When hooliganism replaces jubilation and celebration

By AMOS SAFO

Ghana is on the edge of a political meltdown following the decision of National Democratic Congress (NDC) party supporters to resort to hooliganism and thuggery, rather than jubilating and celebrating the massive victory their party won after the December 7, 2024 general elections. As I wrote this report last Friday, NDC youth had annexed some state institutions across the country.

What beats my imagination is that such massive political victories are usually accompanied by dancing, singing, drinking and eating. Rather, NDC’s victory has defied sound reasoning, as its supporters strangely launched into violence across the country. Starting from Accra to Damongo (my hometown) to Techiman, Tamale, Yendi and Kpandai to mention a few, party supporters went on the rampage, burning police buildings, cars, ransacking warehouses and shops and stole food and equipment belonging to both the state and private investors. In fact, this is the first time in Ghana I am witnessing a political victory that turned violent.

Brainwashed

I tend to agree with the current majority leader , Afenyo-Markin that perhaps, the NDC leaders planned to unleash violence in the event of a defeat to create instability. So when they unexpectedly won by such a large margin they found it difficult to restrain their supporters who had already been brainwashed to destroy public and private property. This probably explains why they requested that the military should not be allowed to come to the polling stations.

Strangely for the first time the military abstained from the polling stations, a situation which emboldened the NDC thugs to take control over vote counting processes and twisted the arms of Electoral Commission staff to illegally declare some seats in their favour. Some of the seats include Obuasi East, Okaikoi Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, Damongo, Yendi, Kpandai among others.

Bawumia’ concession

Within 2024 hours of the end of voting, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) conceded defeat perhaps to reduce tension and violence that often accompanied delays in announcing elections results. During a press conference at his residence on December 8, Dr. Bawumia said his decision to concede defeat was motivated by a desire to avoid further tension in the country.

According to him, judging from the results the NPP collated there was clear evidence that the opposing candidate, John Dramani Mahama had won massively; so, there was no need for him to keep Ghanaians in suspense.

Dr Bawumia underscored the need for Ghana to remain stable and peaceful to continue to attract foreign investments. “The people of Ghana have voted for change, and I respect that will of Ghanaians. I am making this concession speech to avoid the tension in this country”, he stressed.

He urged all supporters of the NPP to remain calm and support the process of change. On the contrary, the winning party could not restrain its supporters from causing mayhem. Judging from the silence of NDC leaders over the destruction caused by their supporters, it appears that it was a dress rehearsal to forcefully take power.

What leadership

Obviously, Bawumia’s statesmanlike attitude and patriotism has won him local and global acclamation as a man of peace. As the vandalism and looting unfolded, I wondered the kind of leadership John Dramani Mahama will offer Ghana. Certainly, vengeance and ethnic targeting cannot be ruled out. In the run up to the election, the venom spewed by Afua Pokua, Edem Dela and Samule Huntor on Ashantis confirms my fears for Mother Ghana.

John Mahama is on record for openly declaring that his party, NDC emerged out of  a bloody  revolution and that when it comes to  unleashing violence, the NDC has a better record than the NPP. After making such a toxic statement, many people had expected that traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organisations and even the international community to condemn it.

Perhaps, that violent seed John Mahama sowed in 2016 and 2020 is the bitter fruit Ghanaians are eating today. Undoubtedly, the ongoing violence across the country affirms the President-elect’s taste for violence.

Investor confidence

As I watched the scenes of violence and looting on social media which went viral across the world, the obvious conclusion was that the acts of vandalisms by NDC youth has dented Ghana’s image as a beacon of peace and stability in West Africa. Ghana’s brand has no doubted suffered a collateral damage in the eyes of the international community.

This disturbing scenario will obviously cause foreign investors to think twice before considering Ghana as a destination. No doubt, the NDC youth’s needless vandalism has defeated Dr. Bawumia’s early concession in a bid to forestall instability and preserve Ghana’s image.

I stand to be corrected, but on the strength of the hooliganism and thuggery NDC supporters unleased on Ghana, I think Ghana is not safe in the hands of John Mahama and NDC.  Some commentors argue that with more than two-thirds of Members of Parliament, the electorate has given NDC an unassailable majority to do whatever they want.

At the behest of the Executive, Parliament can approve the sale of the whole country without anyone raising eyebrows. One commentator has even suggested that the incoming Parliament can amend the constitution to enable John Dramani Mahama to contest for a third term. Thus, the potential of a constitutional coup, as in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo etc cannot be ruled out.  That is the choice we made and we will all have to lace our shoes for the worse.

