NPP: Seeking The Jerry John Rawlings May 1979 Court Martial Publicity Effect ?

By Kofi Thompson

An acquaintance of mine telephoned earlier this evening (the evening of 9/1/2013, that is) to ask: "So, Kofi, it turns out that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) only wants Ghanaians to know what transpires during the hearing of the presidential election petition it has brought before the Supreme Court, only when it suits its purposes?".

Indeed, many are those who are mystified by the curious demand being made in certain quarters, for the telecasting and broadcasting of court proceedings, in the case brought before the Supreme Court by New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenging the declaration by the Electoral Commissioner, of President John Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 presidential election.

To such people, perhaps one ought to point to what a wit has labelled the "Jerry John Rawlings May 1979 Court Martial publicity effect".

In his May 1979 Court Martial trial presided over by Colonel Enningful, the publicity gained by Flt Lt Rawlings, when it was revealed by the media that he had asked that the men under him should be freed and left alone, because he accepted full responsibility for the abortive 15th May 1979 military coup attempt, propelled him into a hero amongst the junior officer corps and the rank and file.

According to a wag I know, it is that selfsame magic that the too clever by half individuals who insist that the NPP Supreme Court challenge of the declaration of President Mahama as the victor in the December 2012 presidential election by the Electoral Commissioner be telecast and broadcast, actually seek.

Apparently, they do so for a sinister purpose: to create a Ghanaian equivalent of the popular uprising that occurred in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world, known as the "Arab Spring".

In their view, that is the reason for the unprecedented hold-a-press-conference-per-issue tactic, now adopted by the NPP, for what indeed is an ongoing court case. Interesting, that.

Well, for all our sake, one hopes that the security agencies are keeping an eagle eye on the activities of the extremists amongst the NPP's following. They are not a very pleasant lot, unfortunately.

Clearly, the plot to recruit so-called "Bad Boys" (amongst them ex-combatants from various civil wars in the West African sub-region) in order to create chaos in Ghana, by resorting to random acts of violence across the nation in furtherance of the secret agenda to destabilise Ghana, has not been discarded by those who originally hatched it.

Above all, in all this, we must never forget that the reasonable face of the NPP, represented by its elected leadership, is the public face that the party's clever extremists dearly want the world to see.

The NPP's leadership's well-spoken reasonableness provides perfect cover for the men of violence hiding in the shadows and seething with anger - who daily stoke the fire that keeps the cauldron-of-evil, which the party's extremists would rather the world does not see, boiling.

However, according to some of the party's critics the use of violence to achieve the ends that the NPP's extremists seek, is still very much on the cards - as part of their strategy to eventually give birth to a popular uprising in Ghana, spearheaded by their party's myrmidon-type foot soldiers: were the Supreme Court to throw out the NPP's presidential election petition.

Some of those NPP critics are also insistent that the self-seeking and desperate extremist individuals in the NPP who wanted to win the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary election at all costs, are still determined to do so regardless - and are hoping against hope that somehow the Supreme Court judges will put them into power again: despite their party being rejected by voters last December.

Apparently, the party's extremists would dearly love to see the magic of the "Jerry John Rawlings 1979 Court Martial publicity effect" working for them too.

The telecasting and broadcasting of the proceedings of the NPP's Supreme Court challenge to the presidential election declaration by the Electoral Commissioner, is key to that one gathers.

If the conspiracy theorists in our midst are right in what they say about the NPP's super-ruthless extremists, then thank goodness that that innocuous-sounding but rather sinister request to have the proceedings of the party's Supreme Court December 2012 presidential election results petition telecast and broadcast, was not granted those who sought it, and in such desperate fashion too.

Alas, they are no masters of the universe - despite what they of the inflated-egos think to the contrary. The "Jerry John Rawlings May 1979 Court Martial publicity effect" will definitely not work for them, as they seek to carry out their sinister plot against Ghanaian democracy and Mother Ghana.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com