We Need Stronger ‘Third Parties’ To Confront The NDC And NPP Hegemony

(Before the ‘see-nothing-wrong’ supporters of NDC and NPP start to throw their arsenals at me, let them read below what every Ghanaian knows and let them for a moment ponder in their heads.)

For effective modern democracy to thrive in Ghana there is need for both effective government and effective opposition, provided by two main parties with separate agendas and both working with the best interest of the nation at heart and striving in their different approaches to create socio-economic conditions that fulfil the same aspirations of Ghanaians generally, irrespective of party affiliation.

Ghana is fortunate to have two dominant parties, the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party, which can at any time play the two alternate roles....effective government and effective opposition. However, the situation we have so far had in Ghana since 1993 has been a mere mirage. We have had two strong parties that have shared between them the two roles of government and opposition for over sixteen years but, contrary to expectation, practical democracy in the country has been a failure throughout the entire sixteen-year period.

By practical democracy, I am talking about democracy that reflects in people’s pockets, in their bellies and over their faces. I am not talking about the changing of government from NDC to NPP and then from NPP back to NDC....changes that resemble democracy but fail to put a smile on the face of that “kaya-kaya” woman carrying her two-year old baby at her back and with a heavy load on her head doing a slave-like porter’s job in order to get small money to buy ‘yokor-gari’ for herself and her child to eat for the day. By practical democracy, therefore, I mean democracy that leads to improvement in the wellbeing of the “kaya-kaya” woman so that, for example, she could have her child cared for at a crèche while she goes to do a dignified woman’s work somewhere. Socio-economic conditions in Ghana since the Fourth Republic have terribly failed to measure up to Ghanaian expectation. Conditions in Ghana are worse than they were many years before. And yet the politicians have given themselves fat salaries, big accommodations furnished by the tax-payer, posh state cars and above all sumptuous ESB receivable every four years. Despite these over-generous benefits, hardly does a day pass by since the beginning of this twenty-first century without Ghanaians hearing stories and revelations about one politician or some politicians in either of the two main parties.....stories and revelations usually kept ‘sealed’ until something happens by chance or through a change of government to cause them to drop open and begin to smell like rotten eggs and then you wonder what the hell at all draws Ghanaians to these two dominant parties in such large numbers in a country that is one of the few in Africa with a relatively high percentage of literate population.

Past and current revelations and reports show that the two dominant parties are both rogues, cheaters, rapists and bloody liars. [The descriptions are mine but the reports and revelations from which the inferences are made are official and were not produced by me.] Since 1992 when the Fourth Republican constitution was introduced, the two groups of greedy, thieving and insensitive political rapists have schemed and plotted, using all available channels, to manipulate Ghanaian voters and the electoral process to control between them the political landscape and power within the country, despite the stinking records of both parties. Ghana now belongs to the National Democratic Party and New Patriotic Party overlords, barons and their followers. Talk against either of the two, and their fanatic followers will jump on and tear you to pieces, as if you have no right to criticise them.....no right to criticise these untouchable but dishonourable “honourables” who have barricaded themselves with thick blankets of condoning paid ‘foot-soldiers’ in their two vampiric parties that call themselves NDC and NPP. And just as these two thieving parties and their members and supporters think that they have a right to defend their party names, so also should they know that any other Ghanaian has a right and an interest to speak or write in defence of the nation that is being looted through the use of all means including what the looters and rapists claim to be their “lawful or constitutional rights”. Constitutional rights to loot and rape your nation? And how cheeky it is for them to choose the kind of party names they have both chosen! One party says we are “National” and “Democratic” and the other says we are “New “ and “Patriotic”. How? Can they explain?

