On first reading the headline, the impression is created in one’s mind of a great game of football in the offing – “Azorka Boys Lock Horns with Bolga Bulldogs.” This report though, is about violence that greeted the vote in Talensi, where retired Deputy Director-General of Prisons Mr. Benson Tongo Baba romped home to reclaim the constituency for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
It is the sign of the times that the violence seems to have generated more column inches in Ghanaian newspapers than the euphoria that greeted the victory of the winning candidate. It tells everything about the siege mentality of the main protagonists in local elections.
The ruling NDC and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have so polarised elections in this lands of our birth that the vote has become a do-or-die affair, even though the Talensi by-election provided no major shocks, besides the usual bragging rights.
It is a shame that after the vote, the main issue has been the violence. In some way, that was the major issue. With NPP First Vice-Chairman Freddie Blay allegedly receiving hospital treatment, together with a number of other injured functionaries from the Elephant Family, it is natural for the media to focus on the violence and its perpetrators.
My understanding is that an AK47 assault rifle was retrieved by the police during the clash between the Azorka Boys of the NDC and their equally dreadful Bulldogs from the stables of the NPP. According to a police spokesperson, AK47s are used only by agents of state security, mainly the police and the military.
How an offensive weapon entrusted into the hands of a security personnel ended up being used in inter-party dispute calls for a thorough investigation.
As a nationalist, my interest is the state could blow the cover on personalities in the various security services, who decided to defend the interest of one group of politicians against the others, and got him or herself involved in the conflict during the Talensi by-election.
By-elections in this country are becoming embroiled in violence, and that, definitely, is not the very best for a young emerging democracy like Ghana. That is why the various security agencies should work harder than they are doing to nip the violence in the bud. What is sad about this development is that investigations appear to stall the moment there are hints that certain elements in the ruling oligarchy could be involved.
In Chereponi, there was a hunt and destroy operation. Many members of the NPP complained of injuries. There were no arrests. The Akwatia by-election was marred with an open declaration of a jihad. The result of investigations conducted by the police is still not known, several years after human beings were butchered, a number of them reportedly hacked with machetes.
The so-called Azorka Boys invaded the Atiwa by-election and visited mayhem on innocent citizens. Evidence abounds, with the injured in hospital giving testimonies and allegedly providing the identities of the perpetrators. The police swore to get at the attackers. Sad to record that the word of the peace officers has been as good as President Mahama’s pledge to end Dum-so.
It is on record that soon after the declaration of the results of the 2008 Presidential and Legislative elections, violence erupted at the Yam Market at Agbogbloshie in Accra. Three persons were reported dead. All three were identified as activists of the opposition NPP. More than six years after the violence was reported, there has been no official pronouncement on the outcome of police investigations.
It is unfortunate, but in President John Mahama’s Ghana, strong indications are emerging that the life of the opposition activist is lesser in value than that of an activist of the ruling NDC.
Apart from the violence, there is not much to report about the Talensi vote, beyond giving the victorious NDC the bragging rights all the way to the national vote on December 7, 2016.
Since the result of the vote was officially announced on Tuesday night, officials of the National Democratic Congress have been upbeat about the chances of the Umbrella Family in the 2016 elections. I heard National Organiser Kofi Adams on radio, referring to President John Dramani Mahama as ‘Bohyeba’ and intimating that the Head of State would lead the NDC to a resounding victory.
In Twi, ‘Bohyeba’ is someone who goes about promising, in many a case, without delivering. In all honesty, Kofi Adams is not an authority on the Twi dialect of the Akan language. If he truly knows the meaning of ‘Bohyeba’, he would not have ascribed that to the Head of State of the Republic of Ghana, who is also leader of the political party the national organiser is supposed to organise.
Many Ghanaians though, would be at home with that description of the President of Ghana. Since partnering deceased President Mills in January 2009 to administer the nation, the sitting Head of State has promised everything. He has delivered very little. But that is beside the point. The point is that Mr. Benson Tongo Baba is the latest Honourable in town.
In this society, Members of Parliament appear to be more interested in referring to themselves as Honourables more than performing the kind of duties that would make them truly honourable in the eyes of the people. I bet my bottom pesewa there is very little honour in what a number of them do to seek power. Some are prepared to kill for the right to be a member of the House of Representatives.
Apart from the violence allegedly unleashed at Talensi, there was the bigger picture of President Mahama and his NDC using state resources to entice voters. I was not in Talensi for the vote. Reports of construction of roads and other amenities, as the clock ticked to the by-election date, suggests that state resources might have been misapplied to get the people favour the NDC candidate, which reminds me of the love-hate relationship which has existed between the party now singing his praises in victory, and the personality called Benson Tongo Baba.
For those with a sense of history, Mr. Baba was President of the Ghana Olympic Committee when the NDC took over the reins of government in January 2009. In those days, when there were many hungry-looking men and women in the party after eight years in the opposition, the NDC hatched a plot to bring every sphere of life in this country under the party’s influence.
Various sporting disciplines were quickly taken over, using the party machinery. The Ghana Olympic Committee, with B.T. Baba as President, covered by the protective arms of the International Olympic Committee, proved too strong for all the machinations of the party in power until the GOC went to the polls in very controversial circumstances on Saturday, October 29, 2011.
With sporting elements in the NDC, including the likes of Nii Lante Vanderpuye, Kwasi Adu Asare, and Kwadwo Twum Boafo breathing fire and brimstone, the B.T. Baba leadership of the GOC was torpedoed in an election marred by violence, and extended from Saturday evening to the wee hours of Sunday, October 30, 2011.
The circumstances of his removal naturally affected the former GOC President’s romance with his beloved NDC. I have known the MP-elect since the 1970s. He was a top player for Agona Fankobaa in the old First Division while I was emerging as a sports writer.
When he hung up his boots, he became the Sports Organiser for the Ghana Prisons Service. When the Missodey Brothers introduced handball as a sport in this country, Baba, as the Director of Sports of the Prison Service, got involved in the early promotion of the game. Baba and I became members of the Ghana Handball Association.
As time went on, he became the Chairman of the Ghana Handball Association. It was as Chairman of handball that enabled him successfully challenge for the Presidency of the Ghana Olympic Committee, normally constituted by representatives of the various disciplines of sport in this country.
When I returned from exile in Great Britain and became President of the Sports Writers Association, we continued our sporting relationship. Baba is still a very good friend.
During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the two of us were involved in solving a number of serious problems involving Ghanaian fans. We were together in Melbourne, Australia, for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was there in his capacity as the President of the GOC, while I was the Media Liaison Officer for Team Ghana.
We have had several anxious moments, and enjoyed ourselves on numerous other occasions. I take this opportunity to wish my friend, the latest Honourable Member of Parliament in town, well in his new political endeavour.
Like the Disciple Peter explained to the high priests, rulers, and scribes after he had healed the cripple at the Gate of the Beautiful, his power is derived from Jesus Christ, whom the people had rejected.
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, said Peter.
B.T. Baba was once rejected by the NDC. It is to the glory of God that he has become the cornerstone for the party’s victory in the Talensi by-election. I wish him well.
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