(Part I)

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Folks, when I read news reports that the NPP has consulted the United Kingdom over Ghana’s voters register (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/NPP-consults-with-UK-over-voters-register-386349), I bowed my head in abject shame. I wondered how far the NPP will go with its political immaturity and overly impudent quests to have things done its way.

Having submitted its report to the Electoral Commission—and having been assured by the EC that its concerns would be assessed alongside whatever the other political parties and stakeholders have said about the voters register—why is the NPP impatient and intolerant to carry its intrigues to outsiders? What does the NPP think that the UK can do that Ghana’s EC and political parties cannot do to solve internal problems? I asked myself many more questions and concluded that the NPP people have a lot up their sleeves to be watched closely.
My good friends, there is no shred of doubt in my mind that the NPP has a huge hidden agenda to cause trouble in Ghana when (not if) it loses Election 2016. From what it has been doing and from the public posturing and utterances of its key figures, we can predict their tactical moves framed around many disturbing claims, mostly not supported by evidence.
Their manouevres on the voters register stand tall. Even before taking their case to the EC, they had begun mongering fear in the public that the EC was an enemy to be fought on their way to winning political power at all costs. Consider the barrage of outbursts and open threats against the EC and you should see things more closely. Then, place their claim that the EC is in bed with the NDC and you should know why they are undermining the electoral system, coming out with wild allegations about names of Togolese on Ghana’s electoral roll. Or that the NDC has access to the EC’s data base.
Street protests by their surrogates (LMVCA, for instance) and open support for its stance on the voters register from the clergy, chiefs, press, civil society groupings, for instance, speak volumes to accentuate their kind of political mischief.
The agenda to take their case to ECOWAS, even at the time that the EC hadn’t considered their protest against the existing voters register, says a lot. Why should they go that way when nothing had come from the EC and other stakeholders to suggest that the matter won’t be handled locally? Why go international with their concerns?
Now that they have begun pestering the international community supporting Ghana, they leave us with only one conclusion: that they are bent on tarnishing the country’s image for nothing. Who says that Ghana’s democracy is at risk just because the NPP claims the voters register is flawed?
Why won’t Akufo-Addo lead efforts to unite his own party and position it for the battle ahead? From happenings, we can tell that the NPP is weaker under Akufo-Addo than it was under the late Professor Adu Boahen and former President Kufuor. Why not deal with the internal crisis so the party can move forward to appeal to the voters? After all, it is the voters who matter most, not the voters register. Vigilance on Election Day will solve problems that the NPP is wasting time and resources on.
Folks, when we put everything together, we will see the composite picture of the NPP clearly. Locally, it is a collage of diverse and divisive political interests that portend danger. Nationally, it is a patchwork of power-hungry people whose daily political posturing confirms fears that they are seeking political power for diverse purposes to be feared. Internationally, they portray nothing but dangerous desperation to be closely monitored and clamped down on if they threaten national security and stability. In truth, then, we can see the NPP as too over-ambitious for our comfort.
Its leaders are at each other’s throat while throwing dust into their followers’ eyes to intensify their backhanded political intrigues and manipulate the situation to an undeserved advantage. What haven’t they done since losing political power to make the world believe that without them, nothing will work well for Ghana?
In all that they are doing, leaving behind them ugly traces of their political mischief, they create only one impression: that they are out of touch with contemporary national politics; that they are not conversant with modern-day political trends; and that they have no faith in themselves to win political power in Ghana on the basis of the country’s own political imperatives. They have condemned themselves as such and cannot be trusted to manage Ghana’s affairs.
They raise only one disturbing question about themselves as far as managing national affairs is concerned: Can they be trusted to keep Ghana safe if ever given the mandate to rule? Of course, by the irritating utterances of its leading members, the NPP comes across as aggressively divisive, more so when its own internal instability reinforces fears that it is a divided house that cannot keep Ghana and its citizens together. No one needs any special help to know the danger that it poses. Yet, its leaders are busily expending energy and resources all over the place to twist arms for political expediency.
There is a historical imperative to consider. The question is: Why did Britain agree with Dr. Nkrumah to grant independence to the Gold Coast despite the orchestrations, machinations, and intrigues of the NLM/United Party under Danquah and Busia? Why did Britain agree with Dr. Nkrumah that Ghana should be a unitary state and not a federal one as pursued by Danquah and Busia?
Why did Britain accept to lower its Union Jack for the Ghanaian flag? That after 58 years, Ghana would return to it to seek its mandate for cleansing its political stables and renewing a voters register as is being pursued by the NPP? What, then, is the significance of the political independence gained by the country?
What exactly is the raison d’etre for the NPP’s protest to Britain and the international community (as if they don’t already know that Ghana’s political system is among the best in the world, even if still grappling with the challenges characteristic of a society in transition)?
The NPP people need to be reminded that they have chosen a path that leads nowhere but a dead-end, where they are now. What will they do if the EC doesn’t heed their calls? Boycott Election 2016 (which will doom them all the more) or resort to selective sabotage (which will force the government to unleash state security power on them)? Why are these NPP people so politically immature?
I want to say at this juncture that they are woefully unprepared for the game. They may claim to be Ghana’s “interrectuals” but are not intelligent enough to do purposeful politics. Above all, they are being led by political dimwits who know nothing beyond promoting their own self-righteousness, pomposity, and self-inflated egos. The Ghanaian electorate won’t go for such characters; neither will they entrust their destiny into the hands of such political Don Quixotes.
I shall return…
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