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Editorials
BEWARE OF RAWLINGS, GHANAIANS
Here We Go Again
Towards The 28 Dec. Run-Off
It seems Ghanaians have already forgotten about the atrocities that ex-Flt. Lt. Rawlings visited upon them when he laid hands on the reins of power of this country for close to twenty years.
We are compelled to make this observation because of the outcome of the December 7, 2008 elections. A clear endorsement of Rawlings’ choice of a flagbearer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, has pushed the December 7, 2008 presidential elections into a run-off.
The signs are clearly written on the wall that a return of the NDC will plunge this country into the kind of impunity, repression and human rights abuse that characterised the Rawlings government, and will provide him (Rawlings) with the opportunity to exact revenge for perceived wrongdoings against him since leaving office.
Isn’t there any lesson to learn from what the NDC did upon learning from the initial results of the December 7, 2008 elections that they were in the lead in terms of parliamentary representation?
Yes, they went on rampage, issued a press release that they had won the election and therefore wouldn’t tolerate any nonsense from the Electoral Commission (EC). Somewhere in Northern Ghana, some NDC members charged on the Metro Mass Transport Office and demanded to take control of the keys; not only these, there were other acts of violence typical of the NDC.
It is an indisputable fact that Ghanaians for the past almost eight years have lived under a reign which has as its hallmark civility, respect for human rights, dignity and that kind of freedom that was missing under the Rawlings superintendency.
This freedom is evident in the way Ghanaians express themselves in all spheres of their lives; this freedom is evident in the way the pro-NDC media publish unfounded and libelous materials against President Kufuor and his government, and yet they are not hounded into obscurity or silenced by incarceration – methods used by Rawlings to crush dissent.
Yes, we have all forgotten the case with which the NPP expunged from our statute books the criminal libel laws, that Rawlings and his regime rather used as a tool to whip everyone into line.
Yes we have all forgotten that great relief the whole country sighed when the serial murders of our women were halted by the Kufuor government.
What about the simple welfare facilities – NHIS, Capitation grant, Metro Mass Transport initiated by the Kufuor government; such simple ideas with far reaching poverty-alleviation effects that eluded the (P)NDC in its almost 20 years rule?
Ghanaians should listen to the campaign message of the NDC; it is bankrupt of ideas, except to say, it (message) will improve upon the social welfare facilities initiated by the NPP and reduce further the cost of petrol, irrespective of the prevailing cost on the world market.
Ghanaians must examine the motive of the NDC for power. There seems to be none – tangible, progressive and developmental – except for the sake of securing it for personal glory.
The NDC flagbearer, Prof. Mills, being his own man remains a ruse in the face of Rawlings’ omnipresence on the NDC campaign trail.
What did Ghanaians see recently, during the launch of the NDC manifesto at the Trade Fair Site in Accra? An impatient Rawlings, unmindful of the fact that the whole world was watching him, yanked the microphone, uncourteously, from Prof. Mills, to make unintervention, obviously because of the unimpressive manner the latter was making his submission.
Let us be aware of the NDC – a party that emerged from a bloody coup d’etat expedition – that it does not merit legitimization as governance and an administrative vehicle for our dear country. There is so much blood on the hands of that party.
Let us be guided by these facts, and return the NPP to power at the peril of the NDC.
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