General News of Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Source: Space FM,Sunyani

Ghana is No Kenya neither Ivory Coast -Boakye Djan

Space FM,SUNYANI - The Former Head of Government and Spokesperson of the Armed Force Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Osahene Boakye Djan, has warned the Flagbearer of the opposition NDC, Prof. Evans John Ata Mills and his followers to desist from utterances that may lead Ghana into chaos.

Speaking in Sunyani, the former Military giant, conceded that such irresponsible utterances plant fear among the people which was also a pre-election rigging mechanism.

Boakye Djan intimated that any political violence in the country would affect the political class and not the ordinary people as the history of Ghana clearly shows.

“ Ghana is no Kenya . Ghana is not Ivory Coast and indeed any other country where disputes over results are allowed to spill over and engulf only the ordinary people who then get slaughtered in their numbers while members of the ruling class and their families escape untouched”, he pointed out.

He stressed that since 1992 Ghana have had a relatively long stretch of political stability in the country and that it will be in the interest to protect and consolidate it.

“It is true that we have had problems here and there in this run of stability. The good news is that the stability has survived and endured in spite of the problems”, he stressed.

Osahene Boakye Djan pointed out that Ghana has structures and institutions in place to assist in taking corrective measures to solve such problems in order to protect the stability and guaranteed development. But they are all in the nature of pre-electoral concerns that can go on to be post electoral pretexts for subversion that is being talked up so glibly in Ghana today.

He said currently ethnic origin were allowed to determine voter preference for a political party to the extent that certain political parties have become “World Bank” of certain regions and ethnic groups.

According to the former Head of Government and Spokespersons, “the threat and the counter threat of this political footballing of post election rigging, there must be something in there that meets more than the eye can see”.

He said there were more institutions, rules, and regulations that must and can be enforced in the country and under the oversight of the complaining political parties to prevent post election rigging and threatened consequences flowing directly from the parties. “Curiously, they have decided not to do this and have rather chosen the path of confrontation and violence”.

“The time has come for us the silent majority in this country to speak up and tell them bluntly that while we may endure some of their antics, when they threatened mayhem, they alone must be made to bear its brunt and pain” he concluded.