Real Men Are Not Disguised

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Early March this year, just about the time that the Supreme Court began hearing the New Patriotic Party (NPP) suit challenging the legitimacy of the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of Election 2012 by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, some gunmen were reported to have shot several rounds of ammunition into the Afienya home of Mr. David Asante, spokesperson for the civil activist group known as Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA).

At the time of the incident, the presumed target of the assault was reported to be at home with his wife and the couple's newly-born baby (See "Gunmen Attack Let My Vote Count Spokesman" Ghanaweb.com 3/4/13; also, "Police to Investigate Attack on Spokesperson of LMVCA" Radioxyzonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 3/4/13). The subject of fascination here are the words which the apparent leader of the goon squad is alleged to have shouted to the target of possible assassination. The unidentified frontman for the thugs was reported to have remarked as follows: "If you are a real man, come out and we will show you that this country belongs to us."

The preceding quote is quite fascinating because it inescapably betrays the illegal citizenship status of the hired goon and his associates. In sum, what I am trying to imply here is that if his alleged assailants were convinced that Mr. Asante was illegally occupying that private landed real-estate property space of the country, the most appropriate recourse ought to have been the issuance of a summonse by a legitimately constituted court of the land, not the much-maligned vigilante method of "cow-boyism" of the kind witnessed in Hollywood-minted Westerns.

You see, only craven cowards, like the infamous Ku Klux Klan here in the United States, would arm themselves in disguise and attack their sworn enemies and/or political opponents unannounced. "Real Men" usually inform their slugfest opponents of their perceived errors and the specific time at which the perceived offenders are expected to face the apocalyptic symphony of retribution. Predictably in this instance, the gunmen allegedly appeared in a sedan unmarked by any licensed plates. Now that is not the preferred method of "Real Men."

Indeed, were they "Real Men," these goons would have immediately announced their political affiliation and the nominal identity of their sponsors. Any critical thinker, however, can readily put the figures one and two together in order to fairly accurately arrive at the likely identity of the sponsors of these criminal suspects. As of this writing (8/23/13), the outcome of police investigations were unknown to this author. At any rate, one salient marker unmistakably pointing to the likely source of the attack is the fact that the Let My Vote Count Alliance is widely known to be pro-New Patriotic Party.

And so it could not really be that the assailants were on a political suicide mission; more so when the LMVCA had been vigorously campaigning in support of the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party petition impugning the legitimacy of the Mahama presidency, and in dire search for judicial justice aimed at nullifying the same. We also know that the main political opponents of the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party, the so-called National Democratic Congress, has an unenviable political track-record of the reckless application of deadly force, or violence, and intimidation against their most formidable political opponents.

We are not in any direct, or even oblique, way suggesting that the goon squad that attacked the residence of Mr. Asante was hired by elements or operatives of the National Democratic Congress. We are only implying that the bloody track-record of the NDC leaves us with little choice in terms of possible suspects. Still, what matters here is the fact that the Asante family was unhurt; and more importantly, the steely resolve of the target of apparent assassination attempt not to be cowed into submission.

Indeed, the days when one political ideology and one institutional juggernaut ruled the roost are decidedly behind us. In a democratic dispensation, such as Ghana's Fourth Republic, it is the brain, rather than the brawn, that rules the roost.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
August 24, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]
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