A former National Security Minister, Kofi Totobi Quakyi, has cautioned that failure to act courageously and forcefully on political vigilantism will set in place a cycle of reprisals and revenge that will undermine Ghana's democratic stability, warning the country cannot afford to continue on a path of revenge politics where successive governments overlook acts of vigilantism perpetrated by their own supporters.
Quakyi gave the warning at a national policy dialogue on "Assessing the Implementation of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999) and Its Implications for National Security and Democratic Governance," organised by Election Watch Ghana in Accra and drawing security experts, academics and political actors.
Vigilante groups
Quakyi questioned whether the 36 vigilante groups identified before Act 999's passage had genuinely vanished or simply changed their names and functions, saying evidence on the ground pointed to a substantial increase in groups falling within the Act's scope, many still active under new guises. "A few days ago, there was a news report on the formation of a group called the Lions. Somebody who claimed to be the founder of the group said it would be operating within the context of Act 999, which allows groups that intend to help with community policing," he said, adding that he immediately recognised it as the beginning of the same problem.
Quakyi, also a one-time Minister of Information, argued that genuine community policing could never be tied to a political party, since every community holds members of differing political persuasions, and stressed that any initiative traceable to a particular political direction demands careful scrutiny. He recalled a letter he once wrote warning that failing to deal decisively with vigilantism would sow the seeds of future reprisals, framing the dialogue as a chance to revisit Act 999 and assess what, if anything, is impeding its implementation. He also commended past efforts outside the legal framework — regular meetings with political parties that helped lower political tension — and urged the current administration to sustain such engagements alongside Act 999 or any successor framework.
Violence signals system failure
Political scientist Professor George Meyiri Bob-Milliar said Ghana's success over the past three decades had been delegitimising violence as a tool of political competition, but warned that violence's persistence signals something is not working within the democratic system. "We talk of democratic consolidation. For us, what we are having now is the past that we live in. Ghana is described as a stable democracy, but when you look closely, these are the challenges. We have to protect what we have built over these past three decades," he said.
The KNUST professor of African Politics and History described Act 999 as a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that has persisted through Ghana's electoral history from 1951 through the Fourth Republic, arguing the underlying issues that created vigilante groups remain unaddressed and that the nature of party mobilisation in Ghana makes their proliferation likely to continue. He said awareness of Act 999 among political actors is now deep, yet reports point to an increase rather than a decrease in vigilante activity — "if you understand how party mobilisation is done in Ghana, what we can count on is that there will be more," though he noted party actors are at least now mindful of the law's consequences. He called on policymakers, academics and political parties to use the dialogue to strengthen the law's effectiveness and ensure violence is never accepted as part of Ghana's democratic culture.
