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Opinions of Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Columnist: Kwaku Badu

When is the minority NDC organising a press conference on Black Stars?

It is a known secret that the minority NDC operatives are on a mission to placate their aggrieved party supporters, hence constantly organising press conferences on any issues that pop up in the country, whether relevant or not.

Given the fact that the minority NDC operatives have developed a penchant for organising press conferences at the slightest opportunity, it is quite baffling that they have blatantly refused to convene and speak publicly on the ongoing SSNIT corruption scandal.

Shockingly, however, a credible diehard sympathiser of the NDC Party has confided in me that the minority NDC operatives are preparing to hold a press conference to upbraid the NPP government for the Black Stars abysmal performance against the Congo in the first leg of the World Cup qualifier at the Kumasi sports stadium, which has reduced Ghana’s chances of participation in the nest year’s football tournament in Russia.

How bizarre could that be? Organising a press conference on Black Stars performances? Are they that desperate?

And considering that the minority NDC operatives gleefully organised a press conference to demand answers as to how and why the UT bank and Capital bank became insolvent within seven months into the NPP administration, one would have expected the same people to take an issue over the SSNIT corruption scandal, but that has not been the case.

I must admit, it beggars belief how the minority NDC operatives are working strenuously in opposition. Needless to say that such a dedication to duty was somehow missing whilst in power.

Truth be told, some of us cannot abandon our arousing disgust over the erstwhile NDC government’s incompetence and the corrupt practices which brought about economic collapse.

Indeed, it is for this reason that I do not want to demit my indignation over the minority NDC’s apparent hypocrisy and their weird approach to providing opposition and alternative solutions to the NPP government.

Obviously, the opposition is obliged to put the incumbent government on its toes. But the all-important question is: does the opposition NDC have to hold press conferences on any irrelevant issues for the sake of providing opposition?

Well, that is the essence of democracy. Indeed, the minority NDC operatives are within their democratic right to grumble and speak their piece and criticise the NPP administration as they so wish.

But all said and done, their relentless and needless press conferences are becoming extremely nauseating, and, one cannot help but to giggle over the minority NDC’s renewed zeal to call press conferences at the slightest opportunity.

Let us however be clear: in as much as the minority NDC operatives are trying their level best to convince their aggrieved supporters of their consuming desire to recapture power in 2020, they cannot and must not try to throw dust into our eyes.

It would appear that the overzealous minority NDC operatives are taking a needless advantage of their inalienable rights, which are encapsulated in the free speech and the freedom of expression instrument.

It is worthy of note that in the days’ of the PNDC’s regime, we witnessed the eccentric and frumpish laws such as the Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws which were used excessively and capriciously by the founders of the NDC Party to silence their political opponents.

Gratifyingly, however, through the efforts of the then Attorney General in President Kufuor’s NPP government, Nana Akufo-Addo, and with the able support of the forward thinking President Kufuor, repealed the truculent and inhumane Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws in 2001.

The repealing of the strikingly outlandish seditious laws was, as a matter of fact, an unprecedented feat by the NPP government led by former President Kufuor.

Obviously, it paved way for the press freedom we are enjoying at present. Indeed, upon the removal of the neanderthaloid laws, ordinary citizens could express their views without harbouring any fears.

More importantly, due to the removal of the outrageous and primitive laws, political actors and activists have unrestricted freedom to organise press conferences and demonstrations.

Suffice it to state that in the period between 1993 and 2000, despite the emergence of democracy, the opposition political parties were toothless and could not organise frequent demonstrations and press conferences.

But due to former President Kufuor and his government’s foresightedness, today, the minority NDC operatives, whose founding fathers’ took delight in the dowdy slanderous laws, can boundlessly and irrationally organise press conferences to attack the same person whose invaluable contributions helped to expunge the libel and seditious laws.

In any case, that epitomises the beauty of democracy. The minority NDC operatives are within their democratic rights to grouch and criticise the incumbent government as they see fit.

Well, if all that the minority NDC could offer Ghanaians is to call press conferences on issues such as the Black Stars dreadful performances, then I am afraid their best is not good enough, and, won’t win them power.