Exploring The Rise Of Competitive Political Vigilantism In Ghana

Abstract

Political vigilantism as a form of social movement has become pervasive in Ghanaian politics, especially, in the last decade. Ghanaian political parties’ desire for political power is gradually making political vigilantism a part of Ghanaian politics. This threatens the democratic fabric of the Ghanaian society due to the crimes and brutalities perpetrated by these political vigilante groups. This social phenomenon has been widely discussed in Ghanaian media due to the crimes and other obscene acts that such groups tend to be associated with. In recent times, political vigilantism has gained much attention in the works of sociologists, criminologists, and other disciplines. However, among the diverse body of studies, few have been done on how people who are recruited into political vigilante groups, explain their motivation(s) for participating and their perceptions of the implications of their actions on political stability or security. This study therefore examines how people who are recruited into political vigilante groups, explain their motives or reasons for participating and their perceptions of the implications of their actions on political stability or security since the activities of political vigilantism is rising in Ghana in recent times. Guided by the qualitative research approach; - a semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen political vigilantes from two famous political vigilante groups in Ghana. Additional data was solicited from two females who are members of a female party youth group which work with one of the political vigilante groups. During the interviews, participants gave a full and rich narratives of how they were recruited into their political vigilante group, their motives or reasons for joining and participating in political vigilantism, their experiences during their operations, their perceptions of their actions or operations on security or political stability and how they think state and non-state actors should respond to political vigilantism. However, for some of the participants, this topic was difficult to discuss because of the sensitive nature of their activities and the current law in Ghana disbanding the activities of political vigilantes. The findings revealed that, political vigilante group recruit its members on the basis of trust, political affiliation, ethnic affiliation, recommendation from party members or peers and previous knowledge in security. In addition, it revealed that, lack of decent jobs and poverty, lack of trust in state security institutions, lack of trust or integrity in the electoral commission, access to social support, access to social capital, a desire party recognition and ethnic support are the reasons participants gave for joining and participating in political vigilantism. On the downside, participants experienced physical and verbal assault, threat and intimidation, exploitation, regret and psychological pains as part of the operations and membership of these groups. The findings also revealed that contrary to the dominant position that vigilantes are necessarily and desirable by participants, participants perceive political vigilantism as inimical to security or political stability. These notwithstanding they desire that they should be viewed as peaceful groups rendering supportive services to their political parties and not to cause harm to anybody. In conclusion, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about motives or reasons for engaging in political vigilantism, how people are recruited into political vigilante groups, the experiences of political vigilantes, political vigilantes’ perceptions of their actions on security and how they want both state and non-state actors to respond to their actions more specifically in the Ghana context. Again, the finding of this study implies that, government and in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders need to create more decent jobs, restore public trust or confidence in the state security, ensure diligence and transparency in the electoral process and so on.