Analysis: The battle lines are drawn for Election 2016 – By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

Folks, I have been monitoring happenings on the political scene and noting salient points/issues that are gradually emerging to shape the strategies that the various political parties will use in their electioneering campaigns for Election 2016.

Without belabouring any point, let me say upfront that the battle lines have already been drawn: The NPP is poised to do all it can to drag the NDC down. From how it has been doing things all this while, it is clear that it will use any means available to it to undermine President Mahama. What does he and his government/NDC have to counteract such detraction?

On the surface, the picture is clear. The incumbent administration will dig in and present itself as championing the cause of Ghana and its citizens, citing development projects and national stability as its main accomplishments. In truth, the government has done a lot to prove that it is using the mandate given John Mahama at Election 2012 to keep the country together despite biting challenges that its opponents are quick to cite as instances of its incompetence. Unfazed by such detraction, President Mahama and his team think that they can pull together, solve pertinent problems (especially the energy crisis) and move on to justify why they should be retained in office.

But will that be enough to assuage doubts, fears, and concerns about the future? No!! A government that deserves a renewal of its mandate is expected to do more to assure the citizens that its handling of affairs will endure beyond its tenure in office. If it lays or consolidates the political structure and builds a strong foundation for the economy, it needn’t fear losing the people’s mandate. is that what the government is doing? Answers differ. The “Dumsor” crisis is a major negative for it to contend with; and those suffering from the scourge won’t forgive it at the polls!! A lot is going on, which its opponents are glibly talking about but not offering any solution to, knowing very well how to whip up mere sentiments for political expediency!!

On the other hand, opponents of the government are up in arms, doing everything they think will undermine it and saying just anything to reinforce their bitter opposition against it. They are led by the NPP and its legion of nay-sayers who are hell-bent on putting Akufo-Addo in office at all costs. And from how they have started doing things, we expect a lot from them to push the government to the wall. How will it rebound to reassert its influence?

A careful appraisal of the situation has revealed a lot to me, especially considering the current stentorian demand for a new voters register for Election 2016. The NPP has been abroad with its claims of that register’s being bloated, flawed, and unsuitable for Election 2016. And its main architects have drawn one conclusion: unless the register is changed, there will be violence in Ghana. A scary proposition!!

Interestingly, it was this same register that has been used for bye-elections after Election 2012 that the NPP actively participated in. Could the register be regarded as flawed on a global scale but accepted by the NPP on a local scale for bye-elections that it participates in? The Talensi bye-election was held with that register. The NPP had hopes of retaining that seat but lost even though its Akufo-Addo and all those who matter in the NPP actively campaigned in the area. When there is no basis for an electoral victory, no amount of singing “Halleluia” all over the place will make any difference.

The scenario will likely be repeated in the Amenfi West Constituency where the NDC’s MP has passed on. Will the NPP participate in the bye-election with the very register that it is raising hell about? If it does, what does it say about it?

We can tell from what the NPP is doing that it is already geared up for Election 2016, using any means to push its case and relying on its lackeys in many sectors of national life. It considers Election 2016 as a “do-and-die” affair. What for, I don’t know. What I know is that by being so grounded, it is creating the impression that it will be nothing in the absence of Akufo-Addo. What happens if Nature calls him unto its own before Election 2016?

And in its pursuits, it is bent on mobilizing support from just any constituency that it thinks can help it prevail over the Electoral Commission to renew the register. We already know of all that has happened, including the activities of its surrogates (Let My Vote Count Alliance and others in responsible positions all over the country) and the comments of notable Ghanaians—the clergy (Christian Council of Ghana, especially), Jerry Rawlings and his wife and former President Kufuor. The impression created by all of them is that the voters register has to be changed for Election 2016. Otherwise….

(As Dr. Amoako-Baah foolishly put it, the EC should declare President Mahama the automatic winner of Election 2016 even without any elections being held. Eventually, then, if the voters register is renewed, the EC should automatically declare Akufo-Addo as winner of Election 2016; not so? Such a lazy, lousy, and clumsy political thinker and lecturer at the KNUST!!).

We don’t want to bother our heads over such inane comments (or threats) from Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and Dr. Amoako-Baah. They have openly predicted WAR in Ghana if the voters register is not changed for Election 2016 and come across as overly misguided. I wish they knew what WAR really is!!

To land, let me say that the NPP is already mobilizing support for its cause and doing all it can, using every means available while the Mahama-led administration and the NDC sit at the back burner. The NDC had initially made its position clear that it doesn’t support such a move but has softened that stance. Others like Dr. Nduom and his PPP are not keen on a complete renewal of the voters register but the use of a consistent and foolproof national identification process to forestall electoral malpractices. The PNC and CPP are neither here nor there. As for the other political mushrooms, nothing has come from them worth commenting on.

