Opinions of Sunday, 9 April 2017

Columnist: Kwarteng, Francis

The Story Goes That The NDC Created The Delta Force

In the wake of the Public Relations debacle, caused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by the criminal organization, the Delta Force among others, a number of conflicting theories have suddenly arisen as to the origination of this cottage industry of vigilante organizations in the narrative of Ghana’s political history—especially the Fourth Republic.

This is very interesting given the NPP’s newfound ambivalence toward this criminal organization, which the criminal leadership of this party of ethnocentric hegemonists, pseudo-democrats, fake political theologians, and anti-constitutionalists now claims its vigilante proaction helped the party clinch the 2016 general elections.

Contrary to popular opinion, this convenient hypothesis is not necessarily true in its foundational generality of political purpose, and yet far from its simplistic underpinnings of assumptive boldness and ideological strictures, too, far more complex covariates of social, political and economic realities figured prominently in the convoluted regression equation of politicking and electioneering strategies and tactics that eventually brought a landslide electoral success to the doorstep of the NPP.

This is not to say the profound seesaw we are witnessing in these origination theories amongst the leadership of the NPP on the one hand, and between the NPP and the NDC on the other hand, is not adding a new twist to the already tangled layers of confoundment bedeviling political commentators and critics such as this author. This is all done for the sake of political convenience.

Then again for reasons not too difficult to fathom, politicians always think they are smarter and discerning than popular sovereignty from which their the profiles of their political characterology, however characteristically unique this may be from the generality of the ruled, derives or owes its very substance of existence both in terms of phenomenology and beyond the non-absolute blurry confines of consciousness.

In fact what Niccolo Machiavelli called political realism has the required power of intrinsic momentum to transform the political consciousness of a people in a way that is almost difficult to sufficiently account for in many an example.

Political realism therefore is a primary mover of human consciousness—for better or for worse. This is what is presently staring in the face of the leadership of the NPP, which currently finds itself in a fix of its own making. The NPP’s string theory of political deception and lies potentially explains, somewhat, its lack of escape velocity in the black hole of political morality.

Indeed, our political leaders are suffering from false consciousness. While the chameleonic sphinx Freddie reportedly claims the Delta Force has been in operational existence since 2000 thereby implying that it helped propel Kufour into the Flagstaff House, and village champions and chatterboxes Kennedy Agyapong and Chairman Wontumi on the other hand have been suggesting that Kan Dapaah once worked with the group but is now shunning it because the ministerial privilege he enjoys today, others within the NPP and the Delta Force are also saying members of the Delta Force defected from the NDC.

Then there is the other competing theory that Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong created the Delta Force.

Yet it was the same Afoko who unveiled the strategic secrecy behind the leadership of the NPP to import, and subsequently importing, Serbian mercenaries into the country to train these political terrorists.

We have not forgotten the South African mercenaries this same leadership imported into the country and secreted away in forests.

More to the point, Madam Akua Donkor exhibited an uncommon knack for leadership failure in Ghana when she reportedly pontificated that “Akufo-Addo is more dangerous than Guantanamo Bay detainees.”

There is, as a matter of fact, a measure of tactical and strategic bluntness to her unlearned premonition. Yet her unlearned bluntness has all the hallmarks of stochastic truthfulness to it.

In other words strategic intelligence, wisdom, and foresight are not the exclusive preserve of the lettered.

Now, the sheer manifestable power of Madam Donkor’s unlearned augury is unfolding right before our eyes.

Our readers will also note that we took up Madam Donkor’s scandalous augury and amplified it, suggesting to Ghanaian voters to seriously take her policy position about Akufo-Addo under advisement as they went to the polls.

The chickens have indeed come home to roost.

The fact is that the diabolical character masks behind those afore-referenced competing theories and rumor mills should be unmasked—for what it’s worth.

But the current government which prides itself holistically on property-owning galamsey democracy, open-defecation politics and the rule of law, and so on is rather intentionally muddling the competing narratives on the origination theories vis-a-vis the Delta Force, by conveniently shifting the goalposts when its culpability in the present national security crises with regard to the unlawful behavior of the Delta Force rears its ugly head.

