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I could only maintain my composure and emotional intelligence when my maternal uncle, Oliver, a brassbound NDC supporter, unblushingly sought to persuade yours truly to consider joining the Umbrella fraternity for reasons best known to him.
Nevertheless, upon hearing my maternal uncle’s somewhat ponderous and impetuous plea, I composed myself, showed deference, sighed heavily, cleared my throat in a quick succession, and responded with obeisance: ‘no thanks Uncle Oliver, with all due respect, I prefer to go to hell rather than to join NDC’.
There is no hiding or denying the fact that I do not for a moment harbour a subjective fit for the work values and culture of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). In brief, my ideological disposition does not tilt in any way towards NDC’s coloration.
Understandably, though, the NDC faithful would never agree with some of us for persistently upbraiding their beloved party through the lenses of the past events. But I am afraid we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events.
To be quite honest, some of us cannot help but to continuously shrill, grouch, censure and highlight the revoltingly risible tendencies of the devotees of the June 4 1979 and 31st December 1981 coup d’états.
I hate to admit though, but the fact remains that there is nothing wrong for a group of people to come together and identify themselves as the coup enthusiasts, or the ideologues of transparency, probity and accountability.
However, it is hypocritical and somewhat deceitful if a group of people who claim to be the exponents of such ethos turn around and commit the same crimes they inexorably preach against.
It has, however, been documented that when the coup enthusiasts (the founders of NDC) burst onto the scene, they went into conniption-fit and tempestuously tortured and murdered people with more than two vehicles.
However, as I write, the same coup enthusiasts are hypocritically in possession of not less than two vehicles per household. How deceitful?
Dearest reader, you may take my word for it, the vast majority of house owners were punished severely for having more than one toilet facility in their households.
But the last time I checked, the vast majority of the so-called revolutionaries have uncountable toilet facilities in their luxurious mansions. How pathetic?
Besides, the founders of the NDC unabashedly exhibited their communist ideals by going into war with business men and women in the country.
The founders of NDC, regrettably, tortured and murdered innocent business men and women, many of whom were bizarrely accused of legally borrowing meagre sums of money from banks to support their businesses.
Strangely, albeit veracious, the so-called revolutionaries who repugnantly collapsed innocent peoples businesses now own business outlets all over the place.
Some innocent business men and women, so to speak, were abhorrently humiliated and their businesses were either seized or destroyed by the despotic NDC founders.
Worst of all, billions of cedis (in 50 cedi denominations) were impertinently seized from ordinary Ghanaians, albeit without a trace. How bizarre?
The NDC founders, ironically, replaced our educational system with that of a communist model, while deceitfully turned around and sent their children abroad to study in what they saw as a superior educational system.
Dearest reader, the apparent hypocrisy and dishonesty being displayed by the NDC loyalists are mind-boggling, I must admit.
It would thus appear that the NDC faithful have forgotten their history, or should I say their ideology?
Whatever the case, some of us feel duty bound as bona fide Ghanaians to offer free remedial history tutorials to the uninitiated and the younger generation of the NDC.
The story is told, though accurately, that on 4th June 1979, some rabble rousers unjustifiably released convicts and suspects from a lawful custody, including the founder of the NDC, J. J. Rawlings.
It has been stencilled that the June 1979 jailbreakers released suspects and convicts from a lawful penitentiary, deposed the government at the time, ruled despotically for over eleven years and went ahead and formed a political party, called the National Democratic Congress, (NDC).
If we revisit our history, on 15th May 1979, a group of disgruntled junior army officers, led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings failed in their insurrection against General Fred Akuffo’s regime, which culminated in the arrest and trial of Rawlings and his cohorts.
However, the judicial process was halted prematurely by a group of soldiers sympathetic to Rawlings, who revolted on 4th June 1979.
The rebellious soldiers subsequently broke jail and released Rawlings and his cohorts from a lawful custody.
After successfully deposing General Akuffo and his Supreme Military Council (SMC) government, the stubbornly impenitent jailbreakers went ahead and formed their own government, which they called as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and appointed Flt. Rawlings as their chairman.
