THE TERROR UNNOTICED

It has been some time now since the news of the brutal demise of Professor Kofi Awoonor. Our tears are just drying up and up till now, many Ghanaians are still reeling from the shock of this bizarre and completely scandalizing incident. This is the same with many Kenyan families and those of other countries whose relatives also died in the West gate Shopping Mall attack. This is not the first time such callousness has been perpetrated against innocent people and Al Shabab is certainly not the only outcast organization noted for such and quite certainly, their form of terror is just one of two terrors, except that the other one is hardly noticed.

Every day, reports abound about the actions of individuals and groups who have made it a duty upon themselves to attack and kill innocent people. Most ironically, these people claim that they do these things in the interest of religion. Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab etc being popular perpetrators of terror claim to fight for Islam and Muslims, and I sometimes wonder which right-thinking Muslim will want blood, innocent blood for that matter, to be shed for and/or his behalf knowing what the Quran says about same. And even if they were fighting for Muslims, why will they kill them? Because records clearly show that an overwhelming majority (about 88% - 92% in 2011) of the victims of these terrorists are Muslims. Meanwhile whereas the Umtata Christian Network, the Fronte Combattente Cristiano, the Manmasi National Christian army, the Army of God etc also claim to be fighting for Christianity, incessant attacks by people purporting to be protecting Budhist heritage against other religionists in Myanmar add to this bizarre irony. It is safe to maintain without any scintilla of equivocation that all these religions are innocent of what is being done in their names.

Without doubt, the activities of these people put to death 100’s of thousands of people across the world including those who share the same faith with them. For 2011 alone, an estimated 12,500 people died, 755 of them children from a total of over 10000 attacks in 70 countries.  Unfortunately, no one knows who is next and before you begin thinking about who may be next, there may just be a car headed towards your direction with a suicide bomber saying his last prayers. Did I hear “God forbid”? Well, Amen! But that is the reality; they have succeeded in putting fear and uncertainty in the minds of people. That is however just one terror and it has its bedfellow which largely goes unnoticed.

As these dastardly acts go on, they are not unbeknownst to the people of the world. Media organizations, both local and international try to bring us up to date with the happenings around the world. In fact, I am writing this piece because of the media reports I have heard which have prompted me to dig deeper and find out more. The power of the media in creating awareness and influencing opinion is not in doubt. But it is also hardly in doubt the immense capacity of the media to wage war. In their bid to make sensational news out of the terror incidents, they have unleashed a different form of terror; a psychological terror which puts tremendous pressure on the minds of those who profess the same faith as those who maim and kill in the name of God and religion.

So far as I can see therefore, there have emerged two forms of terror, one being the terror of the gun, the other the terror of the word; one maims and kills in cold blood, the other depresses and psychologically traumatizes. One, the terror in the name of religion; the other the terror in the name of news.

 There are several friends of mine who have refused to listen to BBC because according to them, the vocabulary of that media organization is unfair to peaceful Muslims across the world who in their small corners strongly condemn terrorism. And those who listen to and read international media know that this is true of the others including Aljazeera, France24, Reuters etc. They particularly fancy the words “Islamist”, “Jihadist”, “radical Muslims”, “militant Islamists”, “extremist Muslims” etc.   Some local media have joined the bandwagon and some scholars and politicians including even those who are Muslims also use the same vocabulary, a clear effect of the media persistence in their use. Unknown to them, adding the word “Islam” to “Islam-ist” to refer to people who use the religion merely as a cover-up to commit heinous crimes terrorizes Muslims across the world. And I imagine that same can be said of Christians when the words “extremist Christians”, “Christian terrorists” etc are used. This terror, the terror of the media, unlike the terror of the gun, may not bomb and kill people but it has lasting psychological effects that can hardly be quantified.

Two things are common between these two terrors – first, they both have victims who are completely innocent of the events they create (in case of the terror of the gun) and report about (in case of the terror of the media) and second, they move hand in hand. I have been trying to figure out which is the cause and which the effect. I suppose we can blame the killers for the loss of lives. But can we blame the media for the news? I guess not. Otherwise what will their use be? Perhaps they can stop the sensational rhetoric and spare their listeners the trauma of news.

It is clear that these two terrors are two bed-fellows. The terror of the media shall not go away until the terror of the gun does. I cannot imagine same for the other way round. It is my hope though that when they are going, they both go together and forever so that their victims can heave a perpetual sigh of relief. May the soul of professor Awoonor as well as of all victims of the terror of the gun rest in peace. For victims of the terror of the media, I do not know what to say; perhaps readers will help me with some grammar.