So, folks, we are where we are now. The NPP seems to be raking up much dust; the NDC has taken the back stage, and the political environment remains agitated. And it will be more agitated as time flies without the NPP’s demand being met. Although Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings thinks that the EC doesn’t have the sole responsibility regarding the voters register, there is nothing anybody can do if the EC doesn’t act on the NPP’s demand.

For war, we may not be prepared; but if it has to be fought, it will be fought.

I can tell from how the NPP is doing things that it is poised and determined to use whatever it considers as an opportunity to push the government to the wall. From all the criticisms levelled against the government so far, it is clear that the NPP is implementing a strategy that will make the Mahama-led administration an underdog. The private media are more than eager to support it in this bid.

Meantime, the government remains lamely reactive instead of being proactive. Why is it so? Apparently, the very problems that it needs to solve to claw back public goodwill are either worsening or remain intractable. Unless it moves fast to deal with what is already angering the people, it risks being further torn apart, especially now that its critics have found a way to use the voters register as their main trump card to fight it. Credibility counts.

Folks, as public intellectuals, we will continue to comment on what we see and hear about happenings that affect our country’s interests. No matter how we position ourselves, we know that we have a stake in our country’s future and will ensure that our voices are heard.

So far, the government that is to provide funds for any exercise to renew the voters register hasn’t bowed to the NPP’s pressure. Already, the country’s coffers aren’t strong enough for such a venture. So, what can anybody do to “force the there to be there”? If only the NPP and all those calling for a replacement of the register can raise funds for that purpose, there will be good news to celebrate. But is anybody really thinking outside the box?

Kufuor’s opinion that the country can borrow money to renew the voters register is as lame as coming from someone who ruled Ghana for 8 years but didn’t do anything to reform the electoral process or retool the EC. Lousy talker!!

For now, let us be reminded that a renewal of the voters register cannot necessarily assure victory for those calling for it. Victory at the polls calls for more than the ugly noise that we hear from the anti-Mahama camp. My thoughts!!

I shall return…

• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.

 

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com, www.africa-forum.net and www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

 

Analysis: Ironic Kwesi Pratt – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

He has gained quite a bit of notoriety for feeding fat on successive governments, especially the most grossly incompetent ones, while affording the latter prime and mendacious publicity; and so Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jr., must know what he is talking about when he rapturously commends Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his associates of the Tiger-Eye private investigations team for exposing some 12 high court judges and some 22 magistrates in the nation-wrecking habit of accepting kickbacks in order to distort the integrity of justice (See “Anas Has Shed Light on Ghana’s Democracy – Pratt” Modernghana.com 9/26/15).

It is not clear to me whether it was Fourth Republican Ghanaian democracy upon which Mr. Anas and Tiger-Eye PI shed a light on, rather than the cross-epochal rot that has veritably been the fabric of the entire judicial system of the country. For nobody can gainsay the fact that virtually every Ghanaian government since 1957 has been characterized by rank corruption. And the judiciary, of course, is only the third and, perhaps, also the weakest of the nation’s three branches of government. The other two are, of course, the executive and the legislature.

With the obscene level of judgment-debt incidents that has robbed the country of humongous amounts of development capital, as well as the precipitous loss of our reputation and dignity as a nation among the international community, it is equally clear that whatever level of rank and abject corruption scandals the Ajet-Nassams have been involved in, or found to be criminally culpable of, has equally criminally involved members of the executive branch of government who are constitutionally charged with national policymaking and contractual decisions.

And so the likes of President John Dramani Mahama had better be on the lookout against being logically roped into the ongoing epic excavation of rank judicial corruption by Mr. Anas and his Tiger-Eye PI team. It would be even more edifying if and when the time comes for Justice Ajet-Nassam to reveal the identity of his collaborators in the GHC 52 million Woyome racket. We already know that the active complicity of several of the most highly positioned members of the executive took the form of this epic heist’s being authorized by extant Attorney-General Betty Mould-Iddrisu and her deputy, Mr. Ebo Barton-Oduro.

Now, I find this organic and justifiable linkage between the executive and the judiciary to be more fascinating and legally sounder or more constructive than merely isolating and making scapegoats of only members of the judiciary. And, of course, since most of the executive operatives, or ministers, named in the judgment-debt scandals also doubled as Members of Parliament, or the legislature, it stands to reason to assume that all the three branches of our government are deeply implicated in the acts of judicial travesty recently unearthed by Mr. Anas and his Tiger-Eye team of crackerjack investigators. It is only at this expansive and more accurate level that Mr. Pratt’s observation of Mr. Anas’ having shed an instructive light on Ghanaian democracy becomes incontrovertible.