Did the NATIONAL DEMOMCRATIC CONGRESS members mean “national democratic” in the real senses of the two terms? What is it that they are doing that is “national” about them, apart from the fact that they have branches all over Ghana as required essentially by law and, also, apart from the fact that they know how to manipulate to win votes nationally? Are they campaigning for some indigenous national language to replace English, or are they campaigning for an ethnically integrated nation that sees itself as one, or for some other unifying national exercise? And what system of “democracy” are they talking about by calling themselves “democratic”? Do we, for example, have ‘despotic democracy’ or ‘lawless democracy’? These are two terms that could be used to qualify NDC if such extensions of democracy existed. But, unfortunately, a thorough search showed that there is nothing called ‘despotic democracy’ or ‘lawless democracy’. Of course, I am aware of “benevolent despotism”, if one could see such a system as democratic, but this term in whatever way you see it, does not in any way fit the profile of a party like NDC or any of its leaders. Again, is their founder and current party boss not the same man who carried out a mutiny against his senior officers for their involvement in coups and then went on barely two years later to make one more coup? Is their founder and current party boss not the same man who condemned and shot-dead by firing squad three former military Heads of State and some members of the military juntas before him, including those who had handed over power, for making coups and interfering in the nation’s civilian administration but after that went on to indemnify himself and his two groups of military coup-makers by entrenching in the 1992 constitution the Indemnity Clause that prohibits the taking of any legal action against them and, by that selective prohibition, constrained the rule of law and ridiculed the principles of fairness and justice in Ghana? Is this not the party whose founder and current boss plays hypocrisy by consistently blowing his own trumpet and calling for the prosecution of political office holders who used their offices to commit offences while he, [the seeker of justice], hides behind the bunker of the “Indemnity Clause” that protects him and his other cronies from similar prosecution? Will someone who does not believe that he has misused his office need to protect himself with an indemnity clause entrenched in his handing-over constitutional arrangements? Are they not the same group of people who claimed to have wiped out corruption from Ghana through beatings, killings, and other terrorising acts but brought back the same corruption after 1992? Are they not the same people who said they had given Ghanaian people local powers to elect their local men and women through local elections to become local Assembly men and women but still imposed on them MMDCEs appointed by the President?

To back their claims, let the NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS members prove that they are a true national party by encouraging their followers to stop engaging in activities that polarise and split the nation asunder politically and ethnically, such as the kind of things that their youth are noted for doing. Let the NDC prove that they are democratic by following the rules and processes of law in everything they do so that they do not arrest people without arrest warrants, or harass and intimidate their opponents through their youth wings. Let the NDC take steps to remove the Indemnity Clause from the constitution and allow the rule of law and the principles of justice and equity to operate in Ghana without qualification and without bias since they are the only party best placed to take this step to free Ghana’s democracy from this constitutional and judicial albatross. Let the NDC reopen the case of the abduction and murder of the three High Court Judges and a fourth Ghanaian Army Officer to assure Ghanaians that there has not been any miscarriage of justice. Let the NDC stop corruption in all its forms among its rank and file so that the names of some of its members will not be mentioned in criminal investigations in Ghana, Nigeria, and elsewhere and, also, so that tractors and similar facilities that are meant for poor Ghanaians are not sold to its big and rich party-members who then use them to make money out of the poor. This is the only way they can prove to be cleaner than their equally filthy rivals, the NPP. Let the NDC make the constitutional changes that will allow Ghanaians to elect their MMDCEs so that they can truly claim to be the party that gave power to the people. And finally, let the NDC take steps to amend the sections of the constitution that allow MPs to claim ESB every four years that Ghanaians hold general elections....a situation that has allowed some MPs to claim end-of-service benefits four times in total since the new constitution came into being in 1992 and yet those same MPs have continued to be parliamentarians after every election and have, therefore, never ended their services since 1993.

If NDC cannot do these simple things, some of which they and they alone are best placed to handle for obvious reasons, then let them stop calling themselves National Democratic Congress. I would rather suggest that they call themselves National Demons Congress, because that name fits then better and they could still use their “NDC” label.

