According to Prof. Yankah, the establishment of the Heroes’ Fund by the NDC could be a signal for hot-headed party faithful to create confusion in the run-up to the 2012 presidential and legislative elections, knowing that there is a fund to take care of them should they get injured in the process.
The Legon Don also took the NPP to the cleaners for the ‘All die be die’ mantra adopted for the next elections. According to Prof. Yankah, it is a recipe for disaster, as opponents might look upon that stance as a declaration of war.
The Professor was quick to point out that both the Heroes Fund and the ‘All die be die’ mantra would not have been necessary, had the state security apparatus been up to its task. The Chronicle would like to invite the state security apparatus to take the Professor’s assertion seriously.
We have reached a stage in the political life of this nation, when the average Ghanaian has not got much confidence in state security. In January 2009, three sympathisers of the NPP were butchered to death by people suspected to be agents of the ruling party. This was immediately after President John Evans Atta Mills had been declared winner of the closest presidential vote this country has ever witnessed.
When the President was formally sworn into office, promising to be a father for all, many people believed state security would go into what turned out to be political murders and take some form of action. Two and half years down the line, there has been no action.
Since that incident, the NPP, especially, has raised the red flag over intimidating tactics and outright brutality by followers of the NDC during the Chereponi, Akwatia and Atiwa bye-elections, without state security ever getting interested.
In the case of the Atiwa bye-elections, Anita De Soosoo, Women’s Organiser of the NDC, was fingered, following an incident in which her four-wheel-drive vehicle was driven through a barrier of human beings, seriously injuring many people, believed to be supporters of the NPP.
In all these incidents, state security has turned a blind eye. Instead, the police and the Bureau of National Investigations have been over-enthusiastic in arresting opponents of the NDC over very trivial issues.
It is this kind of discrimination in securing the safety of the Ghanaian, which in the opinion of the Professor, has goaded the two parties on to safeguard their interests. The Chronicle agrees with Prof. Yankah, and invites the state security apparatus to do some sort of self-examination and correct the negative impressions in the minds of Ghanaians.
Leaving political parties to take care of the security of their members as the 2012 elections draw nearer would be panacea for confusion. Let state security rise up and be counted. The state cannot continue to fund the activities of a security service that would only become an apron string of the failed Atta Mills Presidency.
Credit: Ghanaian Chronicle
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Editorial: A word for state security