I, however, do not necessarily believe that this particular expos has shed for us any more light than past ones that did not involve the judiciary but the other two branches of government. We know quite well that President Nkrumah did a seismic lot to effectively undermine the integrity of the country’s judicial system. A typical example was Nkrumah’s decision to summarily dismiss then-Chief Justice Arku Korsah and Associate Justices Van Lare and Akufo-Addo in the Kulungugu Affair. The verdict had not gone the manner expected by the President, who had proceeded to obtain a blanket authority to both appoint and dismiss Supreme Court judges at his pleasure. This is the one aspect of the untold and primitive corruption of the judiciary that the Nkrumacrats would rather not discuss.

And so, yes, Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas has done quite a bit to expose rank corruption in government, as Mr. Pratt would have the rest of the country and the world believe, but it is only déjà-vu, or merely more of the same.

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com, www.africa-forum.net and www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

 

Ghanaian Politics: Hello, Nyaho-Tamakloe! By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

His consanguinary – or blood – connection to President Mahama ought to be very well known by now to necessitate any further expatiation here, except for the imperative need for me to emphatically point out that the Supreme Court battle over the 2012 Presidential Election is squarely about the struggle for democratic power short of a logically justified armed struggle; and Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe had better be mindful of the same (See “NPP Focusing Too Much On Election Petition – Nyaho-Tamakloe” TV 3 News/Ghanaweb.com 7/13/13).

And so to expect the bulk of the New Patriotic Party leadership to sit back and be clinically aloof while a handful of lawyers battle it out at the Supreme Court is rather insulting; and that is being extremely polite about it. But, of course, if one were related to President Mahama and comfortably located like Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, stealthily and steadily and shamelessly undermining the NPP petitioners would be the fetching and/or prime choice for an avocation.

You see, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe poignantly approximates that old pidgin-English maxim that runs as follows: “Country broke or no de broke, I dey inside.” Ghana’s former ambassador to Serbia and Croatia clearly has nothing to lose. To be certain, he actually has far more to gain with one of his kinsmen being at the helm of our national affairs, than having a bunch of people with whom he only tenuously and blearily share ideological suasion. Remember the age-old maxim of “Blood is thicker than water”? That is glaringly what is at stake here in the shameless imagination and personal political fortunes of the former chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GBA).

Of course, none among the topmost executive ranks of the New Patriotic Party is deceived by the pompous moral pretensions of Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe. Not too long ago, for instance, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey squarely put Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe where he belongs vis-a-vis latter’s relationship with the NPP, when the National Chairman of the country’s largest opposition party – at least for now – bitterly complained about the increasing liability that Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe was becoming to the party.

I have warned in these very pages that his claim to being a founding member of the New Patriotic Party ought not to give Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe the license or right to feel that he has any inalienable right to facilitate the party’s disintegration, even as he passionately let on to TV 3’s Mr. Kenneth Osei-Ampofo. But that his sentiments unabashedly and fanatically reside with his kinsman, the man who unconscionably colluded with Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to criminally rig Election 2012 cannot be gainsaid.

Now, it is up to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the New Patriotic Party to boldly and frankly conduct Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe out of its fold and into the sunsplashed nirvana of political tolerance that he claims to be the hallmark of the Rawlings-minted National Democratic Congress. You see, you don’t want these forensically provable outsiders to be smugly telling the rest of us where the current pulse and center of party leadership ought to be located. That is simply not a salient characteristic of an authentic team player.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: Zip It, Segbefia! – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The decision by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to organize and host a forum geared towards finding lasting and constructive solutions to the electoral snags occasioned by the use of biometric voting machines, is a salutary intellectual exercise that could not have come at a more opportune moment (See “Alex Segbefia Cautions IEA Over ‘Contemptuous’ Forum To Review Electoral System” Modernghana.com 6/28/13).

It is not as if the key operatives of the IEA have been going around insisting on only one form of an acceptable verdict, as President John Dramani Mahama has been widely reported to be doing. And so it is not clear precisely what he means, when Mr. Alexander Segbefia cautions the think-tankers of the IEA about their risk of judicial contempt if they decide to go ahead with their forum, even while the unnecessarily snail-paced Atuguba-presided Supreme Court hearing of the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party (NPP) Election 2012 presidential petition direly threatens to virtually halt any progressive discourse on how to run a legitimate constitutionally democratic political culture in the country.

You see, cynics like the former deputy chief of staff of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills are deathly afraid that most Ghanaians are enlightened enough to fully appreciate the fact that the Supreme Court exists fundamentally to interpret laws that are already on the books, or in operation, as it were, rather than legislate for Ghanaian citizens how to determine the details of the kind of constitutional democracy they deem to be the most progressive and efficient.

Maybe what political miscreants like Mr. Segbefia ought to be doing is advising Justice William Atuguba to stop playing Minister of the Interior or the Inspector General of Police by indiscriminately and erratically rounding up any citizens who appear to be aptly impatient with his indisputably amateurish handling of the Election 2012 petition hearings.

Significantly, Mr. Segbefia appears to be in wholehearted agreement with the IEA forum on the country’s new-found biometric electoral protocol. His only qualm is that such forum or workshop be delayed until the Atuguba Court has handed down its decision on the Election 2012 petition.