And concerning the NEW PARTRIOTIC PARTY members, what is new about your party? Is it different from useless parties that existed before yours? Is it different from the NDC that was born out of the PNDC that preceded your party? And how do you explain the patriotism that you have associated your party with? Do patriotic people drive away state cars that have not been given to them for official duties after the completion of the period of their duties? When vacating official accommodations given them while in office, do patriotic people carry away state properties used to furnish those official accommodations? Do patriotic people cheat their nation by buying state cars that are fairly new at below their market values on a pretext that there existed a “convention” that allowed them to buy those state vehicles they used while they were in office? Who set that convention? And were the setters and followers of the said convention patriotic enough, [by NPP’s definition], to enable them, the NPPs, to follow the lead of the setters and followers of the convention in question, [even if such convention truly exists]? Do patriotic people close their ears to the crying of millions of poor fellow citizens who struggle daily to get single meals of “yokor-gari” while they, the patriots, approve of the payment of huge ESB entitlements for their MPs, their Ministers, their Vice and their outgoing President to whom they make even super-generous offers including six cars and two houses? Even if it involves only one out of their number, do patriotic people engage in activities [such as dealing in cocaine] that are capable of dragging their country’s name in the mud when they, the patriots, know that one bad nut spoils the whole broth? Do patriotic people wait for others to supply them with evidence of corruption before they, the patriots, act when even a six-year old Ghanaian child knows, for example, that the police, the customs and excise officials, DVLA officials, and ministers, etc, do engage themselves in all forms of open corruption? Did the “patriotic” NPP government not know how to use the existing government machinery to gather secret evidence needed to establish prosecutable corruption? Did the NPP not say that they were going to allow Ghanaians to elect their MMDCEs? Do patriotic politicians promise their electorates one set of things in order to get their votes and then after getting the votes choose to do a different set of things that benefit their parties but not their nations?

NPP members can cut off our right ears that hold the past revelations of their one time party Chairman who was fed up so much that he opened his ‘chairman’s authoritative’ mouth to tell Ghanaians what was happening. They can also block our left ears with wood to stop us from hearing the on-going revelations of their sitting parliamentary party member who seems to have become possessed by the spirit of the ‘god of revelations’. Or they can gag and tie this possessed MP by threatening him with expulsion and thereby getting him to shut up. Or they can hypnotise all Ghanaians to become completely demented so that we will all lose our memories of all the other revelations of corruption against them. They can do all these but until they do, Ghanaians know one thing and it is that the NPP cannot claim to be patriotic when their own party members have incriminated them through clear acts and omissions collaborated by verbal and physical exhibits revealed ever since they fell out of government and before. Lawyers say: “innocent until proved guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction”. And lay men and women like us also say that allegations stand as “undisputed statements” until they are dismissed by a court of law or until they are proved otherwise by a competent and trust-worthy authority other than a court of law.

Is the NPP not the party that claims to descend from a tradition that stands for and defends democracy to the letter? And did this “new” ‘demo’ party live up to their traditional claim of being the most democratic party in the country, by being seen by Ghanaians as having used the proverbial “takyi abaa” without bias.....[that is, to favour NPP members that abused their offices and to disfavour non-NPP members who also misused their offices prior to the NPP administration]? How many NPP members were prosecuted during the eight years of their administration? Were there no adverse audit reports against any NPP MP or Minister that warranted investigations and subsequent prosecutions? Or is their system of democracy blind in one eye? Were there not enough NIB officials paid during their administration that could be deployed to check on all public office holders including NPP officials? Were these NIB officials paid and gagged to sit down and do nothing except watch members of the rival opposition party? Is that how democracy takes place in the advanced Western countries that we love to copy from?

If NPP is truly patriotic, then let its leadership and members sincerely admit the mistakes they made in the eight years of their administration and let the party back the current administration to prosecute those NPP Ministers and officials found to have abused their offices without the party jumping to back its members every time accusations are made against them. Let them also apologise to Ghanaians and change the direction of their party by taking steps that will help it to avoid the repetition of these mistakes which, apart from those that have indirectly been discussed above, also include their arrogance, their extravagance and opulence, their remoteness and their insensitivity. If they cannot admit these mistakes and change their behaviour, then let them change their party’s name. And I would here suggest that they call themselves the New Poisonous Party.....a name that suits them better. And like their similarly rotten NDC rivals, they could have the privilege of using their old party label of “NPP”.

