Opinions of Friday, 4 March 2022
Columnist: Kwaku Badu
Some of us, to be quite honest, are extremely surprised to read that the NDC operatives have found it somewhat convenient to petition the Commonwealth Office to investigate on their behalf the alleged human rights abuses and persecutions of selected members of the Umbrella fraternity by the NPP administration.
If such seeming laughable action is not a sign of irresoluteness or defeatist mentality, what is it?
If you would recall, it was the same NDC operatives who hastily and gleefully trooped to America to report the Finance Minister over an international bond issued by the Government of Ghana a few years ago.
Obviously, the NDC operatives have a penchant for running helter-skelter to seek help and advice from the people they deem to have the superior intellectual ability. How pathetic?
Wasn’t the same NDC government under Mahama that joyously ran to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) to seek policy credibility?
If indeed, there are human rights abuses and persecutions in Ghana, the NDC operatives are within their democratic rights to act accordingly.
The overarching question however is: is that really the case? I am afraid, it is rather a ‘subjective fit’ and nothing else.
To me, the only period the innocent citizens lost their inherent dignity and human rights in Ghana was in the days of the despotic founders of the NDC.
I have stressed severally that some of us regrettably witnessed the squeamishly ugly events which took place over a period of three decades (1970-1990s) and therefore cannot be misinformed by the remorseless coup enthusiasts.
It is important to note that the founders of NDC bamboozled onto the scene under the pretext of redeeming Ghanaians from human rights violations, economic mismanagement and wanton corruption. And yet ended up abusing and exterminating innocent Ghanaians and couldn’t even get rid of the rampant sleazes and corruption in their P/NDC administrations, let alone the entire nation.
I have always held a firm and unadulterated conviction that we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events. Thus, some of us, as a matter of principle, cannot help but to relentlessly shrill, grouch, censure and highlight the risible and inherent proclivities of the devotees of the June 4 1979 and 31st December 1981 coup d’états.
The fact of the matter is that when the coup enthusiasts (the founders of NDC) burst onto the scene, they went haywire and barbarically tortured and murdered people with minimal offences.
I hate to admit though, but the fact remains that there is nothing wrong for a group of people to come together and identify themselves as the coup enthusiasts, or the ideologues of transparency, probity and accountability.
However, it is hypocritical and somewhat deceitful if a group of people who claim to be the exponents of such ethos turn around and commit the same crimes they inexorably preach against.
It has, however, been well-documented that when the coup enthusiasts (the founders of NDC) burst onto the scene, they went berserk and tempestuously tortured and murdered people with more than two vehicles.
However, as I write, the same coup enthusiasts are hypocritically in possession of not less than two vehicles per household. How deceitful?
Dearest reader, you may take my word for it, the vast majority of house owners were punished severely for having more than one toilet facility in their households.
But the last time I checked, the vast majority of the so-called revolutionaries have uncountable toilet facilities in their luxurious mansions. How pathetic?
Besides, the founders of the NDC unabashedly exhibited their communist ideals by going into war with businessmen and women in the country.
The founders of NDC, regrettably, tortured and murdered innocent businessmen and women, many of whom were bizarrely accused of legally borrowing meagre sums of money from banks to support their businesses.
Strangely, albeit veracious, the so-called revolutionaries who repugnantly collapsed innocent people's businesses now own business outlets all over the place.
Some innocent businessmen and women, so to speak, were abhorrently humiliated and their businesses were either seized or destroyed by the despotic NDC founders.
Worst of all, billions of cedis (in 50 cedi denominations) were impertinently and capriciously seized from ordinary Ghanaians, albeit without a trace. How bizarre?
The NDC founders, ironically, replaced our educational system with that of a communist model, while deceitfully turning around and sending their children abroad to study in what they saw as a superior educational system.
In their attempts to get rid of alleged sleazes and corruption, many Ghanaians were unjustifiably murdered or tortured mercilessly for apparent infinitesimal offences.
Some market women were regrettably stripped naked in the public and whipped for hauling their products or selling on high prices. While their male counterparts were wickedly shaved with broken bottles and whipped for offences that would not even warrant a Police caution in a civilized society.
As if that was not enough, three eminent High Court Judges and a prominent Army Officer were barbarically murdered by some mindless stooges of PNDC on 30th June 1982 for carrying out their constitutionally mandated duties.
The human rights violations were so rampant and appalling to the extent that many citizens seized the slightest opportunity and left the country after the 1992 general elections.
What incensed some of us so much is that despite their much-touted mantra of transparency, probity and accountability, we have been witnessing so much scheming guiles in the successive NDC administrations. Who are they trying to deceive?
Clearly, their much trumpeting ethos of probity, transparency and accountability is a charade. It is rather an illustrative case of preaching virtue and practising vice.
Given the circumstances, some of us will continue to squall, speak and write about the apparent double standards by the NDC apparatchiks, which the party faithful perceive as a benign or an inconsequential issue.
But I, for one, won’t abandon my duty as a bona fide Ghanaian, far from it. I will rather stick to my guns, be true to the faith, and, keep upholding and defending the good name of our beloved Ghana.