Well, maybe those politically comfortable Ghanaians with Mr. Segbefia’s mindset ought to be reminded of the fact that the well-being and destiny of the country are far more important than the unduly drawn out deliberations of the Atuguba Court. Come on, let the forum go on!!!

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Feature: To obey is still better than sacrifice Part I – By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

The writer, Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

Clearly, there is much shouting of “Halleluia” all over the place. Unfortunately, doing so doesn’t necessarily ensure or confirm piety.

All over the world, politicians do all they can to draw support from diverse constituencies, especially the religious community. So is it in Ghana too. However, the impact of any support from the religious community is felt on Election Day, not after it. Whether the religious community can help a politician win power or not doesn’t come after the fact. Not so in Ghana for Akufo-Addo and his NPP.

I continue to marvel at the extent to which the NPP is desperately fixated on exploiting religious fervour in pursuit of its political aspirations, especially at a time that its sad fate at Election 2012 has already been sealed and President Mahama continues to consolidate his hold on power.

The news is that a “blood sacrifice” has been done for its Akufo-Addo and prayers offered to God to help him win the Election 2012 Petition now before the Supreme Court so that he can become Ghana’s President.

According to the report on the ceremony, Mallam Olu led the prayers at the Nasariyya Mosque at Aboabo Number Two in Kumasi, which were “intermittently laced with recital of the Holy Qur’an”. Then, a fat sheep (should it not have been a RAM instead?) was slaughtered at the forecourt of the mosque and the meat distributed to the people to thank Allah for His mercy.

The event was sponsored by Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, a leading member of NPP. We are told that Nana Antwi, the defeated NPP parliamentary candidate for Asawase, and other influential officials in the Ashanti Region graced the occasion. So also did ardent NPP members at Asawase and other parts of Kumasi.

There we go, folks. The odd admixture of religion and politics is in full view. And a “blood sacrifice” to confirm it! The big picture is clear: exploitation of Muslim religious fervour on this occasion, which worries me—and must worry all others too—for what it portends. Is someone cunningly exploiting religion to set up a time-bomb?

My study of “Qur’anic Hermeneutics” and the “Hadiths/Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad” in courses on “Religious Studies” in my undergraduate studies at the University of Cape Coast taught me a lot to admire about Islam.

No wonder, in a national essay competition conducted by the Iranian Embassy in Ghana in 1998, I won the third prize, which amazed the organizers because I was a Christian, not a Muslim to persuade them in my essay on “The significance of the Hajj”.

I have just blown my own horn to launch my examination of why I consider the exploitation of the religious fervour of the Muslim community for petty political jingoism is not only dangerous but is also an extreme instance of desperation on the part of Akufo-Addo. By this statement, I don’t mean to suggest that it is only Muslims who can be exploited to this extent; but I have a good cause for zeroing in on this area, considering what I have noticed unfolding.

I know much about Islam and its underpinnings as far as its precepts, injunctions, and prohibitions concerning the totality of human existence are concerned.

I know also that when unsuspecting religious zealots become politically proselytized, they constitute a huge burden for the system. If you doubt my claim, look no further than the involvement of the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria in politics.

Of course, we acknowledge the fact that in politics, numbers count; and any politician who has eyes to see and ears to hear what is doing the rounds will snatch at any opportunity to snuggle to potential voters.

We also acknowledge the strategy used by the NPP in its outreach programme to capitalize on the religious fervour of the people. That was why the party’s leaders spread their tentacles far to reach the two main religious communities in Ghana—Christian and Muslim.

At a larger level, narrowing this outreach to the Christian and Muslim segments of the Ghanaian populace and exploiting their religious fervour this way has its disadvantages, probably one of which might have influenced heavily the electoral decision made by voters not subscribing to Christianity or Islam.

In all their outreach efforts, the Akufo-Addo camp has been silent on how to deal with adherents of the African Traditional religions that constitute a huge chunk of the Ghanaian citizenry. Whether they reach out to them “Nicodemously” or not can’t be confirmed; but the obvious silence on how the NPP relates to such elements can’t be missed.

Are they saying that they don’t need the electoral advantage from these African Traditional religionists? Why are they also not the focus of their attention?

You see, because they have skewed their outreach efforts to sideline those sections of the religious community, they can’t appeal to their conscience for votes. And in democracy, numbers count. So, there is a dark side to all that has been happening; and the NPP is paying a big price at that front. Any doubt?

Indeed, as I have said several times and will continue to say, God is not in the habit of coming down from the heavens to help men solve their problems of existence. He has already endowed us with the faculty to know how to handle our affairs and live our lives before we account for our stewardship when he calls us unto himself.

That is why it is important to know that physical problems must be solved physically and spiritual ones, spiritually. The general elections are not spiritual problems. They are physical issues. Prayers are good for whatever they are but it takes more than mere prayers to win general elections. What is happening now (after the elections have been held and the results declared) is misplaced. The time for prayers is long gone, if anything at all.

