Saturday,
May 30, 2015
Events culminating
in the nastiness tearing the NPP apart have been long in the offing. They have
been fuelled by deep-seated self-seeking manouevres, self-righteousness
portrayals, and self-serving manipulations. I lay the blame at the doorstep of
Akufo-Addo whose persistence to have things done as he wishes has deepened
factionalism in the party and resulted in his followers’ bitter opposition to
the tenure of Paul Afoko (National Chairman) and Kwabena Agyepong (General
Secretary). The remote causes of this open show of hatred for Afoko and
Agyepong can be traced to their supposed dislike for Akufo-Addo and a so-called
covert “Agenda 2020” to botch his attempts at winning Election 2016.
But the immediate cause is the
acid-bathing of Alhaji Adam Mahama, which is now spelling their doom, even
though nothing has emerged so far to prove their complicity in a crime
committed by people other than Afoko and Agyepong. Solving this problem is an
uphill task; and as is being suggested, no one in the NPP seems ready or
capable of dousing the fire that is consuming both its setters and their
opponents. After all, who among the so-called NPP bigwigs is not either an
Akufo-Addo follower or what?
There is no neutral person in
this case. And who says that those digging deep into their factions will listen
to a neutral voice? So, the internal crisis will deepen, more so when the
flagbearer has chosen to sideline the embattled Afoko and Agyepong (as we saw during
his press conference) and is pretending to know nothing about why they are
being chased out of office. In any case, Akufo-Addo’s approach to the internal
crisis won’t be the solution because he is a prime-mover of this very crisis.
Let’s leave him to stew in his own mischief, then.
But we won’t lose sight of one
very important fallout from this crisis. Apart from endangering our democracy,
if the crisis in this opposition camp intensifies, it will call into question
many other developments that have a serious national security interest.
Until the physical acts against
Afoko and Agyepong began, none in the public knew of the existence of any
“private security group” formed by the NPP to act as we’ve seen. The “Invisible
Forces” (otherwise called “Invincible Forces”) is that security setup, which
quickly seized the NPP’s national headquarters and vowed to prevent Afoko and
Agyepong from entering their offices therein to do assignments. We heard the threats coming from Dennis Ahmed
(Vice Chairman of the group) and cringed for several reasons.
We
heard also the official comments from the constitutionally established national
security apparatus, especially the Ghana Police Service, on how they were
handling the security situation surrounding the rumpus in the NPP. Fortunately,
the Ghana Police Service chose not to cross any line by physically inserting
its personnel in the situation. Thus, no awkward event occurred between the
police and personnel of the NPP’s “Invisible Forces”.
Today,
we have been told that members of the “Invisible Forces” have heeded
Akufo-Addo’s call and deserted the NPP headquarters to allow Afoko and Agyepong
to enter their offices to work for the party. Huh?
How
can Afoko and Agyepong return to their offices after all that has happened?
After 8 of the 10 regional branches of the NPP have “dismissed” them from
office and the NPP’s Council of Elders has written to them to step aside so
peace could prevail in the party? After they have already been declared unfit
to work for the party? Are they being entrapped? Another acid-bathing in the
making? We wait to see what happens.
But
while we wait, we won’t lose sight of the activities of the “Invisible Forces”.
Since when has this private security group being in existence? Who formed it
and who finances it may not be difficult to ascertain, especially if we see it
as an NPP militant group to fight its cause.
Where
is this group located? Where does it do its recruitment and training? Who are
the trainers? What logistics/resources does the group have and how are these
resources procured and stored?
We
are asking these questions because we know what such groups constitute. They
are nothing but cells that incubate noxious characters available for use by
political malcontents. They are characters who are easily bought and used to
terrorize systems.
I
am not surprised that the NPP has such a group, clearly because I recall very
well in the late 1990’s when the late Major Courage Quashigah made moves to
establish “a private army” for the NPP. Those who don’t know it need to know it
rightaway that such a move was very dangerous for the country because it sought
to create a parallel security organization with the sole purpose of defending
the interests of the NPP, although Ghana already has the appropriate security
institutions to handle any situation in the country demanding security
measures. I lost track of the Quashigah-inspired intention and haven’t been in
Ghana that much to know how it ended.
But
the emergence of this “Invisible Forces” reignites my interest in that
development. Of course, there are many private security organizations operating
in Ghana, providing security for installations and institutions at the behest
of the owners of such structures. I believe that the owners of such private
security organizations went through laid-down processes to register their
groups and that their employees have been vetted and given the green-light to
function as such. They are not aligned to political parties nor have they been
mobilized to do what the NPP’s “Invisible Forces” have just done.
That
is why the case of the NPP’s “Invisible Forces” reveals something disturbing. I know full well that militancy
is the main motivation for such a group and that misfits kicked out from the
mainstream national security apparatus are easy targets for recruitment. Disaffected
retired military personnel embittered against the NDC administration over the
years won’t be left out either. Unsuccessful applicants to the national
security system are also easy targets. There are many other avenues for
recruitment of characters to feed this “Invisible Forces”, which we should
know.
In effect, my beef is that the
“Invisible Forces” has already established itself as the NPP’s militant arm and
must be closely monitored by the authorities. It must be thoroughly
investigated and the appropriate actions taken to neutralize it if, indeed,
facts reveal its true intents and purposes—to serve as the military wing of the
NPP. Who doesn’t know how militancy is used by desperate politicians to cause
trouble at election time or thereafter? Ghana doesn’t need this kind of
militancy. It is the ballot box that must determine electoral Fate.
I am seriously urging the
government to take immediate steps to do the right thing. Intriguing enough,
the so-called security experts (especially Kwasi Anning of the Kofi Annan
Peacekeeping Institute, or whatever it is) haven’t said anything on this
development. They appear not to know the implications of the existence and operations
of such a group (“Invisible Forces”) but will be the first to condemn anything
done by the mainstream security apparatus that they think has political
implications.
We shouldn’t wait for groups of
this sort to become entrenched before acting to eradicate them. The factors
promoting the terrorist groups in Africa (especially Boko Haram) are known. In
our case in Ghana, religion may not be a motivation. It is political discontent
and murderous intolerance that will engender such militant groups. From what
has happened so far, I can say with all certainty that there is a lot happening
that the government must sit up to address. I call for immediate action to dig
into the existence of the “Invisible Forces” and to ensure that anything it
does is monitored and exposed, especially in the interest of national security.
This is the time for the Bureau
of National Investigation and other official security institutions capable of
doing intelligence work to go to the field. They should move away from their
desktop activities and activate their agent networks. In civilized democracies,
institutions of their ilk are depended on and funded to do what national
security and intelligence work entails. Their personnel distinguish themselves
through pinpointed intelligence gathering, not competing with half-baked
journalists for press releases to be able to write public reaction reports to
the government. They distinguish themselves by being poles ahead of nation
wreckers.
If the necessary groundwork is
not done to set things right, we shouldn’t complain when nasty events happen
during the main electioneering campaign season. We shouldn’t blame anybody if
Election 2016 is characterized by violence. We shouldn’t appeal to the United
Nations for help to solve security problems if, after the general elections,
everything goes haywire if the defeated power-hungry candidate turns to
militant groups to do his bidding.
I know that the NPP people are
saying that unlike what they did after Election 2012, they won’t go to court
after Election 2016. Not to impute an ill-motive to them, though, let me ask
them where they intend to go. From what is unfolding, I have a hunch that they
know what they have up their sleeves. If the implosion threatening their camp
is anything to go by, I can foresee doom for them at Election 2016. What will
they do? This is the time for action, folks!!!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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