Is our president, Mr. Akuffo Addo out of touch with realities on the ground in Ghana? Is he in an alternative universe? Is he in a bubble, surrounded by a platoon of “yes men and women?”
I ask these questions because Mr. Addo, despite his utterances to the contrary, his public pronouncements that he has the interests of the nation at heart notwithstanding—appears not to have a firm grip on things.
Recent events have left the nation shell-shocked, fearful and despondent. Ghanaians are still reeling from the gruesome murder of Captain Maxwell Mahama. And, to add to their woes, barely a week after his state burial, a police officer was brazenly gunned down in Tema, a local Ga Chief savagely hacked to death in his room and a prominent hotel owner in Kumasi had his life cut short by the bullets of assassins.
Add to the grim picture, the tragic and untold deaths of innocent Ghanaians at the hands of raging mobs and what emerges is a nation slipping dangerously into chaos.
Political vigilante groups affiliated with Mr. Addo’s NPP have been at their dismal and ugly selves yet again, further cementing their reputation as purveyors of violence and eroding public confidence in the government’s ability to control them.
Despite widespread condemnation of their activities, the groups have not relented. They just keep on provoking the public with their unlawful and outrageous behavior and getting away with it. A pervasive sense of lawlessness has permeated the country.
And yet the president through all this, has been, to be brutally honest, oblivious, showing a dogged indifference to the concerns of millions of his citizens that the country is on the wrong path.
Truth be told; Mr. Addo hides behind a facade; he projects this false image of a strong willed leader firmly in charge. Examined closely, he seems to be groping in the dark, unsure of himself. More frightening is Mr. Addo’s reluctance to take major decisions that could potentially have huge impact on the lives of Ghanaians who expect strong and decisive political leadership from Mr. Addo.
There is nothing more egregious and disappointing than Mr. Addo’s glaring failure to clamp down on the activities of NPP vigilante groups. Emboldened by his hands off approach, the groups have thumbed their noses at authorities. They do as they please.
In fact, the president’s words do not carry weight with the vigilante groups or else how does one explain the stubborn refusal of NPP youth in Savelugu to accept the appointment of a female MCE or the ugly spectacle which unfolded last week at the Tamale Teaching Hospital involving NPP youth groups? Both instances show a government less in control of its own affiliates than it would like to admit.
It is hard to pinpoint what will compel the President to finally take a meaningful step, a forceful one at that, backed by legislation to put a lid on the “lawlessness.” The savage killing of Captain Mahama apparently did not force the president’s hand, neither did the other prominent killings.
While Ghana descends into a state of lawlessness, Mr. Addo is off visiting European capitals. He should be told in no uncertain terms that he is sitting on a time bomb; the country could implode at any given moment.
It is presumptuous to assume that Ghanaians will continue to turn the other cheek, to remain silent in the face of utter provocation from politically powerful groups associated with the ruling NPP.
There will come a time and a day when Ghanaians will have had enough of the shenanigans of these groups and also openly defy the government. Then, and only then will Mr. Addo get off his hunches.