”The lion’s power lies in our fear of him.” — Nigerian Proverb
Ayawaso West Wuogon
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, a bloody by-election took place at Ayawaso West Wuogon, a constituency that could easily be described as one of the most peaceful in the country.
Two days prior, the ruling political party, NPP staged their ‘Perfect Replacement Rally’ to support a female candidate whose husband served as the MP of the constituency, until his unfortunate passing.
The opposition party, NDC prided itself with campaigning door-to-door. By all accounts, the by-elections should have been one of the most peaceful and democratic events to have taken place in Ghana, but things didn’t go as expected.
Nothing prepared Ghanaians for what was to take place; masked National Security Operatives assaulting unarmed men, a Member of Parliament getting slapped by a National Security Operative, a man bleeding at the back of a pick-up truck by what looks like a bullet wound to his leg were amongst the few things that dented Ghana’s reputation as a growing democracy and its ability to conduct peaceful and transparent elections.
The Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, speaking at a Danquah Institute program, a few days after the violence at Ayawaso West Wuogon, averred that it wasn’t the worst by-election that Ghana has experienced. He may be right, we’ve had similar cases at Chereponi, Talensi, and Atiwa.
But, according to him, due to growth in technology, everyone now acts as a journalist and can capture everything in real time with their mobile phones. He might have meant this lightly but I found it shameful that even with the realization that we now live in the world where nothing can be hidden, National Security Operatives in masks will cause mayhem and have complete disregard for law and order.
A few weeks later, their Operations Director offers an explanation for their masks stating that in some operations the masks help conceal the identity of the men. Before that was the rather hilarious justification that masks help protect the operatives in certain environments as if the area for the day-time operation in question was mosquito infested.
On Monday, February 18, 2019, less than three weeks after the Ayawaso West Wuogon election troubles, at the NDC Regional Office in Kumasi, 34-year-old Wasiru was shot dead and another injured badly by a man suspected to be members of the Hawks, an NDC affiliated vigilante group. Two days after, the police released names and images of members of Hawks who are allegedly connected to the murder.
At one of the sittings of the Commission of Inquiry set up by the President to investigate the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence, I heard a phrase that brilliantly described the canker dressed as vigilantism plaguing our two dominant parties and threatening to undo the freedoms and democracy our ancestors worked so hard for us to enjoy today.
Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu refers to the vigilante groups as exactly what they are, militias, who serve the interest of some political warlords.
From Vigilante to Militia
The Webster dictionary defines Vigilante as a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate). To be vigilant is to be watchful and alert. The history of youth Vigilante groups and their loyalty to political parties in Ghana dates back to the 1940s, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) had the Verandah Boys while the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) had the Reactionary Lawyers. Dr. George M. Bob-Milliar defines Verandah Boys as ‘commoners’ who were ‘devoted and inspirational…disciplined with exceptional organizational skills.’ Unlike today’s militia, Verandah Boys leveraged their connections to spread the CPP’s message throughout the country.
With the help of the Verandah Boys, Nkrumah and CPP became a household name, winning the elections to become the political party to lead the newly Independent Ghana. UGCC’s Reactionary Lawyers as the name suggests, were mainly lawyers and merchants who were law-abiding citizens driven by a deep determination to help UGCC on its mission to ‘end colonial rule through legal and constitutional means.’
Politicians, Militias and Warlords
Without digressing too much into history, I think it is fair to say that from the mid 1940s to the present, political Vigilante groups have deteriorated from hard working ‘commoners’ and driven lawyers determined to aid political parties in their quest for independence to Militia groups who neither serve the interest of the nation nor their political party but the interest of individuals affiliated to political parties who fund their idiocy.
On 25th February 2019, Hon. Samuel George recounted his experience at Ayawaso to the Commission of Inquiry. In his submission, he eloquently defined today’s militia groups and their relations to warlords:
“I believe that these vigilante groups owe allegiance to individuals; these individuals use them for political purposes served through a vehicle of political parties”.
In recent years, these Militias have resorted to violence to get their share of the nation’s wealth that they feel entitled to. They have chased out officers appointed by previous and current administrations alike, disrupted the work of the judiciary, and freed one of their own from police custody.
On Thursday, February 21, 2019, exactly three weeks since the Ayawaso West Wuogon embarrassment, the president, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo delivered the State of Nation address and spoke on the state of Vigilantes turned Militias in the country.
