The decay of Ghana’s political discourse did not happen by accident. It was designed, engineered, and institutionalised over years of deliberate political strategy. While public commentary often laments the decline of decorum in national debate as an unfortunate drift, historical evidence points to a far more uncomfortable truth. The National Democratic Congress did not merely stumble into the politics of personal vitriol; it established it as an official operational model.
To understand how this machinery was assembled, one must examine the written admissions of those who built it.In his 2020 memoir, Working with Rawlings, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi—a former Local Government Minister and long-time NDC insider—provides an unfiltered account of the inner workings of his party. The book carries a foreword by the current Vice President, underscoring its authority within opposition circles. What Ahwoi authored, perhaps unwittingly, is a devastating blueprint revealing how insult was turned into institutional policy.
On page 211, Ahwoi details a growing crisis within the party during the presidency of the late John Evans Atta Mills. The party’s founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings, was launching relentless, demoralising public attacks on his successor. Unable to restrain Rawlings through conventional diplomacy, party strategists devised an unconventional remedy: they would deploy a specialized cadre of young activists to confront and “talk back” to the founder publicly. The group included Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Edward Omane Boamah, and Kwadwo Twum Boafo. Trained to bark at the very man who birthed their movement, these young men launched coordinated counter-offensives across television and radio networks. The strategy earned them a permanent place in Ghanaian political lexicon when Rawlings publicly labeled them the “Babies with Sharp Teeth”. The consequences of this tactic quickly spilled beyond internal party feuds. A political unit trained to attack its own founder felt no restraint when turning its sights on constitutional opponents. Key opposition figures like Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo became constant targets of hostility.
Aggression was normalized, logic was replaced by relentless character assassination, and political disagreement was redefined as war. The most damaging aspect of this strategy was its incentive structure. Following the NDC’s victory in the 2008 general elections, the young men who led these verbal assaults were rewarded with deputy ministerial portfolios and executive agency appointments.The career ladder had been made clear to the rank and file: rapid political advancement within the NDC did not require policy depth, administrative competence, or statecraft.
It required volume, hostility, and a willingness to degrade political opponents on airwaves every morning. When political parties reward hostility, they signal their values to the electorate. By contrast, governance demands policy consistency, institutional respect, and measured leadership—qualities that the New Patriotic Party has consistently prioritized in its development of young political talent.The history recorded in Working with Rawlings remains a sobering reminder of how political discourse was intentionally degraded. When insults become a recognized route to executive office, the nation’s democratic culture pays the ultimate price.