Akufo Addo’s failure

President Akufo-Addo’s failure to command the security forces to restore law and order,  and to protect the electoral process is rather surprising. Until January 7, 2025 the President is still the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, while his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumai is the Head of the Police Commission. Strangely, when it mattered most state security stood aside as NDC hooligans unleashed terror on  electoral officers, forcing them to illegally declare seats they did not win in their favour.

I empathized with the Electoral Commission and its officials who were left unprotected. I gathered that in some serious situations, such as Damongo when the Military wanted to intervene, they received calls from above to step aside. This was the same IGP who assured Ghanaians that the Police were adequately prepared to deal with any situation and that they did not need military presence.

In the cases where NDC thugs held Election officials hostage for hours if not days, why did the police not intervene. Is that the peaceful election the IGP promised Ghanaians?  Is it the case that even before January 7, 2025, the IGP has switched his loyalty to the in-coming administration?

NPP’s popularity

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) has been declining since 2020. From 169 seats in 2016, it came to 137 and the party has 88 seats or less in 2024. This dramatic fall speaks volumes of the NPP’s failure to protect and consolidate power Ghanaians entrust to it. Many people want to see their leaders take decisive and incisive action in the face of turbulence. How could a government in power watch  hooligans of its opponents twist their hands and snatch parliamentary seats in the name of peace, stability and rule of law. It is only in Ghana that people benefit from thuggery.

Several factors caused NPP massive defeat. One of them is the failure of President Akufo-Addo to respond to public opinion to reshuffle his cabinet.  The President should have heeded the clarion cry in 2022 and brought fresh blood into his cabinet. But the President refused to budge, and only responded lately after people had decided to kick the NPP out of power. It was obvious that President Akufo-Addo refused to reshuffle his cabinet to protect Ken Ofori Attah.

Love for Bawumia

Many people love Dr. Bawumia for his economics acumen and bold initiatives to digitalize and transform the economy,  however, people voted in protest against President Akufo-Addo.  The party’s popularity fell to an all time low during the debt exchange programme. The former Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori Attah assured Ghanaians that Ghana would not go to IMF for a bailout. Sadly, however, two weeks after this assurance Ghana was back to IMF with cup in hand begging for support.

The result is the debt exchange programme which made many people lose their investments. This triggered demands by the President to reshuffle his cabinet, with the finance minister as the obvious target. This led to voter apathy and protest votes against the NPP and Dr. Bawumia.

The results

An analysis of the 2020 results indicates that John Mahama  secured 6,264,517 votes with a voter population of 17,061,369. Fast forward to the present, with a voter population of 18,777,159, John Mahama obtained 6,328,397 votes. This translates to a mere increase of 63,880 votes from his 2020 votes.

By contrast, Nana Akufo-Addo garnered 6,777,325 votes in 2020, while Dr. Bawumia secured 4,657,304 votes in 2024. This means 2,120,021 voters who supported Akufo-Addo in 2020 did not vote for Bawumia in 2024. If these voters were to turn out for Bawumia without any additional increase, he would likely have lead John Mahama by at least 500,000 votes to secure a first-round victory.

Many political analysts argue that NPP’s headache was voter apathy. It is clear that the party and government were aware of the impending doom, but they failed to act. On the evidence of the statistics, John Mahama didn’t win the elections based on his campaign promises. Rather, disgruntled NPP supporters decided to abstain, and thus offered the presidency to their opponents on a silver platter.

I am not sure how President Akufo-Addo feels about this humiliation.  By now it would have dawned on the President and NPP leaders that free SHS and the commissioning of big projects on the last days did very little to change voters’ minds. Many of the voters wanted their voices to be heard in the governance process, especially the cabinet reshuffle.

Steven Ntim and Justin Kodua

The Chairman of the NPP, Steven Ntim and General Secretary, Justin Kodua appear to be incompetent and pathetic. These top party officials held a press conference to appeal to the incoming president, John Mahama, to talk to his supporters to stop the violence. They also appealed to the Electoral Commission to reverse all seats that were declared illegally in favour of NDC.

I had expected the chairman and general secretary to prevail on  President Akufo-Addo to order the security agencies to restore law and order. For the records, President Akufo-Addo is still the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, while the Vice President Dr Bawumia is still the Head of the Police Commission.

What stops them from exercising the powers the people of Ghana entrusted to them? If the IGP failed to protect the sanctity of the elections, as demonstrated by attacks on EC officials and illegal declarations, the President can still sack him.   As I argued earlier, NPP persistently fails to consolidate the powers Ghanaians entrust to them in the name of rule of law and democracy, whereas their opponents often benefit from using brute force and hooliganism.

Comparatively, even as General Secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketia could order heads of security agencies to do the party’s bidding.  After January 7, Asiedu Nketia and Fiifi Kwetei  will exercise their powers forcefully and diligently in a manner that befits them as chairman and  secretary respectively of a ruling party.

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