It appears to us that Ghanaians, especially members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are not appreciating the peace Ghana is enjoying. We are all witnesses to what is going on in Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where people keep moving from one place to the other to avoid being slaughtered by gun tooting men, who are looking for their blood.
Because of the absence of peace and good working environment, citizens from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are trooping into our country to seek either refuge or greener pastures. Do we, as Ghanaians, also want to find ourselves in a similar situation in the neighbouring countries?
If the answer to this question is a big NO, then every patriotic Ghanaian should be very much concerned about the way supporters and sometimes leadership of these dominant political parties conduct themselves, especially during electoral registration and national elections.
The Electoral Commission announced just recently that it was going to register Ghanaians who have turned eighteen years to enable them vote in the December 2024 elections. And indeed the process has started, but as usual these two parties have started accusing each other of bussing people to the registration centres to register.
The result of this madness is the firing of gun shots, slashing of innocent people with cutlasses and sometimes outright beatings. In the Ahafo Ano South East district of the Ashanti Region, macho men reportedly stormed the registration centre and attacked people. Similar cases have been reported from central and Ahafo regions.
In the Ahafo Region, for instance, which occurred at Kukuom, the NDC has issued a statement admitting that their supporters fired gun shots when they came under gun attack by their opponents, the NPP. The Chronicle has noticed that followers of both parties have taken the December 2024 election as ‘life and death’ matter, because they depend on these parties for survival.
This should, however, not be the case, because if the country is set on fire, none of these followers will have the peace to enjoy the anticipated largesse of the state. The Chronicle is, therefore, appealing to the police, headed by Dr George Akuffo Dampare, to put their feet down and nip the emerging trend in the bud, before it gets out of hand.
If these followers realise that the police are arresting and seeking jail terms for people who engage in electoral violence, it will send strong signals to others to behave, even in the face of extreme provocation.
The police must also set their intelligence work in motion to detect those who are harbouring guns in their homes. We are raising this point because the way people display guns in the country of late is very worrying.
Some few years ago, a company imported large number of pump action guns into this country. When the issue became public, the company involved claimed to be doing genuine business and that it had been given license to import the guns.
In our opinion, since Ghana is a third world country that is susceptible to violence, issuance of license to import guns should be limited, if not stopped altogether. Gun violence is gradually creeping into our politics and if care is not taken, we will plunge this peace loving country into chaos.