More importantly, if prayers can redeem Akufo-Addo, why is he in London to have a “routine medical check-up” instead of sitting back in Ghana to be prayed for or to pray for himself to know what is happening in his system? His is a physical problem, which is why he has dashed off to see his doctor in London; not so? If prayers were enough to tackle such a physical problem, why hasn’t he sat back to pray for relief?

Voting is a physical act, not a spiritual one to warrant this flight into the transcendental. So is it with the election petition that he has placed in the dark chambers of the Supreme Court.

That problem is a physical problem, which no amount of wailing, gnashing of teeth, sacrificing of all manner of animals, or dipping into the River Jordan can solve (with particular reference to Naman’s experience with Prophet Elijah). No amount of howling day and night at prayer-and-fasting sessions can solve that problem.

It is only the physical element (EVIDENCE/FACTS) to be adduced that can determine how the pendulum swings at the end of the Supreme Court’s work. Why then will anybody remain fixated on all these shows of religious fervour?

Indeed, blood sacrifice—or any sacrifice of anything at all to the Supreme Deity or any other spiritual entity—has its implications. It is a ritual that may make or mar one’s aspirations. If you doubt it, read about Cain and Abel and you will realize that in our time, the Cains outnumber the Abels.

What I see happening in the Akufo-Addo camp is nothing but an attempt to force God to undo what he has already done and blessed. Somebody is testing God’s patience and has to beware of the wrath of God!!

More importantly, exploiting the religious sentiments of unwitting people this way is dangerous for the country. Ghana is an oasis of peace and stability in a sub-region of political turmoil and should remain so. That is why I advise the youths, especially, to shy away from politicians desperately seeking their support to achieve their morbid political objectives.

General elections are cyclical and one should adopt the attitude that will not foreclose anything but ensure that a loss in one doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road. Election 2012 is gone, making room for Election 2016 and beyond. The loss of one animal in the forest doesn’t mean the death of all other animals there.

Those who refuse to accept the fate that Election 2012 wrought for them and are running around in circles—trying to turn every stone to use in challenging reality—are doing nothing but digging their own graves. And we shall help them lie therein.

I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: President Mahama Is In Contempt Of The Supreme Court – Argues Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Now we know exactly what he means, when Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama asserts that he will abide by any verdict delivered by the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court hearing the Election 2012 petition brought before it by last December’s presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

As Mr. Samuel Okudzeto, the distinguished former president of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) carpingly observed recently, it is disturbingly clear that Mr. Mahama is hell-bent on contemptuously prejudicing the Supreme Court’s petition hearings in his favor (See “Okudzeto Jabs Mahama Over Election Victory Comment” Radioxyzonline.com/ Ghanaweb.com 6/13/13).

Indeed, President Mahama cannot pretend not to appreciate the rather tired judicial terminology of “Sub-Judice,” or the imperative citizenship obligation not to publicly comment on any controversial case being deliberated upon by any legitimately constituted court of the land. And so we all know now that Mr. Mahama is both a compulsive and a congenital liar who ought not to be ruling our country. And this is precisely the sort of consternation so poignantly, albeit curiously diplomatically, expressed by Mr. Okudzeto, when the veteran statesman and former GBA president regretfully noted that the frenziedly embattled Mr. Mahama ought not to have moved so drastically away from his earlier “noble” public assurance that “he would abide by whatever verdict the [Supreme] Court reaches.”

We have decided to let the Ghanaian electorate and the citizenry at large decide on the “noble” dimension of the attitude taken by Mr. Mahama towards the ongoing Election 2012 presidential petition hearings. And, of course, on the latter score must be promptly recalled the fact that during festivities marking the 21st anniversary of the mischievously suave morphing of the erstwhile Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) into the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Mahama was widely reported to have declared to party members, supporters and sympathizers as follows: “Our victory was won cleanly and fairly…. Justice will be served and cannot come to any other conclusion than acknowledging the very transparent, free and fair victory that we won at the elections [polls?].”

That the preceding quote is the kind of rhetorical belligerence that provoked such apocalyptic infernos as Rwanda, Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone can hardly be gainsaid. As well, Mr. Mahama’s pronouncement seriously undermines the integrity of Ghana’s judicial system, and one fervidly hopes that the operatives of the International Criminal Court (ICC)are paying sedulous attention.

Needless to say, it is this kind of entrenched intolerance that makes the National Democratic Congress immitigably and inexcusably dangerous and inimical to the salutary development of Ghanaian democracy. There is, however, one positive corollary to this patently intemperate and bratty tantrum expressed by President Mahama; and it is the fact that his grossly contradictory and entrenched position, vis-a-vis the Election 2012 petition hearings, puts his political opponents under no bounden obligation, whatsoever, to accept an unfavorable decision by the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Analysis:Justice Atuguba here, contempt of court there – By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

The writer, Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

As is to be expected, the NPP’s machinery of calumny and intimidation is running at full throttle, churning out lies, pure hatred, and concentrated chaff against Justice William Atuguba, the president of the 9-member panel of Supreme Court judges hearing the NPP’s petition regarding Election 2012.

