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Opinions of Friday, 2 December 2011

Columnist: Alex Amoako-Attah

Nobody Can Touch Nana Addo.

Alex Amoako-Attah

12/1/11

The recent threats issued by the presidential spokesman Koku Anyidoho on the person of Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo, the Leader and the Flag bearer of New Patriotic Party is nothing but a sign of desperation of a Party losing the grip of power but trying to hold on to it at any cost. The numerous unfulfilled campaign promises that have come back to hunt Mills and the NDC administration and the numerous legal defeat at the various Courts in Ghana, coupled with hash economic conditions of the electorate who were promised heaven on earth during the 2008 electioneering campaign, this incompetent NDC government is staring defeat in the face.

In the light of these facts, Mills, through his nauseatingly arrogant and disrespectful deputy ministers and appointees, rain insults on any opposition member or any citizen who criticizes the overwhelming incompetence and the massive corruption in their administration. Today, insults and vulgarity have become the order of the day. As a matter of fact, any NDC party functionary who aspires to be promoted must use insults and vulgarity as the only curriculum vitae in order to move up the political ladder. There is a complete breakdown of discipline at the presidency that has seeped down to the rank and file of the Party. The daily hammering of Nana Addo through the print and the electronic media by the ruling party, has made him enormously popular among the electorate and this is causing Mills a lot of heart palpitation. Whenever Nana sneezes, Mills catches cold. This is why the NDC has continuously been vilifying him and lying about what he said about the “All die be die” advice he gave to his base.

Since the days of AFRC, PNDC and NDC 1, Ghanaians have been subjected to brutal violations of their Civil and Human rights until Nana Addo and a coalition of concerned citizens stood up to a bully at the risk of their lives by pouring out on the streets of Accra to demonstrate against one of the most brutal dictators in Africa. That demonstration was aptly named “Kume preko.” At Akwatia where Baba Jamal declared jihad, the security apparatus looked the other way while the NDC foot soldiers terrorized the entire residents. At Cherepone, the story was even worse. It was Atiwa where the NPP supporters put up some feeble attempt to fight back intimidation. It was against this back drop that Nana urged his base to fight back any time they face such situations. Earlier, five NPP supporters had been butchered in Agbogbloshie in broad daylight near a Police Station. These victims wisely took to their heels but that did not save them. The culprits are still on the street enjoying freedom. This was when Nana urged his supporters to stand up to bullies before they succumb to death.

Sensing defeat in the 2012 general elections, this “all die be die” has now become a propaganda tool for Mills and his appointees who are desperately trying to hold on to power. They can use propaganda, lies, intimidation and threats against Nana and the New Patriotic Party. They want to teach Nana and the NPP “where power lies.” Koku Anyidoho and Mills cannot learn from history and what is currently going on in North Africa and the Arab world. Koku, the NPP is the grand child of the UP so nobody can intimidate us. No human being can break us. No it is not in our gene. It will take more than a man to destroy the UP tradition. There is nothing Mills can do that Kwame Nkrumah did not do to us. In the end, Kwame died a lonely man in faraway Bucharest, Rumania, without ever setting eyes on his wife and his infant children again. Today, his Convention Peoples Party is in coma on its death bed. There is nothing Mills can do that Rawlings did not do to us. Today, Rawlings is not even welcome in his own Party but the UP tradition is still standing and stronger than ever before.

If Kwame and Rawlings could not break us, what makes Anyidoho think Mills can? There is absolutely nothing he can do. If they think they control the security apparatus so they can intimidate us let them try. Nobody in Ghana can touch Nana Addo. Not a soul. Koku Anyidoho only suffers from the diarrhea of the mouth. He knows that is his ailment. Nana’s presence in any arena sends Mills’ blood pressure to the moon. For this reason, they want to muzzle him but that is impossible. Nana is the peoples President. By the way, are the Police Service and the Armed Forces made solely of NDC sympathizers? The last time I checked, the Armed Forces were made of Ghanaians of all walks of life. That Institution is not the preserve of any particular Party or tribe. Are the Ghana Armed Forces more potent than Khadafy’s Security Forces? With all his superior Security Apparatus and vast military arsenals, the Colonel was found hiding in the gutters. He could not withstand the might of a determined people. By his vituperations, Koku and the NDC insist they will rig the 2012 general elections because they are under the illusion that the security forces are under their control. There lies the problem because members of the New Patriotic Party are equally determined to protect the ballot boxes and the integrity of the elections with our very lives if the security forces refuse to do their job. We are prepared to pay the ultimate price in order to preserve free and fair elections in Ghana. This, we will do. We are not war mongers but we will resist the oppressor’s rule by any means possible. This is non-negotiable. Freedom and democracy are Ghanaians birth right and we intend to bequeath them to the generation yet unborn. If Kwame Nkrumah could not take that away from us, Mills or any human being will not be allowed to do so.

Generation ago, bold and noble men such as Mallam Mahama Tula, Teiko Tagoe, R.B. Octhere, Yaw Manu, Kwame Ametepey and many others stood up to tyranny and paid the ultimate price. We draw our inspiration from such gallant men. We also salute the Freedom Fighters in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Ivory Coast, Egypt and elsewhere in the world. In the struggle to ensure free and fair elections in Ghana, we are comfortably aware that some of us will have to die and others will have to suffer imprisonment. These are sacrifices we are willing to make. This has been our call. When there was a one Party State and a man declared himself Life President, it was the UP that answered the call to make sure Freedom and Democracy reigned in Ghana. When our market women were being violated by thugs in the name of a revolution, it was Nana and others who answered the call. Today, we have a multi-Party democracy but this is slipping through our fingers. The NDC nation wreckers will stop at nothing to stealing the coming election but we are equally determined with iron will to stop them. The battle lines are clearly defined.

Why would the NDC reject the verification component of the biometric system for the voter registration? Why any sane person will reject something that can stop or drastically reduce electoral fraud, double registration and the bloating of the voter register? But Asiedu Nketia, the general Secretary of the NDC, has boldly proclaimed that the NDC Party flatly rejects the verification component of the biometric system. And the question is why? Yet Mills says if Nana resists the attempt by the NDC to steal the election, they will “show him where power lies.” Is Mills ready to plunge Ghana into total darkness? Does he really want to travel that road?

Alex Amoako-Attah

New York.