He said: “What was tolerated over the years cannot and must not be accepted anymore. We must not take our peace and security for granted -not for a moment. Our children and grandchildren will not forgive us if we were to compromise our peace and stability. I will not permit that to happen under my watch. Our forebears paid too high a price, with their blood and toll, to bequeath to us this beautiful nation, the lives of our citizens are too precious to waste.”
The president called on the two dominant parties, NDC and NPP, to come together to put an end to the Vigilantism phenomenon. This is the first time the president has addressed this on a national platform and it gives hope that Ghanaians might finally get the disbandment of these groups. A call many Ghanaians have made.
But this isn’t the first time the president has spoken on Vigilantism. On Monday, November 6, 2017, in his address to the National House of Chiefs, the president said that he was going to deal with Vigilantism. He stated that:
“On the new phenomenon of vigilantism, I will do everything in my power to arrest its development. I will not walk the path others trod who found it convenient to turn a blind eye to the criminal misdeeds of their followers and took no action, as it would displease them. I am walking another path, the path of making reality the principle of the rule of law, the idea of equality of every citizen before the law. Wrongdoers wear no political colours. They are just wrongdoers, and will be dealt with as such.”
It has been a year since this statement was made to our chiefs and one might ask exactly what the president has done to solve this problem, and what he plans to do differently this time around to finally rid Ghana of Militias.
Notice I have not yet mentioned the warlords, what becomes of them? Do we send them to the International Criminal Court or we wait until thousands of innocent lives are lost before we do something? I hope we hold the politicians-turned-warlords to the same standard we’re holding the vigilantes turned militia.
One person who isn’t too optimistic about the president’s move to disband vigilantism is the former president, H.E. John Mahama, speaking to Radio Gold the morning after the SONA, he referred to the president as the “father of militant vigilantism”:
“They urged their youth to be militant and that they must win the election at all cost. They started all that in 2012. When we were in office, we deported three South African mercenaries. They were brought in here to train the Invisible Forces and the Delta Forces. So really, Akufo-Addo is the father of militant vigilantism.”
Initially, his comment sounded petty. I wondered why the former president wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity to call a truce and encourage the disbandment of Militias and their Warlords, then I did a bit of research and found this statement in 2016 by Sammy Awuku, the current National Organizer, then National Youth Organizer of the NPP, to Citi News:
“We are taking steps to give maximum protection to our presidential candidate and his running mate. That is non-negotiable. So whether the South Africans have been sent home or not, we will take that step to protect our presidential candidate and his running mate and of course by extension, to also offer some protection to all those who will be on the campaign trail until the police come with their help.”
While I do not mean to be a pessimist, I believe we need to be guided by history and first admit that both political parties have contributed to the growth of the militia and it will take more than rhetoric to make them do away with young men who have helped them gain power by doing all the day-to-day hard work that the average politician might not have the time and energy to do. At their core, these vigilante groups are loyal, committed young men who will die for their political pay masters and parties, exactly how militias will die for their warlords.
Diminishing the Power of the Warlord
The young men might currently be perceived as villains but they are actually victims of their environment. Unemployment and a desperation to gain material wealth by any means necessary can make young men vulnerable to rich men looking to prey on them for political points. Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel for both politicians and the young men.
This weekend at the NDC presidential primaries, the party took a leap of faith and reluctantly relied on Ghana Police for security. To their surprise, the police stepped up to the task and ensured the primaries were peaceful. This revelation disrupts the myth that our security agencies do not have the best interest of the opposition party at heart and shouldn’t be trusted by the opposition. This lack of faith in our state security agencies and fear of insecurity by politicians is what has fueled the growth of militia and warlords.
Once the NDC got over mistrust of our security agencies, their need for militia and warlords minimized and their relevance in the elections diminished.
This brings me to the quote at the beginning of this article, the lion here is the warlord who wields so much power over political parties because of their mistrust in our state security agencies. Once that fear of insecurity is diminished, there is no need for the militias or their warlords.
From Militia to National Heroes
So what do we do with these young men? They know too much and cannot just be disbanded without an alternative source of income. In my next piece, I will outline a way we can empower these young men to contribute to the nation’s development.
I mentioned on Breakfast Daily a few days ago that they can take up the president’s vision to make Accra the cleanest City in Africa, my co-host thought I was kidding, but I was dead serious. My next piece will focus on transitioning from militia to national heroes, I will draw on the experiences of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords to illustrate that it is more valuable for politicians to invest the skills and talents of these young men into the nation’s development than their selfish interests.
By: Dziffa Akua Ametam
The writer is co-host of Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily program which delivers culturally enriched conversations, social discussions, and entertainment. The show airs every weekday from 7:30-10am.