We are aware of the brains behind this campaign and have read opinion pieces and comments in several forums to that effect. The latest one is from a Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare (popularly known on Ghanaweb’s SIL as “Kwaku Azar). (See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=276871)

His opinion piece, entitled “The Justice of Intimidation,” clearly epitomizes the mindset of the anti-Atuguba elements in the ranks of the NPP. The basis of this Atuguba-loathing is the misperception that he is “biased” in his conduct of affairs at the ongoing petition hearing.

Such opinion pieces and comments against Justice Atuguba and others on the panel clearly confirm the demonstrable insidious nature of these NPP characters. I laugh them to scorn and reassure them that their vain words of intimidation are like mere water that will drip off Justice Atuguba’s body as soon as splashed. It won’t stick!! Nor will it help reverse their sad electoral fate. What is written is written.
In fact, I blame the Supreme Court judges themselves for what is happening. They failed to establish firm control over the matter right at the very beginning and left the floodgates open for all manner of sludge to run through into the public sphere to infest public opinion about their integrity and work.

They could have set the tone for public interest in their work had they been long-sighted enough to see the drift of the matter before them. They could have foreseen the degree to which public discourse concerning this petition would go and could have known how to control it so that their integrity and manner of handling the case won’t be impugned.

Unfortunately, they didn’t. They appeared not to know that the high public interest in the matter would reach a point when those desperately fighting to win political power in the chambers of the court and not in the polling booths would not hesitate to isolate them for calumny at the least prompting.
Justice Atuguba and his co-panelists failed to stamp their authority on the case right at the beginning and are now suffering the scourge of personal attacks.

Knowing full well how desperate and determined the petitioners and their followers are to use the Supreme Court to advantage, it was only commonsensical that the judges would enforce measures to curtail wanton public discussion of the matter once it had been lodged before them for adjudication. Such discussions have virtually become the means for poisoning public opinion.

In press law, the ubiquitous monster called “sub judice” scares all journalists because once a matter is before court, it becomes an instance of contempt of court for anybody to comment on it in the open, especially in writing. Anybody who flouts this press law knows what awaits him/her.

Thus, there exists an inherent constraint that the Supreme Court judges could have invoked to stop public discussion of the petition; but they failed to do so. The consequence is what now prevails with anybody—just anybody at all, but mostly those in the camp of the NPP—saying anything at all about the case and calumniating the judges, especially those seen as “biased” just because of their interventions during proceedings (which the NPP followers consider to be against their interests).

We have been given too much to know about the damage being done to the integrity of those judges, especially Justice William Atuguba, Presiding Judge of the nine-member panel.

Some flashback. When the petitioners’ legal team protested against the constitution of the panel, speculation was rife that their main target was Justice Atuguba whom they perceived as sympathetic to President Mahama and the NDC, apparently because his nephew (Dr. Raymond Atuguba) had been appointed by President Mahama as his Executive Secretary. So, the issue of blood ties quickly became the catalyst for the anti-Atuguba agitation right from scratch. Commonsense prevailed for the legal team to eat back their own vomit, although the cloud of suspicion that they created didn’t disperse or evaporate.

The dynamics of the proceedings have revealed that the suspicion against Justice Atuguba has festered, calcified, and metamorphosed into hatred and a strong determination to paint him black. Of course, as the President of the panel of judges, Justice Atuguba has been prominent in controlling the ebb-and-flow of the proceedings.

His stern warnings are evident, especially at times when the line of questioning by counsel fell out of control. He did so to Tsatsu Tsikata and Tony Lithur at several times when Dr. Bawumia was being cross-examined. Even then, his detractors felt he was “pampering” Tsatsu and Lithur.

Then comes in Philip Addison. Justice Atuguba’s stern order to him to “shut up” and to know that the Bench would not budge to the whims and caprices of the Bar seemed to have triggered this loathing and pointing of gossipping fingers at him. Of course, he has explained that the Bench would not take instructions from Addison and acted strongly to confirm that stance. Is that a crime for which he should be on the NPP followers’ lips for the wrong cause? I don’t think so.

That is why I strongly condemn these NPP people busily bad-mouthing him as “biased” and setting him up for needless public contempt.

The truth, however, is that it will take more than a mere condemnation for them to end their treachery, chicanery, and trickery. Now that they have set their machine of calumny in motion, they will not readily stop insulting, threatening, and impugning the integrity of Justice Atuguba (or any other member of the panel that they perceive as sympathizing with the respondents).

