cocaine and heroin trade from Latin America , along with central and south-east Asia is threatening to transform criminal activities and corrupt political life in Ghana. The profits from the transshipment of drugs are too great to forgo, and a new class of educated, politically well connected drug entrepreneurs is emerging.
The UN office on drugs and crime estimates that 60 tons of cocaine worth $2billion passes through West Africa every year. The report warns that unless concerted attempts are made to combat the drug trade, there is a danger that it will corrode the effectiveness of the police, custom service and the legal system and ultimately undermine the legitimacy of the state. The NDC has made serious accusations against the NPP for alleged links to drugs money during it’s time in office. And there is little doubt if we remember in January 2004 police and customs seized 675 kg of cocaine estimated at $140million, from a frozen storage facility at the Tema harbor, owned by a Ghanaian business man of good standing who later turned out to be a drug baron. Several parcels of same drugs disappeared from police custody during this period. Then in 2005, an NPP MP Eric Amoateng was arrested in New York by US law enforcement officials for trafficking $6million worth of heroine. Even though he first denied the charges, he later pleaded guilty and is now doing time for his folly.
And according to recent leaked cables published by Wikileaks from the US-Embassy in Accra, Ghana’s drug problem is increasing in scope. In February 2010, president Mills reportedly told the U.S assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, that Ghana was struggling with drug trafficking and increased drug use and he feared a ‘bleak future for the Ghanaian people’. Three months earlier, a cable from the U.S Ambassador to Accra, Donald Teitelbaum, reported that Atta-Mills wanted drug screening introduced at the presidential lounge at the Accra airport to deter any member of his entourage who may be tempted to smuggle drugs. A separate cable suggested that members of the NDC government had been compromised by involvement in the trade and even added that airport officials were known to tip off traffickers about impending operations by NACOB.
It remains difficult for some of us to believe that either party will remain immune to the attractions of drug money as the crucial 2012 elections which obviously will determine who controls Ghana’s oil money draws near. The temptation to tap every resource- legal and illegal- may prove irresistible. If the cartel determines who wins, it goes without saying that they will control Ghana’s oil money and that may be the ‘bleak future for Ghanaians’ that our president anticipates.
Amenga-Etego SaCut
NDC youth activist
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