Mark Woyongo's unethical and unprofessional effusion has turned out to be one of the most reckless statements made by a minister of state in recent times. During the recently held by-election in Talensi, the Azorka boys of NDC unleashed a barbaric and vicious attack on members of the opposition NPP. In responding to this unruly and violent conduct of the Azorka boys, the minister of interior, Mark Woyongo, could only remark that "violence begets violence". (See "Violence begets violence' is statement of fact – Woyongo", Ghanaweb General News of Thursday, 9 July 2015).
By this statement, Woyongo is clearly endorsing violence as the way to settle disputes during elections. In that case Ghanaians would have to brace themselves for a jungle style election. Such a statement, coming from a minister of state responsible for domestic law and order, is downright uncivil, un-Ghanaian and unpatriotic. It is obvious that Mark Woyongo, a cadre of the PNDC revolution, is still stuck with the (P)NDC mentality of crude insensitivity that devalues the peace that the nation is enjoying. Such reckless thinking deserves the utmost condemnation from civil society, and must never be entertained.
It has been for the likes of Woyongo that Africa continues to be ravaged by political violence that has rendered the continent less productive than expected. The bane of the continent's development has largely been tribal, civil and political conflicts. Ghana's neighbor, La Cote d'Ivoire, and other African countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Congo have had to endure untold suffering as a result of political violence stemming from reckless and provocative utterances by people in political leadership in those countries. Thousands lost their lives, and thousands more were displaced as a result.
Lessons learned from these catastrophes have compelled Ghanaians to jealously guard their invaluable peace by co-existing peacefully with each other. It is evident that the stakes will be very high in election 2016, and as such it is very critical that we guard against any political upheaval. We expect the security agencies to be at their professional best and win the confidence of the people, as agents of peace who will act fairly without fear or favor. Thus, we least expect an interior minister of the land who heads these agencies to wade into volatile situations such as happened in Talensi with his kind of infantile response. His "violence begets violence" response to the threat of destabilization posed by the political macho-ism of that lunatic fringe of the NDC called the Azorka Boys, is most unfortunate.
The nation cannot go into the 2016 elections knowing that the minister of the interior, Mark Woyongo, who has clearly shown total disregard for the peace of the Nation, is still at post. The peace of the nation cannot be guaranteed in that regard, for he has lost the confidence of Ghanaians to protect our cherished peace as his office dictates.
NPP-USA is therefore calling on John Mahama to sack Mark Woyongo and save the interior ministry from the further denting of its image by the sector minister. Knowing very well that the security agencies are under the interior ministry, it is only prudent that Mark Woyongo be pushed out to make way for someone who can gain the trust of Ghanaians between now and election 2016; and work toward the sense of peace and unity which risks being damaged by Woyongo's reckless comment. For "an eye for an eye" will leave all of us blind.