They have a sinister objective and are using this mechanism to create the condition for implementing their grand agenda of refusing to accept the verdict of the court when it goes against them. And that verdict will definitely go against them because they have not adduced any convincing evidence to support their allegations. They know it themselves but will dig in and pretend that they still have a water-tight petition with which to win the case. Such characters!!

There are several reasons why they will intensify their campaign of Atuguba-loathing. First, it is the foundation of their grand agenda of manipulating public opinion regarding their petition. They have a sinister plan to approach the petition hearing with only one mindset—a win-win scenario (to win it at all cost just as they did for Election 2012 only to be torn apart).

This mindset has no room for any confutation. That is why they have shifted attention from the real substance of the proceedings in terms of EVIDENCE to support their allegations to personalizing issues. Relying on their hearts (sentiments/emotions) and not their heads (reason—as will be supported by facts and evidence) is the main weapon of choice to prosecute that agenda. What we see coming from them is in conformity with the tenets of that sinister agenda.

Second, they need to sustain that campaign and can do so only through emotions. That is why they have been quick to raise issues concerning ethnicity, particularly in the case of Justice Atuguba, to say that because he is a Northerner, he will toe President Mahama’s line.

That is also why they have begun spreading rumours that a group of chiefs from Northern Ghana have visited him to impress on him the need to use his position on the panel to retain president Mahama in office at the end of the petition hearing.

Worse still, they have deployed all their propaganda arsenal to intensify their campaign of lies, vituperation, and vilification just to sustain the climate of hatred for Justice Atuguba. Within the context of such vain propaganda stunts, it is obvious that the tension will not lessen; but in the end, all their anti-Atuguba campaign will amount to naught.

I want to say at this juncture that the negative attitude being displayed toward Justice Atuguba isn’t unexpected or anything out-of-the-way. It is an integral part of their “book politics,” traceable to their very roots in the pre-independence and immediate post-independence era. Their forebears did all they could to damage Dr. Nkrumah’s political interests in those days but suffered the negative backlash when he turned the heat on them. Were their Danquah and Busia to resurrect today to tell them their experiences, they would learn how not to inflate themselves too much and risk bursting.

What is happening now won’t twist anybody’s arms to suit their political agenda. The Supreme Court judges hearing their petition are Ghanaians with a vested interest in their own lives, career, and posterity. They are clearly aware of the enormity of the responsibility imposed on them to dispose of this petition and will be advised to act and perform their functions as constitutionally mandated. I am confident that they know the difference between narrow, selfish, and parochial political interests, on the one hand, and the wider national collective interests verging on peace, tranquility and stability to sustain Ghana, on the other hand. They will do themselves and the country a world of good if they listen to reason.

The basis for any judgement to be made by them is expected to be formed by nothing but FACTS (evidence to be adduced) and not personal or partisan political considerations. Of course, they are political and social animals too; they voted at Election 2012 and know deep down their hearts and minds whom their preferred candidates were. But we are long past that stage.

In the end, the totality of ballots proved who won the Presidential elections. The evidence was clearly established at the polls and the votes counted and announced in the open for voters at each polling station to know who won and who lost.

Basing arguments on errors in entries on pink sheets, bulldozing one’s way through the judicial labyrinth, and gearing up to gore any member of the panel misperceived as supporting President Mahama and the NDC won’t change the will of the electorate. That is why all these agitations against Justice Atuguba are pointless. Those deceiving themselves that they can intimidate him with such misplaced venom will be dealt with if they overstep bounds.

That is why I urge the panel of judges to sit up and invoke all the powers at their disposal to clamp down on the wanton open discussion of the case that is already before them. The principle of “sub judice” isn’t dead and must be enforced. It is high time some of those loud-mouthed elements spreading falsehood and casting insinuations about the court case, the Supreme Court itself, and the panel of judges were brought to book under the aegis of “contempt of court.” Once somebody is dealt with and punished as such, it will deter all others from pursuing that cause of calumny.

Until the judges do so, they will continue to be the butt of what the anti-Atuguba elements in the NPP have set in motion. The time to crack the whip may be long gone, but the judges shouldn’t continue to look on bemused when their integrity is dragged in the mud. Can these judges help enforce their own laws, especially that concerning contempt of court? We wait to see.

I shall return.
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: Too Stupid For Addison, Maybe – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I am actually beginning to like this pathetic cognitive basket-case called Johnson Asiedu-Nketia. In the latest of his characteristic comedic bouts, the general-secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) claims that he lasted only one day in the witness-box with Mr. Philip Addison, counsel for Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP petitioners, because so superbly had the garrulous NDC chief-scribe performed that Mr. Addison had almost immediately hit a brick wall in his cross-examination of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia (See “I Was Too Hot For Addison To Handle In Court” JoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 6/7/13).

