President John Evans Atta Mills, at a recent meeting with the United Nations (UN) General Secretary, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, in New York, made mention of what he termed ‘ugly noises’ in Ghana that suggest that the country will be plunged into war in the 2012 general elections.

At the high profile meeting, which took place at the North Lawn UN Headquarters at 1st Avenue, 46th Street in New York, President Mills had this to say to the UN Secretary General: “I know that you are hearing some ugly noises but those noises will not be allowed to see the light of day.” The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has in the past few months made it a deliberate campaign strategy to persistently beat war drums ahead of the 2012 general elections. Many a guru of the NPP has variedly and severally threatened violence and bloodshed in the country if the NPP loses the elections yet again in 2012. Apart from the opposition party’s once defeated flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who set the ball rolling with his ‘yen Akan fuo, all die be die,’ war cry, notable among the NPP ‘ugly noise’ makers are current party Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, former party chairman, Peter Mac Manu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong, current general secretary, Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, alias Sir John and current national organiser, Muctar Bamba.

The ‘Ugly Noises’

Nana Akufo-Addo

At an indoor meeting with party activists in the Eastern regional capital, Koforidua, the NPP flagbearer tried to sew a seed of ethic-based political violence in next year’s elections. Like a commander psyching his men up for war, the desperate NPP flagbearer had this to say:

“Akans are not the cowards that we are perceived to be by the other tribes. The little violence that we displayed at Atiwa was just the tip of the iceberg of what NPP will do in 2012.” He indicated that 2012 is going to be a do-and-die affair, saying after all, all die be die, to wit, every death is death. The NPP flagbearer also told the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology branch of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) that “We [NPP] need to win the election of 2012 at all cost.”

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey

The NPP chairman on his part did not only accentuate the ethnic-based violent sentiments of his flagbearer. He took the unfolding drama to another level by giving it an international colouring.

Jake said “The majority of the people in Ivory Coast are Akans. The large parts of the ethnic groups in Ghana are Akans. The other tribes and things- you know the colonial [masters] did a line so this side of the line is Ghana; that side of the line is Cote d’Ivoire. And the line goes through a number of villages. So it means the people on this side are actually the same as the people on that side.”

“If they can have violence in Cote d’Ivoire where does it say we can’t have violence in Ghana? Where does it say that the people of Ghana are such dummies that they are going to allow themselves to be cheated of their birthright whereas the people in Cote d’Ivoire say they won’t allow themselves to be cheated?”

“We have to assume that the same thing, the same reaction, can come from the same people.”

Peter Mac Manu

The former national chairman of the NPP was the one who in a blind excitement revealed part of the modus operandi of the violence plot by the Danquah-Busiaists. On Citi FM and Joy FM, Accra-based radio stations, Peter Mac Manu said the NPP was arming its members and supporters with guns, among other deadly weapons, to fight the NDC in the 2012 elections. The violence, which he emphasised would be widespread and well coordinated, he insisted would take all forms and shapes.

Kennedy Agyapong

Considered as somebody who talks before thinking, the maverick mouth shooting NPP MP, who has a bold drug tag on him revealed what to be expected of the intended violence to be perpetuated by the NPP in the elections on assumption that the party has been cheated at the polls. Speaking to Citi News recently, the Assin North MP stated, “If we don’t have peaceful elections in this country and Koku Anyidoho thinks he can use the military, the macho men to intimidate and rig elections, Ghana would not be like Kenya, Ghana would be like Rwanda.” He claimed that “We want peace, nobody wants to fight in this country…but an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…this time we would not sit down for NDC to intimidate anybody, if they hit one we would hit three.”

Muctar Bamba

Alhaji Bamba, the national organiser of the NPP, on his part, claims there is a conspiracy by the NDC and its government machinery to manipulate the 2012 general elections in their favour.

Speaking to Citi News, Alhaji Bamba said the NDC’s refusal to go for the biometric verification is a proof to his claims.

“What we are fighting for is free and fair election, if there is going to be a registration in March, from now to March we are going to see what will happen,” he said. “Without the verification, then we should forget about it [biometric] and go for the old system.”

“We can’t sit down for people to be cheating us and do what they want to do without us doing anything.”

Sir John The NPP General Secretary appears to be living in his own world of fantasies where he has constantly been issuing threats against President Mills and the chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Afari Djan. He indicates his party’s preparedness to visit mayhem on the country if the elections, in the thinking of the NPP, are rigged.

President Mills’ track record

Since the 2000 elections, President Mills as the presidential candidate of the NDC has lived above board. That alone is enough to allay the fears of all right-thinking Ghanaians and the world at large that the NDC presidential candidate is not interested in stealing elections in order for his party to either remain in power or gain power. He demonstrated that in 2000 by conceding defeat to President-elect John Agyekum Kufuor even before his party, the NDC could say Jack.

Again in 2004, the NDC believed the NPP rigged the elections but then Candidate Mills again without hesitation accepted the results and promised to fight another day.

What about Akufo-Addo in 2008 elections?

As he promised in 2004, Candidate Mills did fight again in 2008 and defeated Akufo-Addo, who had to be literally dragged out of his hole by his own party to acknowledge the final results as declared by the chairman of the Electoral Commission. This was not before the NPP flagbearer tried everything within his power to win at all cost. Nana Akufo-Addo’s own 2008 campaign communications director, Dr Kwabena Arthur Kennedy in his book ‘Chasing the Elephant into the Bush’ exposed the NPP flagbearer to that effect.

In the recent wikileaks publications, Dr Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Centre and advisor to Nana Akufo-Addo reportedly said that if there was going to be violence in the 2008 elections, the NPP, which he supports, was going to be responsible for it and not the NDC.

NPP’s propaganda

The NPP is yet to prove to Ghanaians its so-called suspicion that the NDC government is planning to rig the elections. Indications are that the NPP, instead, is sensing defeat ahead of the elections and is engaged in a deliberate act of poisoning the atmosphere for a bloodbath in a probable zero-sum game. It is also a fact that the NPP’s quick reference to the Volta region as a land of savages where NPP agents are ‘eaten alive’ during elections is a grand scheme of showing utter disrespect for the region, and intended to fool everybody.

Mills to Ban Ki-Moon

President Mills, who reaffirmed that he does not have an inordinate desire to be president however made it clear to the UN Secretary General that “I will not allow Ghana to burn under my watch and I want the UN to support me in this endeavour,” insisting that the wish of the majority of the people will remain protected and secured and no warmonger will be allowed to hold sway. The President added that “God forbid that Ghana will be destroyed under my watch! I can assure that inasmuch as we are confident that we will gain the confidence of Ghanaians to have another term, we will also make sure that all those who want to destroy our peace and stability are dealt with decisively.”