NATIONAL UNION OF GHANA STUDENTS: THE LOST TREASURE

Across time and space, students have contributed immensely to the development of their nations. They have done so even in their individual capacities. But the contributions become so massive as to become matters of immense historical record when they are made by students in their organized form, and examples of this abound across the world. During the apartheid era, the South African Students Union played a very critical role in dismantling the inhumane system of discrimination against black people in South Africa. Of course, it did so with the interest of the South African student in mind.

In Ghana, the organized group that has performed these roles is the National Union of Ghana Students. Formed over four (4) decades ago, the national student body has made significant strides in protecting the interest of students. For instance, during the Second Republic, as Kpessa (2007) reports, the union successfully opposed the withdrawal of student allowances by the government. But it did not only protect the interest of students, it also campaigned vigorously for democracy and against military rule and its concomitant features of despotism, corruption and autocracy. The union criticized and vehemently opposed the human rights record of the Acheampong regime and was instrumental in the falling of the government and others like it. Those were the days when school authorities and governments trembled at the mention of NUGS; but those were the days when NUGS was a treasure.

But now, all that glowing glory is resigned to the dustbin of history and with it the treasure the union was. For some years now, the union has become a conduit for political beehiving where through the backdoor, politicians use the leaders to achieve their selfish gains. It is now a vehicle for the playing out of bloated egos, the pursuit of personal partisan parochies and the nourishing of the gardens of corruption. These have manifested themselves in various ways, the most notable being the inability of the Union to successfully conduct a credible congress and elect new leaders for some years now. Of course the inevitable consequence of this, namely the failure to properly articulate the concerns of students of Ghana and agitate for same to be addressed is not lost on anybody. Indeed, the current state of affairs has not only deprived Ghanaian students of the treasure of a union to behold but has occasioned a situation where the mention of NUGS arouses a bitter feeling among innocent students. In other words, it has become an element of poignant reminiscence for students; hopeless and helpless without a union to advance our interest. How can we cope with the callousness of school authorities and policy makers who take far-reaching decisions with only little doses of sensitivity to the plight of students? In the form of fee hikes, arbitrary dismissals, examination bans, strike actions, etc., government, management of schools across the country and teachers subject students to enormous torture. But alas, there is no one to fight against these things. Or perhaps more accurately, there no longer is; because we used to have a union, a treasure which we have lost to partisan, ethnic and sectarian frivolities.

So what can students of Ghana do? How do we proceed from here, and to which destination? In proffering solutions, some members have recommended the dissolution of the union but they fail to answer the question, “by who?” Who has the locus to dissolve the union and how? Unlike a presidential commission which can easily be dissolved at the behest of the president, NUGS is a registered organization with an operating constitution and a divers membership with divers interests, each against another, sometimes in a diabolically complicated manner. Yet the constitution does not provide any opportunity for such an action, so not even congress in the widest imagination can take a decision to dissolve the union because even though it is the highest decision making organ of the union, it is also subject to the constitution. But even if there was the constitutional leeway to dissolve the union and it was actually done, then what next? Were students to remain without a union, like a flock without a shepherd or a herd without a herd boy? What would the implications be in the circumstances? Students of Ghana cannot survive without a union; that is unimaginable. So dissolving the union is not a viable option.

But what ought we to do? We must take the bull by the horns. The first step is the realization that no one is obliged to be a member of NUGS; it is a voluntary organization whose membership is open to choice. Second, it is necessary for the silent majority, the masses of students who feel strongly about these issues to assert themselves. The fate students are suffering now is the result of the suppression of the majority who have refused to assert themselves but have rather chosen to be cowed by the few greedy ones. Third, genuine student leaders must put themselves together and launch a new students union with a national outlook as an alternative to NUGS.

A few questions arise from this proposition. Would these genuine student leaders not also turn out to be just as greedy when they get power? How possible is it that any other body can stand the muscle of NUGS since the latter has gained significant recognition on boards and state institutions. Human beings are unpredictable and one cannot guarantee that anybody who will begin such a crusade would stay genuine through and through. But it is fair to assert that any students body that shall emerge as a result of the incapacitation of NUGS must be able to learn from the fatal mistakes NUGS has made over the years and put in place structural measures to prevent the untamed centralization of power which has been the Achilles’ heel of NUGS. The recognition the union has is a concomitant of legitimacy. Once the legitimacy wanes, the recognition will give way and there must be another body to claim both the legitimacy and the recognition when NUGS is no longer on the scene.

In sum, it is clear that the woes of NUGS can never be healed; the union can never get better again because the interests shattering it apart are permanent and entrenched. Yet students cannot survive in this hostile environment without a union. Therefore we have reached a point where the emergence of an alternative union is inevitable.