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Editorial News of Sunday, 24 October 2004

Source: Lens

Editorial: Nail Rawlings Commission

That the Nail Rawlings Commission has, in the report that was submitted to Mr. Kufuor just about a week ago, "fingered" President Rawlings for the abduction and murder of the three high court judges and a retired military officer, is not been very surprising to many a Ghanaian.

Why? It is only a political neophyte or a self-willed ignoramus who would be unaware that that whole talk about reconciling this country was only a fine political gimmick to give the government the chance to attempt to give respectability and an appearance of "officiality" to accusations that President Rawlings and Capt. Tsikata were involved in the abduction and murders of the three high court judges and a military officer; accusations that persons in the NPP have used against President Rawlings, Capt. Tsikata, and the NDC at every election since 1992.

Indeed the Nail Rawlings Commission's supposed report, at least that part that has so far been published in the pro-NPP media, makes us wonder if Mr. Kufuor and his co-conspirators in the Nail Rawlings agenda think that all of us are fools or all of us are incapable of reasoning and making informed deductions.

President Rawlings, the man who, according to the Nail Rawlings commission, had prior knowledge of the abduction and killing of the judges and the military officer, actually gave the Attorney-General of the day an absolutely free hand in setting up an independent board to investigate the abduction and murders, leading to the arrest, trial, conviction, and execution of a leading member of his government, among others, for the crime.

Yet Mr. Kufuor who wants us to believe that he did not have prior knowledge of the attack on the Ya-Na, has been unable to set up an equally competent body to investigate that crime let alone identify, arrest, prosecute the perpetrators of the brutal murder of the Ya-Na and over forty of his kinsmen.

We are told that President Rawlings knew of the abduction and murder because the NRC, note carefully, believe that those who were arrested could not have acted without the involvement of President Rawlings, (they did not establish this as a fact, they only believed).

We believe the NRC, and indeed every Ghanaian, have the right to believe what they choose to believe, our only problem is that, as taxpayers, we were compelled to contribute to the charade that was enacted in the name of reconciling the country. It is our belief that this country is even more polarised today than it was before the Nail Rawlings Commission started its work.

Though there may be no art to show the mind's construction on the face, the Good Lord has taught us that by their fruits we shall know them.


We have noted with a degree of satisfaction, even happiness, that the Police have begun investigations into the case of an NDC MP who is alleged to have been involved in a case of visa fraud. That is as it should be in any civilised and law and other society.

We urge the police to investigate this matter thoroughly and if the allegation is proven, the MP in question should be arraigned before court to face the law for his conduct.

Even as we urge the police to deal expeditiously with this matter, we are intrigued that similar cases involving NPP MPs and Ministers in the Kufuor-led NPP government that have been widely reported in the media and elsewhere appear not to have caught the attention of Mr. Kufuor's chief criminal investigator, David Asante Apeatu.

Mr. David Asante Apeatu, what have you and your outfit done about the case of the NPP MP who presented fake/forged documents to a foreign embassy in an attempt to procure visas for certain people? What have you and your out fit done about the case of the NPP MP who has been indicted by his own district assembly and the New Patriotic Party itself for forging the assembly's documents for the purpose of visa racketeering?

Ghanaians would like to know what Mr. Asante Apeatu and his out fit have done about the case of the NPP MP who attempted to defraud an insurance company when he bought an accident vehicle and attempted to pass it off as his own vehicle that was involved in an accident.

The case in which an NPP official working in the office of the Vice President is alleged to have defrauded a young woman known as Mariama Tula is still very fresh in our minds. Equally fresh in our minds is the fact that Mr. Asante Apeatu and some of Mr. Kufuor's security bigwigs have been publicly accused by Mariama Tula that they conspired to cover up for the fraudster.

So where is the justice in Mr. Kufuor's Ghana? Today we are actually living on George Orwell's Animal Farm-like country, where all citizens are supposed to be equal, except that the reality is that some are more equal than others.

In Kufuor's Ghana, woe betides you if you fall afoul of the law and you are not NPP, you would discover that the law enforcement agencies operate with commendable efficiency, worse if you are NDC.

However if you are NPP, you can kill a whole king in broad-daylight, behead him, stick the severed head on a pole and go round in jubilation with it, and get away with it.

Yes this is Kufuor's Ghana today, where the law is selectively applied depending on one's political affiliation. Oh Mother Ghana, whither thou with these people at the helm of affairs?