Yesternight, I caught bits of the NDC chairman’s press conference on post-election violence against his party’s supporters. On my way home from work, I could not ignore the open display of support for the incoming government’s party displayed on public transport and private vehicles in East Legon.
Perhaps it’s just the cloister I find myself in, but from where I sit, the NPP is overwhelmingly popular in the public’s eye.
Kofi Portuphy’s comments are the latest in the string of public outcries by the NDC leadership about the conduct of NPP supporters after their remarkable electoral victory. The current president made similar comments in his speech at the inauguration of the transition team. The media has also picked up on this phenomenon. It is gradually becoming a part of the public’s conversation.
The first thing that worried me about the NDC chairman’s comments was his claim that, paraphrasing, “one cannot openly display support for the NDC without seeing some sort of backlash”. I thought this was overblown. Seeing that, he himself was clad in NDC colours, he was obviously betting on partisan sympathy rather than respect for the country’s law which criminalize such behaviour.Â
His next comment got me thinking: Portuphy suggested that NDC supporters harassed for their political orientation should, in his words, “defend themselves”.Â
I found this comment inflammatory at best: calling on a broad section of the public to “defend themselves” against another broad section of the public is an open call to arms. If an NDC sympathiser felt persecuted by the climate of opinion in Ghana right now, many casual interactions will be viewed as politically motivated threats. Having been “given permission” to defend himself against such threats, it is very likely that tensions will escalate.
As is often the case with me, the absurdity of the situation caught my attention. I assume you’ve already noticed my heavy bias against the NDC, and how this filtered Portuphy’s words to create such an uncharitable interpretation.
I’ve found myself in the opposite camp in international politics, where I felt my own independent opinions were being threatened by an increasingly authoritarian Left to the extent that, on my own accord, open hostility was a just response to outrageous attacks on my point of view.
Were I in the NDC’s camp, the shock of defeat at the polls would have set me on a path of distrust and displeasure that will colour how I see the world around me. Wearing such a lens, news of alleged hostility against those I consider on my side due to political affiliation will rile me up. In such a climate, had my party chairman come out - in party colours, showing solidarity to the victimized - to admonish us to “defend ourselves”, open hostility will, from my point of view, be justified.
From my present pro-Akuffo-Addo perspective, “self-defence” is just stoking the fire and invites my ridicule. It is entirely unjustified. And here we have the makings of an intractable conflict where, both sides of the argument in their minds are right.
A case of two conflicting rights is never ideal. There must be some resolution at some point. Sometimes, the path towards that resolution is rough.
I still hold that Portuphy’s comments are inflammatory. I’m also disappointed that the two main contenders in the polls, John Dramani Mahama and Nana Akuffo-Addo, have not come out, together, to condemn the criminal acts motivated by party affiliation. Unless I’ve missed it, I haven’t noticed any comments critical of the EC’s role in prolonging the drama of the election by keeping silent while both parties irresponsibly claimed victory.
Unless I’ve missed it, I am yet to see any major public figure criticise the NDC for “claiming a comfortable lead” at a time when all participating presidential candidates saw there was no clear lead in the polls until the only clear lead was the NPP’s. This is public deception; fraudulent communication that has been swept under the rug (like we do with many of our problems at the first sign of relief) since Nana was declared winner.
I fear this election story is not over. After Nana is sworn into office, we begin another four year cycle which will end in the 2020 polls. I hope Ghanaians prove they are as forgetful as they are forgiving.Â
