Winner takes all syndrome and political revenge manifesting in Tamale even before the swearing-in of president elect
Long before the president elect is formally handed the keys to the Flaggstaff House, that is, constitute his government and gets sworn in, foot-soldiers of his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are already openly displaying the winner-takes-all syndrome which has dominated Ghanaian politics for sometime now.
The foot soldiers are bent on retribution against their counterparts in the outgoing government of the National Democratic Congress.
Hours after Mrs Charlote Osei, head of the Electoral Commission declared Nana Addo Dankwa-Akuffo Addo of the NPP as president elect, some unidentified men believed to be members of NPP, stormed the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) tricycle stores with a black pick up and towed away two of the tricycles.
According to reports, the security man at the stores had to run for his dear life. Even though police was called, they arrived late to prevent the NPP knuckleheads from carting the stolen items away.
Authorities confirmed the incident to Zaa News. ASP Ebenezer Tetteh said his outfit was aware but do not have full facts about the incident. On Saturday morning, another incident reportedly occurred at Chaggli in the Tamale metropolis where NPP youth stormed a public toilet facility demanding that the caretaker render accounts to them.
A polling station NPP chairman at Chaggli Mr Ali Yahaya intervened and asked those guys to leave the toilet because his members too can manage it. Mr. Yahaya told Zaa News that, he was in a room when he heard noise outside, and came out to see that all the commotion was being made by members of his party.
“The guys told me that they were coming to me to take over the management of the toilet, I said no, we also had plans of taking over the toilet but at the moment the tension is high so we want the tension to subside before we can take it over,” Mr. Yahaya said .
He continued: “They even suggested that the assembly starts collecting the daily earnings but I said no because that has been the practice since NDC came to power. I then asked them to go to their area and take over the toilet there.”
At the State Transport Company Yard in Tamale, the rampaging youth stormed there too and had it tough to ‘militarily’ take it over .
In the West Gonja District, some constituency executives of the yet to be sworn-in party braced the offices of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the Youth Empowerment Agency, sending signals that, their time are over.
The two agencies and many others are perceived to have been created to provide jobs for party activists and it has become a norm anytime there is change of government.
In the Savelugu constituency, the municipal health insurance office was padlocked by supporters of the NPP immediately after the declaration of the results.
Bracing and padlocked of some state agencies and departments resonated across the region which was not unexpected because of the polarized nature of Ghanaian society.
When the outgoing NDC government took over the governance of Ghana in 2008 and 2012, similar incidents occurred in the Tamale metropolis leaving many wondering if that is the jobs most of the political parties promised.
Areas dominated by NPP members have recorded high number of NDC people fleeing for their lives out of fear that their opponents will treat them the same way they were treated in 2012.
In other cases, NPP members who went into exile either inside or outside Ghana have reportedly returned and are said to be seeking revenge on their opponents. The rampaging winning party youth refused to heed to their outspoken northern regional chairman Daniel Bugri Naabu who went on air in one of the radio stations to caution his boys to stop or incur the wrath of the security.
The Tamale metropolis is now enjoying a lull in tension, and only time will tell how long that will last. Grapevine had it that, the NPP youth are being advised to wait until the president elect is sworn-in
Reports have it that tenants who are perceived to be NDC sympathizers have been served with anonymous letters to vacate their premises or risk reprisals. This is contrary to the victory speech delivered by the president elect, Nana Addo who cautioned party supporters to celebrate with magnanimity in order that they do not destroy properties.
