The hegemony is back and the password is …

On the night of 31st December 1981 when the PNDC launched what was to be known as the 31st December revolution, the operation for the night was codenamed “Fadama” but what many people still do not know was that the password for the night was “Nye bro” translated loosely from Ewe as my brother. The soldiers who triggered the coup were a combination of serving and retired or dismissed soldiers from all tribes and backgrounds but the password was distinctively taken from the language of the leader, Flt Lt Rawlings.

At the time it seemed a very plausible explanation that the leader could choose any pass code but how the original PNDC was to change into a den of the Tsikatas was to explain the sense behind the choice of the expression Nye bro. The expression showed who actually were the gate keepers of the revolution and who got in and who got out. It would become clear that the Ewe hegemony was to make the PNDC an executive club that will invite in “Uncle Toms”, when on the night when the three judges and the retired soldiers were brutally murdered, the perpetrators of this heinous act were made to wear Northern smocks, an act intended to deflect attention and in the process discredit the Northerners who were members or associates of the PNDC. That singular act of treachery led to the witch hunting and the discrediting of non-Ewes like Akatapore, Achana, Akadima, Halidu Gyiwah, Amartei Kwei and these people ending up either in exile or their graves while Amedeka was given safe executive passage out the country even though he was the chief executioner. These people were the baboons of 31st December but the monkeys of 31st - the Ewes in that act- came out of the mess to the other side with clean noses, even if your name was Amedeka and you were the master executioner.

I will not be wrong if I dare say that the events of December 7th and 28th last year mirrored 31st December 1981. The “baboons” of NDC worked for the “monkeys” to come in with the password “Nye bro” to chop. The Hegemony is back. Prof Mills’ transitional team gives a reflection of this hegemony. The lopsided team heavily weighs in favour of Ewes yet when you look at the electoral map of Ghana after the election; there were eight green regions as against two blue ones. The team gives true indication that our “simpa penyin” Mills is not in control. The Northern parliamentary caucus led by Alban Bagbin and Moses Asaga who singularly kept the NDC politically afloat from 2001 to 2008, were kicked to touch lines. The issue about the payment of ex-gratia gratuity to former president Kufuor was a good excuse to tell the Northern caucus of the party one again that they are the “baboons” of NDC. Let’s face it, Togbe Afedi was the boss of Moses Asaga as far as any disbursements are concerned and yet we see Togbe the ewe man come of out the mess with a clean nose while Asaga bears the brunt of under-pressure Mills. Togbe Afedi, sure to become the Governor of Bank of Ghana is also the Chief Executive of SAS Ltd which trades on the Ghana Stock Exchange and which is controlled by the Bank of Ghana. Tell me about conflict of interest, but if you are an ewe, who care about this in Ghana? This is their time…

Professor Mills may be the President of Ghana and hence the leader of NDC but according to NDC constitution Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings still calls the shots as the party founder. It has been very convenient for NDC to have Prof Mills as its leader because it presents a non-Ewe face for the NDC, but the Ewe hegemony knows that Mills can never bark nor bite. A true Fanti, described harshly as “good-for-nothing vagabonds” by Sir Garnet Wolseley in 1874 “and who are prepared to enjoy our easy going laws”. Sir Garnet Wolseley helped the Fantis and the British to subdue the Asantis and burn down Kumasi, but he had these chilling comments about Fantis. [See WW Claridge –History of Gold Coast and Ashanti]. What did he see with our forefathers when he led them through the Denkyira forests to Kumasi? Could what is happening in the NDC be a déjà vu? Fantis may enjoy “easy going laws” our democracy and that is the reason why we voted the way we did but are we being short changed by the Ewes? If you are an Ewe and your name was Arnold Quainoo or Victor Smith your name could be used to replace a true Fanti and poor Mills sits there and oversee this rot. Rawlings describes Prof’s decisions as “poverty of ideas” and orders him to sack people and be obediently does it.

Barely 48 hours after being sworn into office, the (P)NDC ewe military machinery rolled into action, this time led by Victor Smith the former aide to former president JJ Rawlings. Victor Smith, who himself was sacked by his former boss by a mere text message understandably took a platoon of former 64 Battalion men into the Christiansburg Castle and commandeered all state vehicles, in a clear re-visitation of the PNDC demagoguery and show of brutal force. In a sheer disregard of the transitional arrangements, this individual fired a salvo of brutal force reminiscent of the typical PNDC’s. This was the first sign of the times for Ghanaians who have chosen terror over constitutionality and servitude over freedom.

