Tuesday 22 January 2013

NPP: Seeking The Jerry John Rawlings May 1979 Court Martial Publicity Effect?


Author's note: This piece was written on 10/1/2013. I was unable to post it on the day, unfortunately - and do so today instead.


An acquaintance of mine telephoned earlier  this evening  (the evening of 9/1/2013, that is) to ask: "So, Kofi,   it turns out that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) only wants Ghanaians to know what transpires  during the hearing of the presidential election  petition it has brought before the Supreme Court,   when it suits its purposes?".


Indeed, many are  those who are mystified by the curious demand being made in certain quarters, for the telecasting and broadcasting of court proceedings,   in the case brought before the Supreme Court by New Patriotic Party (NPP)  challenging the declaration by the Electoral Commissioner,  of President John Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 presidential election.


To such people, perhaps one ought to point to what a wit has  labelled the "Jerry John Rawlings May 1979 Court Martial publicity effect".


In his May 1979 Court Martial trial presided over by  Colonel Enningful, the publicity gained by Flt Lt Rawlings, when it was revealed by the media that he had asked that the  men under him should be freed and left alone,   because he accepted full responsibility for the abortive 15th May 1979 military coup attempt, propelled him into a hero amongst the junior officer corps and the rank and file.


According to a wag I know, it is that selfsame magic that the too clever by half individuals who insist that the NPP Supreme Court challenge of the declaration of President Mahama as the victor in the December 2012  presidential election by the Electoral Commissioner be telecast and broadcast,  actually seek, when they make those absurd demands.


And apparently  they do so for a sinister purpose too: to  create a Ghanaian equivalent of the popular uprising that occurred in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world, known as the "Arab Spring" if the NPP's case fails and is thrown out of the Supreme Court.


The unprecedented hold-a-press-conference-per-issue tactic,  now adopted by the NPP,  for what indeed  is an ongoing court case is part of that master plan, according to the bush telegraph. Interesting, that.


Well, for all our sake, one hopes that the security agencies are keeping an eagle eye on the activities of the extremists amongst the NPP's following. They are not a very pleasant lot, unfortunately.


Clearly, the plot to recruit so-called "Bad Boys" (amongst them ex-combatants from various civil wars in the West African sub-region)  in order to create chaos in Ghana,  by resorting  to random acts of violence  across the nation in furtherance of the secret agenda  to destabilise  Ghana, has not been discarded by those who originally hatched it. They may yet unleash those myrmidon-types at some point, alas


Well, above all, in all this,  we must never forget  that the reasonable face of the NPP, represented by its elected leadership, is the public face that the party's clever   extremists dearly want the world to see.


The NPP's leadership's  well-spoken reasonableness provides perfect cover for the men of violence hiding in the shadows and  seething with anger - who  daily stoke the fire that  keeps  the cauldron-of-evil, which  the party's extremists would rather the world does not see,  boiling.


However, according to some of the party's critics the use of violence to achieve the ends that the NPP's extremists seek, is still very much on the cards - as part of their strategy  to eventually give birth to  a popular uprising in Ghana,  spearheaded by their party's myrmidon-type  foot soldiers: were  the Supreme  Court to  throw  out the NPP's presidential election petition.


Some of those  NPP critics  are also insistent that the self-seeking and desperate extremist individuals  in the NPP who wanted to win the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary election at all costs, are still determined to do so regardless - and are hoping against hope that somehow the Supreme Court judges will put them into power again:  despite their party  being rejected by voters last December.


Apparently,  the party's extremists would dearly love to see the magic  of   the "Jerry John Rawlings 1979 Court Martial publicity effect" working for them too.


The telecasting and broadcasting of  the proceedings of the  NPP's  Supreme  Court challenge to the  presidential election declaration by the Electoral Commissioner,  is key to that one gathers.


If the conspiracy theorists in our midst are right in what they say about the NPP's super-ruthless extremists, then thank goodness that that innocuous-sounding but  rather sinister request to have the proceedings of the party's Supreme Court December 2012 presidential election results petition telecast and broadcast, was not granted those who sought it,  and in such desperate fashion too.


Alas, they are no masters of the universe - despite what they of the inflated-egos think to the contrary. The "Jerry John Rawlings May  1979 Court Martial publicity effect" will definitely not work for them,  as they seek to carry out their sinister plot against Ghanaian democracy and Mother Ghana.


Tel: 027 745 3109.


Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com

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