By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Dec. 28, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

I personally don’t know these two men and have absolutely no interest, whatsoever, in either knowing or meeting them in person. My main concern here is what Ghanaians, especially the democracy-loving members of the opposition think and feel about Messrs. John Dramani Mahama, President, and John Kudalor, Acting Inspector-General of the Ghana Police Service (IGP). These two men are only of official interest to me because they wield enormous power and influence over the day-to-day affairs of millions of Ghanaian citizens and residents. And they both do not seem to have carved any particularly good name or reputation for themselves. At least as publicly envisaged by the leaders of the pro-opposition civil society pressure group Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA).

The LMVCA has charged Mr. Kudalor, the former Commissioner of Police (CoP) in charge of Operations, with having publicly expressed his unreserved approval of the brutal beating of a protest demonstrator who lost an eye. As I vividly recall, the victim’s eye has since been repaired by the genius application of modern science and technology. But it is almost certain that he would likely endure some painful level of the after-effects of such brutal beating for a very long time. Perhaps even for the rest of his life. Whatever the case may be, it cannot be gainsaid that Messrs. Mahama and Kudalor have far more in common than the LMVCA leaders may either know or care to recognize and/or appreciate.

For starters, it is very likely that the two men have known each other for quite a considerable while. They may have even become quite well acquainted with each other, especially when as Vice-President to the now-late President John Evans Atta-Mills, Mr. Mahama was named Ex-Officio Chairman of the Police Board and, in effect, Head of the National Security apparatus. Mr. Mahama also, as Chairman Jerry John Rawlings’ Communications Minister, made himself quite notorious as the inglorious architect of the terror-charged regime of “Shit-Bombing” that so thoroughly undermined the professional credibility of Ghanaian journalists, particularly the yeomanly ones who had worked diligently to deserve such designation.

Plus, Mr. Mahama belongs to and, in fact, cut his proverbial political teeth in a party with a long track-record of violence against bold and responsible citizens, dating back to the institutional antecedent of the presently so-called National Democratic Congress, that is, the erstwhile death-squad oriented Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC). We also know that unlike the other ranks, the post of Inspector-General of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) is one that is decidedly political. I guess what I am suggesting here is that birds of same feathers flock together.

In other words, Mr. Kudalor was named IGP not necessarily on merit or because he was the person best qualified for the job at the time he was so named. Rather, Mr. Kudalor was likely given the job because he was the top cop at Police Headquarters who psychologically most mirrored his Flagstaff House boss. And so it would be nothing short of wishful thinking for any of the LMVCA leaders, especially Convener David Asante, to expect or suppose that Mr. Kudalor would reform the alleged errors of his ways with the purportedly anodyne passage of time. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

To be certain, as the man becomes more entrenched and comfortable with his new post, he is likely to become even more callous and insensitive in his ways, especially as the 2016 general election approaches and he is made to feel obligated to the man who made him the biggest cheese of our foremost law-enforcement agency. And the likes of Mr. Asante had better prepare to confront the wintry reality of what it means to have Mr. Kudalor as Chief Law-Enforcer of Ghana, than being lamely and naively speculative about the same (See “Prove You Don’t Support Violence – LMVCA to New IGP” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/10/15).

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