Thursday 30 June 2016

The Security Agencies Must Investigate The Stoning Of President Mahama's Convoy Near Ejisu - And Swiftly Prosecute All Those Involved In It

The stoning of the President's convoy last night, in the Ashanti Region, by villagers near Ejisu, should be thoroughly investigated by the security agencies, and all those involved in organising it swiftly prosecuted and jailed.

Such barbaric acts should not be countenanced in our democracy under any circumstances.

Where will such egregious violence directed at the President of the Republic of Ghana lead to? It must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all the political parties in Ghana.

Local and international media reports of such incidents taking place in parts of Ghana, create unnecessary tension in our country, and discourage  investors planning to invest in our national economy.

Who will create the hundreds of thousands of jobs that the younger generation so desperately needs, if entrepreneurs from Ghana and elsewhere in the world don't invest in businesses here - because in their view the country has become unstable?

Are politicians going to be attacked everywhere they go in Ghana because people in the areas they visit are dissatisfied with their policies? Will that not lead to a state of anarchy in our homeland Ghana?

We must not forget that whiles the Constitution guarantees our fundame;ntal human rights as citizens of Ghana, all of us also have a responsibility to be law-abiding citizens, at all material times.

If a similar incident had occurred in the U.S., the U.S. Secret Service would have reacted swiftly, and opened fire with their weapons at the people involved in the stone throwing, whiles speeding away from the scene of the incident to take the president to a safer area they had control over.

In an age of global terrorism, those protecting the leaders of nations around the world, who have to make split-second decisions in such instances, cannot afford to wait to find out whether or not such stone-throwing in a darkened area at night, is a diversionary tactic in an assassination attempt on the leaders they are protecting.

They will more likely than not resort to maximum and overwhelming force to ensure the safety of those they are trained to protect - because when faced with such a situation, they have to assume that a planned surprise attempt to assassinate the President, by terrorists, is underway.

Those protecting President Mahama must be commended for showing such restraint in not opening fire with their guns on the Ejisu stone throwers, to protect the President.

If all the Western democracies keep close tabs on political extremists, be they extremist left-wingers or extremist right-wingers, constantly, then the time has come for extremists in Ghana (from across the political spectrum), such as the Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos - who sought to explain away that unjustifiable Ejisu stone-throwing  incident and ended up pinning it on disgruntled supporters of the President's own party - should also be monitored  round the clock.

Politicians of that ilk are  extremely dangerous to Ghana's democracy. They are amoral and ruthless characters  who think that in the quest for political power the end justifies the means. It does not. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako must not be allowed to get away with this heinous crime if investigations prove that he was connected to it in any way.

Some of us have had enough of the arrogance of these wealthy, uncouth and foolhardy politicians who are verbally-aggressive and violence-prone - and  can't see beyond their noses: and think that they are the only men left in Ghana. They are not.

Real men fight in the battle of ideas - and out-think and out-smart their opponents.

There is absolutely no need for violence in our nation's politics in this day and age. Haaba. Bad-faith politicians must not be allowed to destabilise Ghana.

As it happens, it now turns out that the number of NHIA cardholders registered as voters by the Electoral Commission (EC) nationwide, were actually far less than the millions claimed by the Let My Vote Count Alliance protest group led by yet another set of bad-faith politicians cloaked in the garb of  democratic activists - who it now emerges wanted to bring Ghana to a halt for no good reason at all: The NHIA cardholders the EC registered as voters were less than 60,000 nationwide.

That is why the time has now come for decent people in all the political parties - who luckily are in the majority in all the political parties in Ghana - to understand clearly that the presence of wealthy, thuggish and dissembling individuals in leadership positions, who think that somehow brute  force can help their parties win power, undermines their own parties and taints Ghanaian democracy.

Those blockheads who think that somehow they can come to power through the kind of public demonstrations that removed the regimes of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, and the late Libyan leader, Maummar Gaddafi, from power, are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. It will not happen in Ghana.

The era of violent conduct formented by some leading politicians in pursuit of power is over. Politics today is a competition of ideas and the use of the power of persuation to  gain ground in election campaigns. Such brutish types have no place in our nation's politics - and must be rooted out of all the political parties in Ghana.

Ensuring law order in Ghana is a collective responsibility of all Ghanaians. Politicians and political parties ought to regard the discharge of that responsibility by them as their contribution to the nation-building effort. Violence has no place in the politics of our homeland Ghana.

That is why that disgraceful and totally unacceptable stoning of the convoy of President Mahama near Ejisu last night  must be thoroughly investigated by the security agencies - and all those involved in it swiftly prosecuted and jailed for that outrage. We are not barbarians and must not tolerate such abominable and unpardonable acts of violence. Period.


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