It all started with providing private security for opposition politicians, then it assumed a moral cassock of beating political opponents in the name of ‘protecting the ballot’ and when the NPP lost elections in 2008 and 2012, the scope of ‘vigilantism’ was extended to beating of journalists who went to cover post-election mood of party faithfuls both at the party’s headquarters and the Nima residence of its opposition leader, Nana Akufo Addo.
The actions of these groups are violent and criminal. These are unregistered private security groups who are gradually ripping our already fragile democracy apart.
The first time I came across the word ‘vigilante’ was back in secondary school when my headmaster named a friend ‘vigilante’ after my friend organized his colleagues to fight against visiting sportsmen from another school who he accused of disrespecting our teachers. Unfortunately for this guy who thought he was doing good, he was suspended from school .This gave me a bad impression about ‘vigilantism’, a word I didn’t understand. When I later checked the word ‘vigilante’ from my dictionary, I could not reconcile the word to the punishment meted out to my friend. I concluded that my headmaster, a man who had fun with English vocabulary and African proverbs during morning assembly, did not understand the word.
According to Merriam Webster dictionary, “a vigilante is a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of the law are viewed as inadequate)”.
So we are right to name Martin Amidu, a crusader against questionable judgment debts, Citizen Vigilante, but we are darned wrong to name young and energetic men whose respect for the law ends at the doorstep of their political paymasters. If these groups were vigilante groups, they would be the ones helping the Ashanti Regional National Security Director to ensure peace and security and not the ones forcing him out of his office based on political and tribal considerations.
If they were vigilantes, they would supplement the police force in protecting state properties. But what we have seen over the years and particularly since 9th December 2016 was the sad opposite which our Kumawood brothers could compile into an action movie.
In the past, during the first three months of a new government the populace, particularly those who have voted for the new government wait earnestly for ‘Know Your Ministers’ Calendars, now the joke on Social Media is “know your Regional Vigilante Groups of NPP”. This, although a joke, reflects the sad reality we are faced with.
It is said that coming events cast their shadows and it is not surprising how lawlessness has taken this country hostage. The ‘blockbuster scene’ displayed by the Delta Force in the Kumasi Circuit courts and the laughable judgment meted out to them by selfsame court did not start today. We saw it when the Invisible Force became the most influential private security in the country and wreaked havoc on some members of the NPP; we ignored it because we counted it an intra-party affair as though a conflict among people of the same party is not a security threat. Some of the journalists who were attacked by these pro-party security groups couldn’t take legal actions against the political parties. In short, our fear of political tagging and collective silence as writers, journalists, CSOs has emboldened members of Delta Force to run amok.
Already, Delta Force is whispered to have over 60 members and one can predict the exponential growth of this group in four years’ time. As politicians see the formation of these groups as a means of possessing political influence, and as the jobless youth see their membership in these groups as a means of employment, our silence puts Ghana’s democracy on the path of abyss.
Unfair attribution
There have been comments from some NPP big wigs that attribute the party’s victory to the work of these thugs. That is an unfair and a mischievous attribution. The past election has been the most peaceful if my memory serves me right and it was not due to the vigilance of these forces. The youth of this country, the middle class and even our market women knew it was time for change. My friends who joined the HOPE Campaign were not part of the Invisible Forces but they contributed to the NPPs campaign financially, they blogged for the NPP and when it was time for election they travelled to the Volta Region to serve as polling agents. These are guys whose arms, like mine, can only work mathematics. And when one looks at the majority of Ghanaian voters, those who lift metals and wield guns like the Invisible and Delta Forces will hardly make one-hundredth percent of the total voter population.
Lip service
We ought to stop paying lip service to fighting national security problems like thuggery. Early last year, Mr. John Kudalor, the then IGP warned of disbanding ‘vigilante’ groups in the country but the efforts to that were not more than the movement of his lips. He and the entire police service went to sleep after the announcement. President Akufo Addo should go beyond his assurance of dealing with this national security problem and demonstrate his commitment to maintaining peace and national harmony. By this, the police and the courts should be allowed to punish crimes committed by these groups.
We ought to deal with it now before these groups spread like wild fire and begin to go after bloggers, writers and government critics; we should stop the usual equalization and speak against these so-called ‘vigilantism’ before these groups find a way onto government payroll.
By Frederick k. Kofi Tse
Email: kelikofi@gmail.com