Violence In our Politics
Arthur Kobina Kennedy

Last week, there were two incidents that should concern every peace-loving Ghanaian. Akenteng Appiah-Menkah, an NPP stalwart, former Minister and an honoree of the United Nations for his contributions to African business lodged a formal complaint with the Police in Kumasi that he had received a threatening text message.

The text message identified him as one of the NPP leaders in Ashanti targeted for elimination before the 2012 elections. The list also included Parliamentary Minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu.

A few days later, the NDC General Secretary, Mr. Asiedu Nketia, charged that the NPP was preparing for violence during the forthcoming Chereponi bye-election. Of course, the charge was swiftly denied by his NPP counterpart, Nana Ohene Ntow. Amidst the charges and counter-charges about stock-piling of arms, the CPP has added its voice to the calls for a peaceful election in Chereponi.

On their own, these two incidents would be serious enough. However, their significance is magnified by the spate of violence that characterized the 2008 elections. It started with the registration when there were skirmishes with the NPP and NDC trading accusations about who was responsible.

GENERAL ELECTION

Then during the general election campaign, there were clashes in places like Tamale and Agbobloshie topped by the incidents in the Volta Region where during the second round, NPP agents were chased out and prevented from acting as polling agents for their party.

The most notable of these incidents involved Dr. Sammy Ohene, who was attacked in full view of Police and Electoral Commission officials.

The ultimate manifestation of violence in 2008 occurred the day before the TAIN election when the sitting President, intent on visiting TAIN, went as far as Wenchi and could not go to TAIN for security reasons.

I know that apologists for the former President and the ì see-no-evil, hear-no-evil crowd will attack me and insist that he could have gone to TAIN but every well-informed Ghanaian knows that that assertion would be false. Surprisingly, the place that was unsafe for a sitting President was deemed safe enough for an election the next day. According to the report of the European Union Monitoring team, the Electoral Commission Chairman and one of his Deputies received threatening phone calls during the period after the voting.

Despite all these, Ghanaians were determined to tell the world that our elections had been free, fair and peaceful.

Therefore, all the Religious leaders who were pleading on Radio and T.V. for peace eagerly congratulated the winner and Ghanaians for a great election. Come 2012, they will re-emerge, to pray and to plead for peace once again.

The violence did not end there. After the elections, there were clashes in places like Agbobloshie and Tamale with the NDC more often than not, being the protagonists.

This pattern continued when there was violence during the Akwatia bye-election.

Of course, violence in our politics did not start in 2008. From the clashes between CPP and UP activists through Kolungugu to UNIGOV to the murder of the judges to Kumipreko, violence has always been part of our politics.

Not just our politics but of our society--- rising armed robberies, Chieftaincy disputes turned into armed conflicts as in Dagbon, Bawku, Ga Mashi and Anloga and other places, the assassination o journalists and bankers bear ample witness to that.

However, it appears that the PNDC/NDC era has elevated and institutionalized the democratization of violence in our politics.

The ascendancy of the PNDC/NDC has, in effect made violence an accepted tool of governance and politics and our nation is poorer for it. That is not to say that NPP members did not contribute to the recent spate of violence. They did but not to the extent of the PNDC/NDC family.

The effects of violence on our politics and society can be catastrophic.

As Prof. George Ayittey has documented extensively, the breakdown in most of he failed states in Africa began with election disputes. This was the pattern in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda and even in Kenya which was believed by many to be a very stable democracy.

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOURS

Within the society at large, these episodes of violence breed a culture of brazenness and disrespect, not just for life but also for the rights of others. This fuels anti-social behaviours as well as crime and undermines the confidence f law-abiding citizens in our politicians and the political process.


As I write, there is ascendant, even within our political parties a culture of intolerance that leads to attacks on those perceived to be soft on the enemy. This leads to the celebration of calculated rudeness as a virtue rather than a vice, within our parties.

I bring up all these, not to point fingers but to urge us to look forward. As a physician, I belief firmly that an ounce of prevention is worth a pond of cure.


It seems that we should be very concerned about the prospect of violence during 2012.

The Police failed to ensure peace in Volta Region. They failed in Akwatia with only six polling stations. They appear not to be in control of Chereponi. If they could not ensure peace at Akwatia and they fail to ensure peace in Chereponi, how can we trust them to ensure peace in nearly 22,000 polling stations during the 2012 elections?

To further compound the situation, we have all learned the wrong lessons from 2008.

The NDC learned that intimidating and attacking state institutions and your opponents work.

They also learned that once you win, the desire for peace in Ghana is so overwhelming that we will let you get away with it rather than make trouble. Unfortunately, I fear that while the NDC was learning that lesson, others too, particularly in the NPP, were learning it too.

The NPP rank and file knows that even with government on their side, their leaders were not effective in protecting the vote. It stands to reason that as the NPP moves towards 2012, extremists in that party, just as in the NDC, will be ascendant. In truth, moderation is getting out of fashion in our politics.

Our nation cannot endure for long when everybody knows that the outcomes of elections depend on who can do more ways and means rather than above-board campaigning.

I remember talking to Akenteng Appiah Menkah earlier this year. He decried the influence of money and shenanigans in our elections. As he put it, for our nation to be viable, people must win elections honestly and transparently.

A few weeks later, when he was asked for money to buy votes for his election to the Council of State, he refused to do so and lost. How can we prevent violence in our politics and elections?

First, we must depoliticize our Police and make their operations more transparent. The size of our police force doubled under the NPP and with it, the ability to enforce the law. We must strengthen them and make them independent of politicians by not tying the tenure of Senior Police Officers to the whims and caprices of politicians.

This will require an assertion by the police of their lawful prerogatives and restraint by political authorities in using the Police. Along these lines, we must restructure the Regional and District Security structures at election time to include members of the Electoral Commission and the opposition to make decision-making fairer.

Second, civil society groups must get more involved in our election monitoring. This will reduce the space for ways and means and increase our respect for the outcome of elections.

Third, while the media has been very effective in reporting, they must be more objective in their reporting. This will enhance their credibility as watchdogs. The practice where Newspapers and radio stations become appendages of particular campaigns must cease.


Fourth, the International Community must stop the despicable practice of holding Africa to different and inferior standards. The practice of sending observer teams who only stay in capitals and visit only a few stations and then pronounce an election as free, fair and peaceful must end. We in Africa deserve democracy as elevated as what is practiced in the West.

COLLECTIVE INTEREST

Finally, our politicians must put our collective interest ahead of partisan considerations. Those who will destroy a nation in order to lead it do not deserve power. Politicians must pledge to send other people’s children only into situations they will send their own children into.

As for the ideological divides and passions, I declare, here and now, that Danquah and Nkrumah have been dead for too long to still be fuels for our hatred. We must stop hating and harming others in their name. There must be in our politics, a new and ascendant trend of moderation and tolerance.

I pray for the day when just like there were Reagan Democrats and Obama Republicans, there will be NDC members voting for an NPP candidate in large numbers because he is a better candidate and vice-versa.

Let us return to the days when good candidates could be routinely elected in constituencies far from their places of origin. Let the people turn their backs decisively on those who traffic in violent politics and reward those who will practice the politics of reconciliation and peace.


Let us move forward, together, in peace and democracy.