Communication and Public Relations consultant, Raymond Ablorh
A Communication and Public Relations consultant Raymond Ablorh has waded into the verbal attacks on social media by some young persons on leaders.
According to him, Ghanaians should appreciate the current situation today because, in the past, leaders were overthrown and killed by people who felt they were corrupt and incompetent.
He noted in an opinion piece that political leaders have seen nothing yet, and until they improve and satisfy the people, the attacks will keep coming.
He said the existence of Delta Force and their post-2016 election activities should have given us a hint of the situation we are in now.
”If our leaders; traditional leaders, religious leaders, political leaders and others don’t change their greedy and thoughtless ways, nobody will show them any respect again. And, eventually, they’ll suffer the wrath of young people sooner than they could imagine.
Some of you aren’t observant, otherwise, the attitude and actions of the Delta and Invisible Forces just after elections would’ve told you that we’re in a new dispensation.
Vigilante groups have been here even before independence. The CPP had their Action Troopers and the NLM/UP had theirs too.
They fought with soda bottles filled with hot water. They clashed in Accra and Kumasi, especially, ahead of the 1956 July – August Early Elections and Plebiscite that paved the way to independence.
The 56 elections, according to many political historians suffered about the most violent elections campaigns in our history.”
Read his full opinion below:
Let me tell you bluntly, Acheampong and his men would’ve been glad had Jerry Rawlings and his men merely castigated them like Twene Jonas and others are doing today via social media.
They weren’t that lucky. They got a coup and were eventually killed for less of what these irresponsible leaders are doing today.
You’ve seen nothing yet.
If our leaders; traditional leaders, religious leaders, political leaders and others don’t change their greedy and thoughtless ways, nobody will show them any respect again. And, eventually, they’ll suffer the wrath of young people sooner than they could imagine.
Some of you aren’t observant, otherwise, the attitude and actions of the Delta and Invisible Forces just after elections would’ve told you that we’re in a new dispensation.
Vigilante groups have been here even before independence. The CPP had their Action Troopers and the NLM/UP had theirs too.
They fought with soda bottles filled with hot water. They clashed in Accra and Kumasi, especially, ahead of the 1956 July – August Early Elections and Plebiscite that paved the way to independence.
The 56 elections, according to many political historians suffered about the most violent elections campaigns in our history.
After independence, in the First Republic, opposition Vigilante Groups also gave Nkrumah tough time. The Unknown Warriors, for instance, threw grenades all over the place. Even before their operations started, the Zenith Seven had been arrested for planning some violent acts. Many of the young people involved in these Vigilante Groups and footsoldiers’ violent activities were only used by politicians to secure their interests and discarded thereafter.
In the Fourth Republic, both the NDC and NPP used machomen and other footsoldiers only to abandon them after elections when they won power.
In 2010, a Group of Machomen approached me to share a touching story of how the NDC had used them and discarded them with me. They asked me to help them get access to a media platform to share their frustrations. I connected them to one. But, the NDC didn’t attend to them.
Finally, they left to join the NPP Vigilante Groups to teach the NDC lesson in 2016.
After the 2016 elections, we observed more violent vigilante groups’ activities because thousands of footsoldiers had been used and discarded by these politicians and political parties to the extent that these used young people were ready to do anything and everything if even it meant turning the country upside down.
This is why they disrespectfully sacked the President’s Regional Security Appointee from his office; disrupted a court in session and freed their colleagues, etc. They’re ready to do the worst.
Too many young people in Ghana are bitter and full of anger against the system, politicians, chiefs, religious leaders, etc. and are now expressing their pains the way Twene Jonas and others are doing.
What you’re seeing is just a curtain-raiser. The real game will soon arrive. The President himself is aware that when you leave the majority of energetic young people in joblessness, hardships, frustration and hopelessness for a long time, they’ll eventually explode. And, he knows that those who have benefited least in this dysfunctional democracy are the teeming youth or young adults who the parties always use and discard.
And, all the sensible old men and old women in Ghana today know that their generation couldn’t allow the excessive thievery, corruption, misappropriation of public resources while the people suffer like refugees in their own country to persist.
They fought Nkrumah, they fought Busia, they killed Acheampong and his men for less of what they’re doing to us and so they’re very lucky they’re just being insulted. They deserve to be killed.
Today, our cumulative debts stand at 292Billion. Most of this debt is payable in 20 or 30 years time. Where would Nana Akufo-Addo be that time?
If they don’t change their greedy and selfish ways and stop pushing the youth to the wall, they will soon seen worse than the Arab spring.
Today’s youth may not use bombs and grenades like they and their fathers did. We shall rain fire in another form.
President Ablorh.