Security expert, retired Col. Festus Boahen Aboagye
Security expert, retired Col. Festus Boahen Aboagye, has warned Ghanaians against voting for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming December 7 presidential elections.
Col. Aboagye, a former member of the Ghana Armed Forces, issued this warning while expressing concern about the destructive impact of illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) during an interview on JoyNews on September 26, 2024.
“People who have been voted into power in order to govern the state. And then they turn out to tell us that the party is superior to the state. Party needs money and therefore, wherever you’re going to find the money, even if you destroy the state and the party gets money, that is all right. Is that not idiotic? Because in a democratic state, that is the environment within which parties organize and play their roles. So, if you destroy the state, where is the state within which you’re going to do your party politics?
“… there is no proposed solution. All the solutions that are outlined—technology this and that—where are the drones that we procured? So even if we are not using them, where are the drones? Every proposal that anybody puts on the table will not work until there is responsibility on the part of the government and political world, period,” he lamented.
The retired military man added, “If we don’t get to the stage where today before the 7th of December and indeed if we go to the 7th of December, I don’t want to do party politics but this government is not fit for purpose. Nobody must vote for anybody involved in this government who has failed to address galamsey because I’m telling you, if we cross 7th December with the same political actors, it’s going to get worse. And by 2028 there will be nothing that looks like Ghana that you and I will be proud of.”
He also cautioned about the threat of the country seeing a military takeover because of the worsening economic conditions.
He pointed out that the only way to stop a coup is through good governance, but this is not what is seen in the country right now.
“I mean, politics, democracy, electoral, whatever it is, have become a joke. And that is a serious thing because I have argued with Kweku Baako on certain platforms and I have written in some of my policy briefs that the only way to stop a coup is through good governance. Simple, period,” Col. Aboagye stressed.
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