One of the consequences of being constantly let down by leaders in authority is that we grow cynical and suspicious of power, and we give up hope of finding leaders who will keep their promises to us.
At the same time such a process of disillusionment can also eat away at our own sense of urgency, at our own capacity to stand up and take a leadership role or even a leadership stand.
I see lack of effective leadership helping us to navigate the difficult territory ahead. Instead of getting what we need we seem to have to put up with the opposite. Again and again we are confronted with stories of leaders who have lined their own pockets or whose private lives expose a wide, hypocritical, gap with their public persona and stated positions.
The ease with which armed hoodlums operate freely, killing, maiming and beating innocent citizens show that there is a serious decision at the top not to take action against the perpetrators.
From all indications, the President and some highly placed officials in the current administration have decided not to take any measure to bring the hoodlums to book due political considerations which runs contrary to the tenets, letter and spirit of the constitution. Rather than respect the constitutional oath of office, and subscribe to and employ decisive legal based mechanism to tackle the killings, maiming and beatings, the President always issue dry statements and establish commissions to give these hoodlums technical protection.
Ghanaians must understand that the solution to this spate of killings rest squarely with President Akufo-Addo who has all the constitutional powers to decisively crush the hoodlums and their sponsors who are not ghosts but are linked to the ruling party.
The rustic simplicity with which this President views the serious issue of governance is mind boggling. But even more confounding is his readiness to overlook issues of injustice, criminality and bad conduct all in a bid to maintain allegiance to a section of Ghanaians. Why has the President found it difficult or near impossible to disband his vigilante groups and take decisive steps towards addressing the widespread killings that is gradually turning Ghana into some kind of abattoir in which political hoodlums slaughter Ghanaians?
The only reason the security apparatus of this country has failed to act in any way that could be construed as curtailing the impunity of terror Vigilante groups whose sponsors including ministers of state continue to assault our sense of national sensibility by their boastful threats and use of violence, is because the security chiefs can see that President Akufo-Addo has no serious interest in taking a stand vigilantism in the country.
The President’s pronouncements and activities are part of the reasons why we have gotten to this dangerous point. Vigilantism, machoism have become attractive business among the youth because of the support the hoodlums are getting from the ruling party and the presidency. In opposition, the President and his party invested heavily in the training of these hoodlums by foreign and local security experts. Some of the hoodlums have been part of the President’s detail since 2008, some have been integrated into the mainstream security agencies. We see some of these hoodlums around the President, the Vice President and some top party officials, they join the police and the military to undertake special operations. Ghanaians need to and must avert the looming danger that years under Akufo-Addo portend. Or we would, as Mr Koomson warned, “unable to be sleep”.
While these killings may appear indiscriminate with regards to ethnic affiliation in some respect, the bulk of it cannot be divorced from a visceral dislike of people from background different from those of the aggressors. Which is where President Akufo-Addo’s complicity comes in? It resides in his refusal to take necessary steps to criminalize the activities of the hoodlums, his pussyfooting about calling the hoodlums by the appropriate name: TERRORISTS
What happened at the Ashanti Regional Headquarters of the NDC should tell Ghanaians the dangers ahead. Targeted killings or ‘hits’ have become a feature of Ghana’s political economy. We are beginning to see application of targeted violence aimed at removing particular individuals and sending wider signals about power relations to promote a variety of political, economic and criminal interest.
By: Dr Simpson Oku-Ampofo