NDC Still Exploiting Dagon?

Accra Daily Mail -- The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has, since its electoral defeat, designed a devilish agenda to disagree with the administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on all matters of governance.

In line with this agenda, the NDC recently called on the government to revoke the appointment of the Yendi District Chief Executive, Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani for "failure to provide the late Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and 40 others with the needed protection". This call was published in the Daily Guide edition of June 14, 2005.

It is not only ridiculous but also ironical for the (P)NDC, which has the worst human rights record in Ghana's history, to call for revoking the appointment of a public official on the unsubstantiated charge of "security lapse".

It still fresh on the foreheads of Ghanaians that incidents similar to the one that led to the death of Ya Na happened in (P)NDC days of revolutionary dictatorship and constitutional misgovernance, but no appointment of any office holder was revoked.

For instance in the late eighties, chieftaincy conflicts in Dabgon resulted in the killing of hundreds of people in Diary, Vogu, Tolon, Gushgu and Zabzugu, all in the northern region.

In all these incidents the government never revoked the appointment of any political leaders of the area. Nobody could even call on the government to revoke the appointment of any of its appointees for "failure to protect" innocent lives.

It would also be recalled that an "irresponsible remark" of J.J.Rawlings that "nobody was born with a piece of land from heaven" led to the devastating Konkomba-Dgomba war between 1993 and 1994. Only God can quantify the alarming level of destruction caused by the ethnic conflict.

Did his cohorts ask him to resign? Prior to this conflict, there had been another incident bordering on serious security failure in the northern capital of Tamale.

This was when a group of intoxicated military men on board an "abongo" truck ruthlessly run into peaceful celebrants of the bugum (fire) festival without any provocation.

The result of this barbaric act was that 15 of the celebrants instantly perished, and many of them sustained serious injuries.

When the people of Tamale came out the next day to protest the downright display of terrorism by the military, another group of military uniforms descended on them and mercilessly brutalized them. It is an indisputable fact that nobody in authority was even interdicted for this abuse of military might, which still constitutes a gross abuse of human rights.