Akufo-Addo did play ostrich with this national security problem during the pre-election period.

This innocent, seemingly spotless hoax of a foxy politician ignored the inherently weak chaos theory in the cautionary tales of political and moral inaction presented to him at the time. Bob Marley was right (Listen to “Revolution”):

“Never make a politician grant you a favor

“They will always want to control you forever…

Are members of the Delta Force listening?

The entire experience is very much like reading Michael Crichton’s science fiction.

Why does it seem as though the character masks behind the origination theories are reading different scripts?

Why are these character masks operating on different wavelengths?

Why all these tactical and strategic ambiguities about the Invincible Forces and the Delta Force?

Even if the Delta Force is the brainchild of the NDC, is it not an affiliated offshoot of the NPP?

Didn’t its members help vote out the NDC—according to Chairman Wontumi and Kennedy Agyapong?

Why is the leadership of the NPP passing the buck then?

How did the leadership of the NPP come around to trust members of the Delta Force, alleged defectors from its political archenemy—the NDC?

Why is the leadership of the NPP now telling us the Delta Force is an offshoot of the NDC?

Why is the leadership of the NPP now attributing the vigilante behavior of the Delta Force to its members being unemployed?

Are we to say that the unemployed in the Invincible Forces as well as those we find in other vigilante groups associated with, say, the NDC, since the latter is out of power, should embark upon unlawful behaviors similar to the Delta Force’s?

Of course something’s got to give.

Unfortunately, it appears the NPP has exhausted its options in terms of the wide range of possibilities for job creation.

And this was a government that promised to transform Ghana in eighteen months.

What is it waiting for?

Time is running out for this government.

Akufo-Addo and his government have come full circle.

Now it is the turn of Kennedy Agyapong, Chairman Wontumi, and Akufo-Addo to also pay close attention to Lucky Dube’s lyrical content of “Political Games”:

“How do you feel when you lie, straight faced while people cry

“How do you feel when you promise something…?

“That you know you'll never do; giving false hope to the people

“Giving false hope to the underprivileged; do you really sleep at night?

“When you know you're living a lie; to you it is just a job; to the people it hurts to the bone

“Ooh political games that they play

“Do you really sleep at night? When you know you're living a lie

“You talking tough, you talking sincerely

“Giving false hope to the infected; giving false hope to the affected

“To you it is just a job; to the people it hurts to the bone

“Ooh political games that they play

CLOSING REMARKS

To wait for the NDC to come to power in order for it to deal with the national security threat posed by these vigilante groups is not an option we should entertain at all. This is largely because the NPP, backed by one of its core supporters of religious prophets and soothsayers and political theologians, says the NDC is never coming back to power—at least not in the next forty years.

This is a pressing issue that demands urgent redress in a court of competent jurisdiction. We are hereby referring to the case involving the Delta Force which is presently before a court of law. The Akufo-Addo government must ensure this case is properly, efficiently, and legally dispensed with in a way that demonstrates its willingness to protect Ghanaian citizens, properties and men and women tasked to handle such sensitive cases free from reprisal attacks and undue political interferences.

Whether this government will accommodate these demands, exercise its jurisdiction over such matters, let alone accomplish them remains in the speculative constraints of extreme partisan politics, political patronage, abuse of incumbency, arrogance of power, and doing everything in its power to protect its political capital and goodwill. It will require a lot of goodwill to manage this level of damage control this Public Relations fiasco has caused it, though. But at the same time it will also seem like a case of political autosarcophagy if this government dare pursue this case to its logical conclusion.

The scenario sort of looks more like the concept of “sovereignty immunity” stretched beyond its means of application? Can government or a state commit a legal wrong in this matter if it goes ahead to sue itself and ends up being imprisoned when found guilty of the charge against it? We should not, however, forget that the Delta Force (and its counterparts) is operating as a shadow bureaucracy of sorts under the leadership of these pseudo-democrats. This is quite dangerous.

Political self-cannibalism is not an idea these pseudo-democrats will entertain, for, after all, political survival does not and will not depend upon it. Do we have any idea why Mahama freed Montie 3?

But time will tell.

We shall return…