Rawlings and his rabble rousers vowed to lustrate the country of the perceived sleazes, corruption and social injustices which instigated their coup d’état.
So in their attempt to purge the country of the perceived injustices, they carried out what they termed “house cleaning exercise”,--they dealt with perceived offenders arbitrarily.
The mutinous jailbreakers proceeded with their intentions and callously exterminated prominent people including General Fred Akuffo, General Kutu Acheampong, General Akwasi Afrifa and many others.
After getting rid of individuals they viewed as a threat to their hidden agenda, the jailbreaking cabals decided to conduct general elections for political parties in the same year-1979.
Following the successful election, Dr Hilla Limann and his People’s National Party (PNP) won the day in 1979.
Nevertheless, Rawlings and his cohorts disappointingly did not give Dr Liman and his PNP government the breathing space to govern the country, as they inexorably breathed down the neck of President Liman.
Indeed, Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters unfairly kept criticising Dr Limann’s administration for what the obdurate jailbreakers perceived as economic mismanagement, until Rawlings and his jailbreaking geezers decided to depose Dr Limann.
And, to fulfil his lifetime ambition of becoming the head of state, J.J. Rawlings and the obstreperous jailbreakers took arms and succeeded in overthrowing the constitutionally elected government of Dr Hilla Limann on 31st December 1981.
Apparently, Rawlings and his vigilante friends formed a government which they called the Provisional national Defence Council (PNDC) and appointed Rawlings as the chairman.
In their weird attempt to get rid of alleged sleazes and corruption, many Ghanaians were unjustifiably murdered or tortured mercilessly for apparent infinitesimal offences.
Some market women were regrettably stripped naked in the public and whipped for hauling their products or selling on high prices. While their male counterparts were wickedly shaved with broken bottles and whipped for offences that would not even warrant a Police caution in a civilized society.
As if that was not enough, three eminent High Court Judges and a prominent Army Officer were barbarically murdered by some mindless stooges of PNDC on 30th June 1982 for carrying out their constitutionally mandated duties.
“June 30th 1982 continues to remain a dark spot in the nation’s political history and a nightmare for all judges in the country, after the three High Court Judges namely, Mr. Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng- Addow and Mr. Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyapong as well as a retired army officer, Major Sam Acquah, were callously murdered under strange circumstances at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains, after being abducted on the night by some unidentified assailants (rawafrica.com).”
The story is told that diligent investigations revealed that all the three Judges were sitting on review cases brought by citizens disgusted over the treatment meted out to them by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council which the military junta formed after June 4, led by Flt. Lt. Rawlings.
It was however reported that the Judges ordered the release of persons who had been unlawfully sentenced to long terms of imprisonment during the despotic rule of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).
The Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah, was the head of administration who signed dismissal letters for some GIHOC workers, including one of the murder suspects, Joachim Amartey Kwei, whose services were terminated for invading and destroying property at the Parliament House.
Consequently, the PNDC fatuous apologists savagely murdered the three eminent High Court Judges and the Army Officer because their judgement did not go in their favour.
The Special Investigation Board (SIB) thus concluded that the abduction and murder was a diabolical plot orchestrated by, and with the connivance of the members of the Provisional National Defence Council.
As a matter of fact, Ghana’s coup days under the jailbreaking founders of the NDC could be likened to: “in the China of “the Great Helmsman,” Kim Il Sung’s Korea, Vietnam under “Uncle Ho” , Cuba under Castro, Ethiopia under Mengistu, Angola under Neto, and Afghanistan under Najibullah”.
Even though Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters usurped power under the pretext of acting as peripheral Panacea, they slyly spent a little over eleven years before lifting the ban on political parties in 1992.
In fact, Rawlings succumbed to the intrinsic and extrinsic political pressures for him to step down and allow multi-party democracy.
Subsequently, Rawlings lifted the ban on political parties in 1992 and resigned from the military simultaneously to allow him to contest election.
Following his retirement from the military, Rawlings and his jailbreaking cabals went ahead and formed a political party, which they named as the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a progeny of PNDC.
In sum, for the uninitiated NDC supporters, the NDC was born out of violent coup d’états, and will ever harbour a coup maker’s mentality.
K. Badu, UK.
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