Some of us, as a matter of principle, do not want to buy into the seemingly isolated thinker’s view that the ruling NPP government is conniving with the Electoral Commission to prevent some eligible Ghanaians from partaking in the 2024 general elections.

Insofar as politicians and their teeming supporters are desperately seeking power, it does not in any way give them the audacity to engage in gratuitous incitements as a means to score cheap political points.

Needless to say, electoral tensions before, during, and after elections have culminated in conflicts in countries such as Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, among others.

The conflicts in those countries did not happen overnight; the perpetrators started the process gradually. They wanted to win power at all costs.

The widespread violence following relatively orderly balloting in elections in Kenya on 27 December 2007 and in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 underscores the significance of understanding electoral tension before, during, and after elections.

As a matter of fact, Ghana—your country, my country—must not and cannot go that way!

His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama was not cracking a hilarious joke when he poured his heart out a few years ago, stating that the National Democratic Congress has a revolutionary root and when it comes to unleashing extreme violence, no one can beat them.

Ex-President Mahama, who is moving heaven and earth to reclaim the presidency, is reported to have said somewhat lividly: “We are not going to joke in 2020, and I’m sounding a warning to the NPP – we are going to match them boot for boot.

“I want to sound a caution that NDC has a revolutionary root and when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can beat us to that. It is just that we are mindful of this country’s democracy and that is why we must be the first to respect it.

“That is why we are acting as a party that is docile and respecting rule of law.

“But if we believe that the government cannot protect our people and we believe that the government is using its vigilante groups and illegal forces to intimidate, harass, and injure our people, then we may have to advise ourselves (classfmonline.com).”

I have stressed several times that some of us regrettably witnessed the revoltingly ugly events which took place over a period of three decades (1970-1990s) and therefore cannot be hoodwinked by the inveterate propagandists to accept that political violence is not synonymous with NDC.

Unfortunately, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was formed on the ideals of militant vigilantism, and therefore it is extremely nauseating and somewhat baffling to hear the baseless claims from the NDC quarters that the party is not synonymous with violence.

The story is told, though vividly, that in their desperate attempts to defend their illegitimate power and lay the foundation for supposedly true democracy in Ghana, the founders of the NDC officially set up paramilitary organs such as the People’s Defence Committee (PDC), the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO), which was popularly known as the Militia and the Workers Defence Committee (WDC), where the last two organs were later reorganised and renamed as the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), whose collective mandate was to defend the revolution by hook or by crook.

The CDRs were established in villages, urban communities, and workplaces and intended to be the organs of popular power and political initiative.

In addition, Forces' Defence Committees were established in the armed forces and the police service.

The June Four Movement was a militant mass revolutionary movement dedicated to keeping alive the ideals of the June 4 1979 uprising that Rawlings had led. It sought to arouse the population at large to assist in establishing so-called people's power within the avowed objectives of the revolutionary process.

“The PDCs and the WDCs (Workers Defence Committees) had their own courts and "meted out justice according to no established legal procedures” [Amnesty International, 1983).

Unsurprisingly, therefore, the PNDC's political opposition back then vehemently contested the democratic nature of such organs and saw them as nothing but state-sponsored vigilantes engaged in intimidation and human rights abuses (Source: U.S. Library of Congress).

We must not lose sight of the fact that most civil wars, crimes and genocides which were perpetrated against humanity were arguably expedited through the use of violence aimed at securing popular support for illegal action.

Make no mistake, electoral violence before and during elections threatens the security of a nation.

In ending, let us beseech the lunatic fringe of Ghanaian politicians and their teeming supporters to refrain from any acts of violence that can disturb the peace and security of the country before, during and after the general elections because the good people of Ghana do not wish the apocalypse of electoral violence.