Josiah
A ‘FIFTH COLUMNIST’ is a secret supporter of an enemy country, society, group and / or people, who tries to undermine their own country and / or group. Fifth columnists may engage in sabotage, espionage, or other subversive activities.
The term was coined by General Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Mola originally used the term, when he was leading four columns of troops towards Madrid, declared that he already had a fifth column to describe Franco sympathizers in Madrid.
Ernest Hemingway, an American author, also popularized the term in his writings.
Examples of fifth column activities include infiltrating a country’s government and defense institutions; spreading rumors and misinformation, and engaging in sabotage.
Synonyms for ‘fifth columnist’ include Traitor, Spy, Treasonist, and Saboteur.
The term ‘fifth column’ has also been used in popular culture and intelligence operations.
Loosely, therefore, it is a group of people, like belonging to an opposition political party, who undermine a larger group, like a governing party with an overwhelming majority in a Parliament, or nation from within, usually in favour of an enemy group (like opposition party) or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine, like forces gathered in secret and / or mobilize openly to assist an external attack. (WIKIPEDIA)
Technically so to speak, a ‘fifth columnist’ is a member of a group of people, who support the enemies of the country they live in or members of an opposition party, who secretly engage in ‘espionage’ or ‘sabotage’ against the ruling party and / or government of their own country.
The ‘fifth columnist’ can also refer to any kind of aid or support that is given politically, or militarily, or in other ways in a subversive manner towards undermining the efforts of a government in any political dispensation.
Furthermore, same could be said of the false teachers of whom apostle Peter speaks about in the Bible as fifth columnists.
During major upheavals and transitions within nations, tribes, governments and opposition parties; elections of executives of national parties; one group or party and / or opposition; there will always be the attempt for the creation of ‘fifth columnists’ card in order to attempt compromising some members of the governing side and / or allies as recruits, in order to induce others, either financially or by blackmail, towards ensuring that nothing works under any incumbent governments.
For the past twenty-five (25) years, we have witnessed a new phenomenon in our body politics, where outgoing governments ending their terms, either after just one term of office or ending two-terms, would plan to offer employment to thousands of their supporters, both young and old, into both public and state institutions, including the Bank of Ghana at the twilights of their administrations. Such acts are not only to burden the in-coming administrations with bloated public salaries expenditure but many of these last-minute appointments then take the form of a ‘Third Reich’, assigned various tasks, including reporting on happenings at the institutions such as leaking confidential breaches at the workplaces; undermining SOEs by unofficial reportages of audited reports to embarrass both management as well as new government; and bloated prices on purchases of new vehicles with the sale of ‘fairly new’ company 4-wheel vehicles to outgoing management and / or board members.
This phenomenon of the ‘Third Reich’ started manifesting with the warped decisions of the NADAA government to bloat various arms of government, especially with the judiciary, security and public services, ahead of their leaving office after the Party had lost the 2024 National Elections by the wildest, weirdest defeat results in the history of Ghana’s Fourth Republican dispensation.
Indeed, the various actions and orchestrations of the ‘Mighty’ Minority in all their parliamentary debates, individual interviews, press conferences, and heckling actions on the floor of the House as well as engagements outside, have projected themselves as such, i. e. the new ‘Third Reich’ concocting and recrafting various stories, which seek to undermine the government and / or in real terms, Ghana’s Presidency.
The gimmicks adopted by the ‘Mighty’ Minority leadership, especially its ‘Efutu Chieftain’, to create diversions and unnecessary noises, when new governmental initiatives are being announced or new programmes that seek to advance the wellbeing of the people, remind the elderly of the machinations of their forebears and their traditions, during the 2nd Republican days: exactly as what happened during the 7th and 8th Parliaments of the Fourth Republican dispensation.
The last-minute packing of the Forces, Civil & Public Services, and other public institutions by the thousands before the 7th January 2025 handover, originally conceived as ‘jobs for the boys’, have rather fueled the whole ‘Third Reich’ fear amongst Ghanaians for good reason.
Advisedly, the ‘Third Reich’ could be likened to ‘Big Daddy Looking Over Your Shoulders’ type of situation, where these last-minute employed people could find themselves engaged in ‘espionage’ of all sorts, including being able to report to specific persons of the administration, which is out of office and also peddling falsehoods to make a sitting government unpopular. These acts also include the leakages of classified security information with the sole intention of embarrassing or better still ridiculing the government in power. These distractions or seeming firefighting and / or imaginary incidents, have the sole purpose of getting government officials loaded and always on radio and TV talk shows to explain themselves as well as ‘salvage’ whatever damage created.
The recent exploits and escapades by Hon. Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, representing the Assin South Constituency in the Central Region on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party – a politician, Mineral Engineer, entrepreneur, Legislator, and ordained Reverend Minister; with a multifaceted background in Engineering, Mining, International Relations and Economic Policy; the second term Member of Parliament and a former Deputy Minister for Education; have created more than unnecessary apprehensions in our body-politick. However, any student of local and or national politics from the days of the United Party (UP), the Progress Party (PP) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – all of the same stock but different naming to suit the dispensation, would admit same as their stock-in-trade
The unfortunate part of the Rev. Ntim Fordjour escapade is the fact that he is supposed to be a Minister of the Gospel to the extent that if he has been lying through his teeth should be a sign of concern, not only for his church but the general body of Christ, as to the extent he could stand by the cacophony of lies, he spews out each time with new twists and turns. But then as they say, that has been their stock in trade from the days of our fight for national independence.
The scariest part of the whole exercise is the alleged presence of a deep state in the current government machinery – a body of people, typically influential members of government agencies, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.
Deep states, therefore, refer to an alleged secret network of especially non-elected government officials and sometimes private entities (as in the financial services and defense industries) operating extralegally to influence and enact government policy. (MERRIAM WEBSTER)
The power of the deep state comes from experience, knowledge, relationships, insight, craft, special skills, traditions, and shared values. Together, these purported attributes make nameless bureaucrats into a super-government that is accountable to no one. That is a scary prospect. (David Rothkopf)
Currently, the apparent situations of a seeming deep state conundrum have been the several last-minute appointments made before the 7th January 2025 Handover by the past government of NADAA with the intent of positioning these deep state people; and thereby creating the environment for state security to be on special alert against the intended secret manipulation and / or control of government initiatives.
The orchestration and or setup for the dismissal of Madam Charlotte Osei, the former Electoral Commissioner, as part of a plot to replace her with another who could be amenable to being part of the NADAA ‘Third Reich’ post-2025, especially with the subsequent appointment of and replacement with my dear friend’s wife, Jean Adukwei Mensa as the Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission of Ghana with all that happened during the 2024 National Elections; brings to the fore the compulsive need for the government of John Dramani Mahama to consider how to deal with the apprehensions surrounding the Commission and its top three executives and the IT unit, currently handled by persons suspected to be affiliates of the NPP.
Whether we play the ostrich and or pretend that a ‘Third Reich’, and /or a seeming ‘Deep State’ do not exist after the administration of NADAA with all the acute corruption, sale of state properties to the ‘family and friends’ syndicate as well as ‘ghost names’, we will have to deal with this phenomenon now than later; otherwise, we will all hold ourselves accountable for the looming storm.
By Magnus Naabe RexDanquah, the Ghanaian
