“To be submissive, humble, crawling and begging when one is needy, powerless and poor and to be arrogant, oppressing and cruel when in power and opulence are two very ugly traits of the human character,” Hazrat Ali.
When a High Court Judge was attacked in his Haatso home by armed robbers last year, friends of the venerable gentleman deployed the gobbledygook of legalese to make sense out of a senseless, dastardly act. Why rob a judge, the person who could deny you freedom for the rest of your life? Perhaps, we should be finding out how our society produced shameless characters whose only occupation is to steal what belongs to others, rape and maim their victims? Stupid, it’s the poverty, isn’t it?
Ghana at gun point
The judge would later sit on an armed robbery and car snatching case that happened in his neigbourhood a few months after his own incident. The robbers had ambushed the victim at the entrance of his gate after a hard day’s work. They seized the car and packed a few of his belongingness while his wife and children screamed their hearts out. He had bought the car the same week and was yet to complete full payment.
We expect the judge to lock these criminals away for many years, at least to placate us for the pain, loss and inconvenience their actions cause us. We are appalled when they are not punished enough. This is how we feel when political vigilantism reigns. It presents the same insecurities, fears and uncertainties that robbers cause in our neighbourhoods. They may not rob our property at gun point but they take away our faith in a political system and make all of us vulnerable. We feel cheated when they are not given heavy punishment–at least to assure us that our government can protect us.
We have conveniently assigned psychologists and criminologists the unhealthy task of analysing and searching through the wicked brains of thieves, social deviants, lawless predators and political vigilantes. Maybe we created them–through our actions, nonchalance and contrivance. We did not stop them early enough or we pretended we have already solved the problem when we had only cut the tail of the snake while its head spat poison. It’s not poverty this time; it’s stupidity.
Spit-fire vigilantism
Over the last 10 months, we have seen rampaging youth seizing toll booths and driving away public servants from their offices in the name of ‘our government has come.’ In extreme cases, they have stormed court rooms to threaten judges and free culprits facing justice. We have felt intimidation, lawlessness and spit-fire vigilantism in the air while our security structures appear helpless, timorous and lame.
We had seen similar terrible acts of political vigilantism during the Mahama-led administration. Judges had been threatened by party sympathisers and apparatchiks. Even when they were jailed, a presidential prerogative of pardon bought them freedom. In unison, the opposition NPP condemned the use of executive power when it compromises judicial independence and civil justice.
Some of the instances are still fresh on our minds, so it is convenient that we ask the present handlers of our national security a few questions. We need answers from Nana Akufo-Addo, not ex-President Mahama. If a judge doesn’t feel safe in the courtroom and a public servant can be forcibly removed from his office by morally decrepit party boys, then the average plantain seller should not feel safe in her kitchen. Even at the seat of government, there were reports that a security operative was assaulted.
Crowning the dogs
How did we get here? Former President John Mahama has proffered a few suggestions, accusing President Akufo-Addo of sowing the seeds of vigilantism while he was in opposition: “When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.” Other NDC party strong men have urged the President to show leadership and tackle the vigilantism and lawlessness brewing in the pot of the NPP. We have genuine fears about the security of Ghanaians, and we must have the courage to speak truth to power.
Maybe Tyrion Lannister offers us some clues: “It’s hard to put a leash on a dog once you have put a crown on its head.” First, we re-baptised party nobodies as foot-soldiers, going every length to find them expensive footwear. We made them believe they were soldiers who hold the power to our electoral success, feeding their egos with long promises. The party ID card became a passport to jobs and lawlessness.
We had put a crown on their heads, so now they expect to be treated like royalty. Soon we realised that we cannot afford to buy every clown a crown. The real crowns had been shared among 110 people who really didn’t fight like the clowns who cheered them and kept vigil while they slept. It seems too late to put a leash on their necks because they expect their own crown. That is where we got it wrong the first time.
Outliers on the leash
We also got it wrong when we told them in the trenches that they owned the party so they will also own the government. Instead of forming a government when we won power, we formed our government where everybody feels a sense of ownership. Like Kennedy Agyapong, we feel an innate compulsion to voice it out when those on the other side get what we laboured for. This is why South African Ambassador, Hon. George Ayisi-Boateng, wants Ghanaians in the NPP to be more Ghanaian than the rest of the citizenry. Abominable. The NDC also promoted super Ghanaians above all of us.
We got it wrong again when we promised them an all-inclusive government but ended up including only those who were already included. The excluded felt like outliers who needed to stand up to be counted; they want their own crowns, too.
We are not sitting pretty. While we are all guilty of the dangerous sentiments dishonourably expressed by Hon. Ayisi Boateng, we should be quick to restore public confidence in our government by punishing those outliers who show lowly behaviour. If it means taking away their crowns, let’s be quick with it and put a leash on their necks.
