How to lose an election in Ghana; the invisible way

So on Tuesday the Delta Forces were fined GHC2,400? Hmmm, Simpa Panyin, sometimes you disappoint me paaa ooo; the way you have started twisting your waist, some of your initial dances are not matching the rhythm koraa oo, hmmm…

Honestly I have in recent times been wondering what the next eight years will look like, still living in Ghana. Our election DNA seem to have been fixed on eight years cycle, fairly predictable, but dangerously detrimental to our security, and our governance.

After President Nana Akufo-Addo’s winning, politicians could conveniently predict another regime in the next eight years, and so could afford to plunder the resources for themselves, in anticipation that they will lose power anyway, whether they do the right things or the wrong things, the electorates will shout, change!

I recall the carnage the Azorka boys brought to bear in the year 2009 when the NDC won power; that was when the history of the seizures of government installations began, as I recall. Kwami Sefa Kayi once interviewed one NDC activist, about their violent behaviors, in the aftermath of the 2008 elections. This party activist, one Nana Ofori-Atta, who is now late, boasted that if he was dared, he and his group were going to burn down the offices of the NHIS; that was the audacity of winning power.

The aftermath of the 2008 election violence included the killing of some individuals at Agbogbloshie, the hijacking of the bidding processes at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, the seizures of toilet facilities and tollbooths across the country, and the creation of sharp teeth; these all began the processes of losing the election from the beginning; it was all about power, impunity, and brute force, and the electorates understood what the NDC government was asking for, bringing the elephant back from the bush.

I still don’t know why the NDC is spending so much money looking for why they lost power. This fact finding committee to unravel the cause of their defeat in the face of the obvious is another scam flying in our face. Why do you go round looking for how a thief looks like, when you, yourself, are an example of a thief? Allotey Jacobs says he has something in his chest; why don’t you just cut that chest open, and remove whatever is stored there, right there will be the reasons you lost power, not simple?

In the last few weeks, the NDC has been confronted with some naked realities, accusations and reverse accusations. I have observed the scene with keen interest, and I have tried to analyze how they planned their defeat. Of course it began with the seizures as described above, traveling through dzi wo fie asem, to the emergence of sharp teeths, turning through the flooding of V8s, moving a step towards yentie obiaa, from which it made a few stops at Woyome, Montie, thereafter it became free for all; the amassing of wealth, the open display of opulence, and the legitimization of insults and theft, inch by inch, the NDC crumbled into a comfortable lead, and eventually, it all came down, they got what they wanted.

The party has seen some turbulence in the last few weeks. This turbulence started with FONKAR GAMES, when Nana Konadu started to demand the return of her husband’s party, threatening to take the umbrella away, with Kofi Adams nearly at the throat of the late President Atta Mills. The FONKAR GAMES ended with their 97:3 delegate conference in Kumasi, after which the death of President Atta Mills brought some sense of oneness back into the party, at least on the surface.

Just at once, Kofi Adams, a foundation member of FONKAR, transformed from being President Mill’s perceived traitor, to becoming the darling boy of the John Mahama’s administration. He was reported as having had his campaign financed by the then President, John Mahama, to contest Yaw Boateng Gyan. After winning, he was all of a sudden everything, a member of the Board of Directors of this, a member of the Board of Directors of that, the National Organizer of this, the National Coordinator of that, and Adams found himself being surrounded by V8s, one for the market, the other for the streets, all these being done not only to desecrate the memory of the late Atta Mills, but also to the disenchantment of the party grass root people who suffered to keep the party in power while Kofi Adams followed FONKAR.

While all these were happening, and young boys and girls were grabbing monies, the NPP concentrated on in-fighting at the top level. The NDC lived in the hope that the in-fighting and the divisions of the NPP at the top level would have trickle down to their grass root, and therefore automatically translate into an electoral fortune for them.

No, that did not happen. The wrongs of the NDC government, and the determination of the NPP’s invisibles, coupled with an angry public, gave the NDC a well-deserved and unprecedented defeat.

Despite all of these, the NPP has succeeded in doing one thing right; the NPP has succeeded in failing to learn any lessons from the defeat of the NDC. They took advantage of the general failings of the NDC, gave some sumptuous promises, including promising jobs for unemployable heavily built boys, jobs that they do not have the skills for. They created Invisible Forces, they created Delta Forces, and all kinds of forces, across the country, giving them hope, for jobs they are not qualified for.

The NPP finally won power, and then they began to fall on their own daggers. The traps they set for themselves began to trap them. Delta this, invisible that, all began to ask for their jobs, some members began to ask to be posted into the position of the IGP, and so on.

Of course it is not fair to watch people who did nothing for the party, now enjoying the leftover V8s. I am told Kan-Dapaah, and many others like him, refused to help the party while they were in opposition, claiming that he was on political retirement. In the absence of people like Kan-Dapaah helping, it was these same invisibles, and Deltas, who secured victory for the party. They did that in the hopes that when the party comes to power, they will have jobs, and they will begin to reap from their efforts.

I have already condemned the actions of the invisible and delta forces, but it appears they have a point, although they are using a wrong approach? After the party won power, Kan-Dapaah was called from his alleged political retirement, and made the National Security Minister, and then he began to, according to my information, recruit his own likeness, of people who went on political retirement, into the very positions that these forces had hoped to occupy; monkey dey chop, right?

So in the end the invisibles worked for nothing; they see, on our streets, party aliens sweeping gutters, gathering rubbish back into the gutters, they see on daily basis, 62 year olds wearing the National Youth Employment aprons, representing the youth, pretending to be youth, and pretending to be sweeping our pavements, and gathering the rubbish back into our gutters so as to have continuous work the next day.

You think they are, taflatse, fools? They are not! They are invisible, they were raised in the Delta, so they begin to unleash their character, and you say what? You, say fi, you will see what becomes of your jaws.

And that began the chipping away of the victory that was won recently. Power, arrogance, and power, those who won it gave it to the president, the president then gave it to those who abandoned the party, and those who abandoned the party do not know what to do with their undeserved positions, so they begin to lose it back to those who lost it, and the cycle continued, eight predictable years of poverty, eight predictable years of corruption, and eight predictable years of power coming back, NDC, NPP, NDC, NPP, Ghana’s hall of pain, all recycled… –

By: James Kofi Annan