Carte Blanche For Nonsense

There could not have been a better carte blanche than the one President John Evans Atta Mills offered the foot-soldiers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) during his Castle media encounter last week. For those who became excited at the prospect of a firm presidential reaction to the latest bouts of foot-soldiers’ menace when a question to that effect was posed, they became disappointed as the President toyed with the subject in a manner suggesting that he was amenable to the whims of the rampaging party members. With that soft answer to the question about the status of that dust-raking segment of the NDC, the President could not have been any more ambiguous about his apathy for the unbridled conduct of the foot-soldiers. They continue to chase his representatives in the districts and even municipalities with reckless abandon, threatening them with death in some instances. They have, by their actions, cast a shadow over the integrity of the President to appoint persons to work on his behalf across the country. Yet, the President thinks cracking the whip, as required by the laws of the land, should not be considered- his body language and choice of words implied that. In one of our editorials in reaction to the now commonplace instances of foot-soldiers’ misconduct, as regards their treatment of the President’s representatives, we did fret about the absence of statements from the Presidency to condemn the actions. With the absence of such statements, coupled with that evasive answer to a question in that direction, we can comfortably conclude that our President has abandoned the DCEs and MCEs to their fate. They would have to bear their crosses by all means, come what may, especially given the usual indifference by security agencies to matters of this political colour. The threat to democracy by the unruly conduct of foot-soldiers countrywide is real and for the President to subtly brush its serious implications under the carpet, is to play the ostrich. We are disappointed in the president’s pretentious conduct in the face of a growing menace, a stranger in our political culture which we must stop by all means. Unfortunately, the President, whose authority is being undermined by the action of the disgruntled lot, appears comfortable with their weird method of protesting. We recall his lame reaction when the foot-soldier menace was at its apex and he ordered that government appointees open their doors to the fuming NDC supporters. Our treatment of electoral victories as though it were all about the sharing of war booty is most unfortunate. Someone cheekily described the situation as a coup d’état situation. Indeed, we tend to prefer that description of post-election period conduct of members under an NDC administration, as rampaging foot-soldiers hop from office to office, demanding their share of the war booty. The president finds it not untoward. With the President nowhere close to rescinding his decision on the foot-soldiers, we can only fold our arms and watch sheepishly as things continue to fall apart and democracy excessively threatened by unbridled exuberance of a rampaging lot.