What was fascinating about this naked display of empty brutal force was the fact that all the vehicles that were commandeered were at location inside the Castle where they are supposed to be. To make allegation of being stolen by the NPP typified the NDC cry of wolf when they are themselves the wolves. In a run up to the elections they accused virtually everyone including the police, the Electoral Commission, the government and the NPP of planning to steal the election, while it is now evident that they were planning the biggest daylight robbery of Ghanaian democracy and they used Volta Region, the bastion of their hegemony to carry out this coup-de-gras against us.

Eight years ago, during the transition, the NDC organised what they termed the “Last Supper” and bequeath to themselves all the national asset in their care, including handing four houses of Mr. and Mrs Rawlings as retirement benefit thus forcing the then inexperienced and naïve NPP government to inherit a bankrupt nation. Ato Dadzie, the then Chief of Staff dished out with impunity every house and vehicles that state officials held at the time with ease under the “spirit of transition”. It is this fear of what the NDC did when they were leaving office that is prompting Victor Smith to behave like a depraved lunatic. How this group of human beings can cultivate such wanton hatred and envy of their own countrymen is beyond comprehension. Since Rawlings burst onto the political scene he has attracted many youth whose language and actions prove grave hostility and spite for others who do not belong to their political thinking. It even manifests in murder, incarceration, confiscation of their properties and other acts of treachery that defies any reason. Rawlings’ NDC contain elements in our society who see no good in any others. But they are no better. they are very corrupt and criminal. Their actions do not exhibit any degree of moral high standing and always wonder who gave birth to such spiteful people. These people can go to war and kill innocent people for nothing. They sit at home brewing in anger at people who do not even know them. Rawlings hatched the NDC and as a result brought into our society such demonic pursuits of evil proportions against fellow Ghanaians. They all talk the same talk: we shall kill you; imprison; investigate; jail you... NDC people have no sense of humanity. They spew forth bile. they fail in their lifestyles and blame everybody but themselves. Successful people are their targets. they will stop at nothing to show their teeth at people who embrace them. Politics of envy, however will not succeed in our Ghana. The Volta virus threatens peace and the deepening of democracy in Ghana. People like Rawlings who see no good in any other except himself, people like Kojo Tsikata who murder those who don’t even know him. These people force people into exile and cause their separation from loved ones. They used revolution in the past and now a depraved democracy to propagate their sinful acts against other human beings.

We are in for a terror ride for the next four years under this resuscitated PNDC machinery where individuals are unaccountable for their actions and under the weak presidency of Atta-Mills. We as Ghanaians must brace ourselves for the choices we have made. The transitional team put together by the president says it all. The PNDC hegemony is back and this time the password once again is “Nyebro”.

The treachery exhibited by Brigadier Nunno Mensah in the run up to the elections has been rewarded by him being handed a job to hunt down “enemies of the revolution” and to finish the final chapter of the “holocaust”. As a double agent he worked for both NPP and NDC and this is a typical example of his double edged actions in 1979 and 1981.

The Rawlings rant “I am back” at the Swedish embassy immediately after the 1st round of voting on December 7th is clearly evident in the composition of the transitional team in which the Mills’ factor is completely missing.

The inertia of Mills is very evident in his inability to put together a government as at now and the whole nation is on an auto-pilot mode. While the mob rule the streets of Accra Tamale and Ho, and jubilate at the institutionalisation of lawlessness in Ghana, Professor Mills’ frail body crumbles under the wait of the Bible and fumbles with words at his own swearing in ceremony.

The hallmarks of lawlessness have no limit. At Tamale, the Azoka boys rule the town sending Metro-mass drivers packing and collecting their keys. The brutalities meted out to Faisal Gbangili, by six NDC thugs give telling examples of what is in store for us as Ghanaians. In Kumasi, the daily threat of burning down the Kumasi market has not gone away. At Ho all “foreigners” have been told to leave or “face slaughter”. In Accra, Radio Gold issues party political broadcast daily on behalf of NDC. At Agogbloshie in Accra, a poor woman is beaten to pulp for displaying NPP T-shirt on her drying line.

While the NPP prefers to use the law courts to right the wrongs of the December elections, the NDC are not stopping at anything to wrestle and secure power through “any means necessary”. They have intimidated the government and Afari Gyan to hand over power to them on a silver platter and to add insults to injury are bludgeoning the people of Ghana into silence and our ewe brothers and sisters are running amok around Mills.

We are therefore calling on President Mills to condemn these excesses of power being exhibited by his NDC operatives or risk being the father of it. We do know that he is not assertive enough to be his own man and we want him to banish those ghosts and for once prove that he can lead the nation by calling his people to order.

But in the telling words of Ephraim Amu, we will continue to “defend forever the cause of freedom and of right”. We have come too far to return. Arise oh sons and daughters of Ghana for we deserves better.

Harry Jonson Aggrey

harryjonaggrey@yahoo.com