“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” 

The press conference convened by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), and addressed by its President, Albert Dwumfour, is a shining example of the scepticism with which every patriotic citizen and organization should take the proposals and seemingly protective overtures extended to them by heads of public institutions who have been planted by the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for purposes of doing their bidding during this year’s elections. The alertness and inquisitiveness exhibited by the GJA in questioning the real intention behind the decision by the Ghana Police Service to provide liaison officers at various media houses during the December 7 elections after a meeting initiated by and held at the Ghana Police Headquarters with selected editors without the knowledge of the GJA is an example to be emulated by patriotic citizens cherishing their fundamental rights to privacy and liberty from unnecessary state surveillance and interference. 

The words of the President of the GJA in the exercise of rational optimism in considering the proposal of the Ghana Police Service during this election period are worth quoting for the sake of the reader who might not have read it already. Speaking on behalf of the GJA, he said, “One of the key issues is the promise made by the Police Administration to provide police media liaison officers at media houses for protection. While appreciating the initiative by the Police Administration to ensure the safety and security of media practitioners in the electioneering, there are some pertinent concerns regarding the initiative by the Police. First, is it a strategy to interfere with the work of the media? Is it a ploy to leak information from media houses? Which media houses have the Police enlisted to detail its media liaison officers to? We can see some dark clouds surrounding this initiative by the Police and answers to these questions will clear the sky.” 

 The Ghana Police Service would not have been selective and overlooked extending an invitation for such an engagement to the Media Coalition as the professional umbrella body of the media industry in Ghana representing the interests and concerns of media practitioners and media houses in Ghana if the invitation and proposals were actuated by the national interest and not a politically partisan election agenda under the smokescreen of impartial policing. Colonel Festus Aboagye calls the scepticism exhibited by the GJA to the proposals by the Police Administration over the heads of the GJA as the professional umbrella of media professionals an exercise in objective pessimism in his article “Democracy’s dangerous delusion: How Ghana’s electoral peace narrative masks growing violence” published on 3news yesterday, 28 November 2024 which every patriot should read. 

This writer should be the first person to ascribe good intentions for any decision coming from the Ghana Police Service by virtue of his long association with the service as the Deputy Attorney-General and Member of the Police Council from 1989 to 7 January 2001 representing the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, as a Minister of the Interior and member of the service council, concurrently the Minister responsible for the Security and Intelligence Agencies, and as an Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who worked closely with several Inspectors-General of Police. Unfortunately, this writer has followed with disgust in the last seven years and nine months the politicization of appointments in both the higher and lower echelons of the Ghana Police Service by the incumbent government as part of the President’s election-winning long game for his anointed successor, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who has also been the Chairman of the Police Council during this period. 

The Bugri Naabu leaked tape which surfaced on 11 July 2023 involving a prominent police commissioner and some leaders of the governing New Patriotic Party allegedly plotting to remove the IGP exposed the politicization of the Ghana Police Service, the lobbying and manoeuvring among the top ranks of the Police Administration, especially when limited positions are available. The desire of the top ranks of the service to be appointed the IGP and the subsequent scheming to replace the sitting IGP has been endemic in the Police Service. Bugri Naabu, a former powerful Regional Chairman and now a respected elder of the NPP government, demonstrated in his evidence at the Parliamentary Committee that his real interest in running the stint operation was to protect the current IGP and the Chairman of the Police Council, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the anointed successor of the owner of Ghana’s election-winning long game, President Nana Akufo-Addo. 

In my published article: “The ‘Dampare must go’ Leaked Tape Recording is Diversionary for the Long Game” dated 15 July 2023, I stated and supported my contention that the current IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare was handpicked for the position of IGP on grounds of proven loyalty to this Government. I also stated that “I know as a matter of fact that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who chairs the Police Council and chaired the Council meeting which formally recommended Dr. Dampare’s appointment to the President was a staunch supporter of Dr. Dampare, long before the office of IGP became vacant.” I admonished further with objective pessimism that: “The leakage of the tape recording has achieved its objective because the NDC in particular, other opposition political parties, and security and intelligence operatives have diverted their attention to defending and extolling the virtues and perceived neutrality of the IGP. IGPs do not win elections and can scarcely influence the polls. What an IGP can and might do is to position Regional, Divisional, District, and Station Commanders who will control their men at the polls and relax their security alertness and surveillance on election day. Even such a move in a national election is not without hazards for the IGP as some Commanders may give him out to the other side. The Assin North constituency by-election cannot be used as a yardstick for measuring the neutrality of the Ghana Police Service in the coming national elections in 2024.” 

President Nana Akufo-Addo’s anointed successor and poodle, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is not only the Chairman of the Police Council, he is also the Chairman of the Armed Forces Council who knows what he has stepped on to boast that he is winning the 2024 presidential elections just as the President himself has similarly boasted publicly. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has also positioned himself as the founder of digitalization in Ghana without informing the unsuspecting public of the downside of digitalization as a cheating government Orwellian Big Brother intelligence gathering and surveillance tool usable for selfish election interference by public institutions. How did Dr Bawumia get the telephone numbers and birthdays of several Ghanaians upon whose privacy he has been intruding with SMS, if not from our digitalised Ghana Cards? The other contesting candidates for the presidency on 7 December 2024 do not have that cheating advantage. 

Consequently, when a public institution closely associated with an incumbent Vice-President contesting as a candidate to be the President of Ghana meets selected editors of media houses, the patriot has every reason to raise the alarm and alert the electorate to possible discreet interference with the vote under the colour of discharging legitimate official duties. Where was the then incumbent IGP when the 2019 Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election fatalities, and the 2020 Techiman South Constituency election day fatalities, took place in the name of free and fair elections under this government? The only guarantee that it not happen again is citizens’ alertness and objective rationality in asserting the sovereign power of We-the-People to ensure that our votes count without any politically motivated police surveillance before, on, and after election day. 

Right now, I can report, as an aside, that between 11: 00 hours yesterday morning, 28 November 2024, and this afternoon gunfire is being exchanged in the Bawku township in the fratricidal chieftaincy and elections-related conflict deliberately mismanaged by the government during this election season with no intervention or patrols by the police and other security agencies. Three eligible voters are reported dead with the government supervising the day’s fatalities and mayhem because the votes in the six constituencies in the traditional area do not historically favour this government’s Presidential and Parliamentary candidates at elections. 

I wish to repeat what I wrote on 14 July 2023 about the mandatory duty demanded of patriotic citizens by the 1992 Constitution for the impending 2024 elections which rhymes now more than ever before. I concluded my article by stating that: “Free and fair elections are the lifeblood of any democracy. I believe that the leaked recorded tape has achieved the opposite of what it intended by alerting patriotic citizens to the fact that no matter who is IGP everybody needs to be vigilant to ensure that the 2024 election is not captured by any President’s long game …. The vigilance of a patriotic citizenry is the truest bulwark against long games and election rigging come 2024. Let us defend the 1992 Constitution. Assalamu Alaikum!” 

I invite all patriotic citizens and genuine defenders of the 1992 Constitution to join me in appreciating the selfless boldness exhibited by all of the members of the Media Coalition, the professional umbrella bodies of the media industry in Ghana who represent the interests and concerns of media practitioners and media houses, in standing up to the decision of the Police Administration that excluded them, for whatever reason, from the meeting with selected editors of media houses. As we count the remaining one week towards 7 December 2024 all lovers of free, fair, and transparent elections supervised by independent and impartial public institutions should remain more vigilant than ever before. GJA, Ayekoo, for putting Ghana First! 

Martin A. B. K. Amidu
November 29, 2024