In the meantime however, Ghanaians cannot, and should not, trust either of the two groups of thieving politicians of our Fourth Republic who place the interests of their parties and those of themselves above the interests of their nation, [of course, unless they, the NDCs and NPPs, show evidence of change]. But will NDC or NPP take action against a party member or a Minister in their party’s government....something that would demonstrate their preparedness to put the nation first before their parties? No, they will not. Let anybody who challenges me go through the strings of past allegations and cases that have involved members of the two parties while in office....MPs, or Ministers, or ordinary party functionaries....and let that person tell me how many of such allegations and cases that were dealt with were handled properly and fairly. The two parties waste public resources to investigate or prosecute their party members and in the end, out of fear of possible damage to their ‘precious’ parties’ images, they bend either the rules or the processes and, by so doing, end up exonerating the culprits through whitewashed findings, reports and adjudications. To these two precious and angelic parties, it is better for the nation to suffer than for their parties to suffer.

“SAVE THE PARTY’S IMAGE!” This is the hidden motto of the two parties when it comes to investigating and prosecuting members of their parties involved in public-office abuses and other criminal offences. Country folks, how do we get the nation out of this quagmire?

It shall be by ditching the two parties, [NDC and NPP] in 2012.

There is need for alternative parties to emerge to put themselves in positions that will make them capable of replacing the two parties from their dominant positions. It is in the light of this that I urge the CPP, the PNC and the other true Nkrumahist groups to rethink and reposition themselves and stop pretending that they only exist to fight and lose elections and then after that to recoil into their shells and wait until the next election-year. If that is how Dr Kwame Nkrumah, your patriarch behaved, could he have succeeded to create the CPP that you now feel you need to keep alive? Do you presently expect Dr Kwame Nkrumah himself to come from his grave to lift your party and put it on a winning position? You have to have the vision and the dynamism that Dr Kwame Nkrumah had which even his detractors cannot dismiss. It is these two qualities which will qualify you to describe yourselves as Nkrumahist. It is a shame for two renowned politicians [call them journalists, if that is what you think they are] whose efforts helped to bring back the CPP today act as spokespersons and defenders of two opposing parties. It is shameful that a son of Dr Kwame Nkrumah has fallen so low as to leave his father’s party and join a party that until quite recently had been very critical of the very man they now claim to adore. I hear some Nkrumahist people including his son saying the CPP is dead and can never resurrect again. And they are the same people who say “Nkrumah never dies”. And they are the same people also who use Nkrumah’s works and achievements to boast. They forget that Nkrumah formed the CPP in less than one year to overtake the then well organised UGCC that he left. Wait until 2012 is drawing close and then you will see the men and women who will emerge to stand as CPP flag-bearers. Opportunistic men and women! You need to start now and let Ghanaians know that you are playing effective opposition and that you are fit to form a government in future. This role does not have to be played in parliament only.

And let us also hope that a group that will campaign for a new free-market non-socialist party will emerge to champion the course of a private-led economy so that Ghana will soon have two new dynamic political alternatives to constitute the two true pillars of Ghana’s bipartisan political traditions that have been established in the country since 1949 and which can displace the two cut-throat, corruption-infested, wolves-in-the-sheep’s-skin and counterfeit parties that have surfaced and taken control of politics in Ghana since 1992 and that call themselves National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party and who both claim separately to be angels seeking to redeem Ghana, when in fact they both have been devilish vampires that are only there to suck the nation dry and destroy it.

The two new political traditions being contemplated and advocated for, guided by the common purpose of building Ghana into a prosperous democratic nation within which the ultimate power of choice and governance shall reside with the people, would then conduct themselves in a true bipartisan spirit of political competition that focuses on real national issues and interests and not on useless and divisive political rancour and shadow-boxing as we have witnessed for sixteen years and continue to witness today.

OTCHERE DARKO

(A Campaigner for Change)

**I am not a CPP member, nor a member any other currently existing party in Ghana. I am just campaigning for change in the country for the good of the nation, having felt disappointed by what has been going on between the current two dominant parties that have controlled politics in the country since 1992. Of course, if this campaign can change both the NDC and NPP for better, then let it do that. If it cannot change them and can help to create stronger “third” parties that can displace both or either of the two dominant parties in Ghana then let it also be. People who support the two parties who cannot face any bitter truth said about their ‘glorious’ parties can start throwing their arsenals. I am a campaigner and feel ready to pay the price of daring to face two giant tigers on our political arena.