Of course, the facile assumption here is that the longer a witness lasts in the witness-box, the less difficult it must have been for the cross-examining counsel of the opposing party. Nothing could be farther from the truth. For in reality, the diametrically opposite is often the case; for instance, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the second petitioner and star-witness of the Election 2012 petitioners, spent about two weeks in the witness-box because the Oxbridge-educated and internationally renowned economist clearly appears to have been a rather too tough a nut for Mr. Tsatsu “The Thief” Tsikata to crack.

And to be certain, so frustrating had the former Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ghana made matters for the NDC respondents that even Justice William Atuguba, a well-known ideological partisan of the National Democratic Congress, could not help but impatiently complain that Dr. Bawumia was making matters too hectic for the NDC legal wiz-kid by his deliberately convoluted answers to questions repeatedly posed him by the first convicted felon in postcolonial Ghanaian history to practice law before the country’s august Supreme Court.

In the case of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, the petitioners’ attorney managed to readily stump him in a classical perjury fashion within a couple of hours of the NDC scribe’s mounting the witness-box. And this was done in the most fundamental manner, by simply replaying the digitized recorded voice of the obstreperously talkative Mr. Asiedu-Nketia to the witness, who almost immediately contradicted himself and effectively mangled his own credibility by sheepishly confessing to the same.

At any rate, two legally grievous incidents have occurred against the balance sheets of the respondents which Mr. Asiedu-Nketia and his supporters ought to be feverishly worrying themselves about. And this is, of course, the fact that both the NDC scribe and Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Ghana’s Electoral Commissioner, perjured themselves on the witness stand. In other words, both the second and third respondents took a solemn oath to tell the truth, and nothing but the unvarnished truth, and then like the congenital and pathological liars that they well appear to be, went right ahead and did exactly what they had sworn not to do!

In any democratically functional and robust and civilized political culture, both Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Asiedu-Nketia would be facing stiff and long prison jail terms. In Ghana, where high court judges have been summarily abducted and savagely assassinated, Mafia-style, under the cover of darkness on purely ethnic and ideological grounds by a government pontifically claiming to be about the laudable business of “probity and accountability,” the judicial sanction for perjury quizzically appears to be one of simply having brazen perjurers like Mr. Asiedu-Nketia thumb their noses at the Supreme Court.

Is this the Ghana in which I was born and raised? What a country “in which we live in it,” Uncle Atukwei!

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: Asiedu-Nketia Wins One For NPP! – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Finally, the truth must have begun to sink in, with both Messrs. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia and John Dramani Mahama desperately attempting to wriggle themselves out of traps which they mischievously set for their ideological nemeses and political opponents (See “I Stand By The Citi-Fm Interview – Asiedu-Nketia” Ghana News Agency (GNA)/ Ghanaweb.com 5/30/13).

I intend to deal with Mr. Mahama’s vehement denial that, indeed, he deliberately colluded with Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to rig Election 2012 in a separate article.

Anyway, in the aforesaid interview granted Citi-Fm Radio by the general-secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and poignantly captured in the caption of this article, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia categorically called for the summary annulment of the results of any polling stations whose presiding officers were confirmed to have permitted voters to cast their ballots without biometric verification.

Interestingly, when he pompously and pontifically mounted the witness-box barely a week ago, the gaunt personality affectionately nicknamed “General Mosquito” vehemently insisted to the Atuguba-presided court hearing the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party (NPP) Election 2012 presidential petition that, in fact, absolutely no voting had been allowed at any polling station in the country without biometric verification.

In laity terms, the preceding is called a factual contradiction. In other words, it is logically incongruous for the NDC general-secretary to, on the one hand, call for the summary annulment of the polling results of any polling station where voting was allowed to proceed without biometric verification by polling officials and then, on the other hand, assert imperiously from the witness-box in the Atuguba-presided court to Mr. Philip Addison, counsel for the petitioners, that he, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, has absolutely no knowledge about the penalty exacted for biometrically unverified voting. In legal and judicial parlance, such deliberate and willful testimonial contradiction is called PERJURY.

Looked at another way, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia swore an oath to tell the Atuguba Court nothing but the unvarnished truth, “so help me God,” and then criminally violated his oath by lying before officers of the highest court of the land. In most civilized democratic national cultures, PERJURY is a felony punishable by a prison sentence or jail term. It is not clear whether, in fact, the NDC general-secretary fully appreciates the significance of the crime which he just committed before the highest court of the land.

At any rate, whether he willfully or inadvertently perjured himself is beside the point. For, as the age-old maxim goes: “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”; more so when one is a prominent political figure like Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, and also President John Dramani Mahama, of course!

I am indescribably elated that finally, the petitioners are fast homing in by using the humongous corpus of unguarded media testimony of the respondents against the latter, as I had on occasion admonished several times in the recent past. What Mr. Addison so deftly succeeded in doing with the incontrovertible media testimony of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia’s is called a JUDICIAL-JUJITSU, that is, letting the unconscionable prevaricator literally stew in his own brine.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: Ben Ephson Is Just A Shameless Mischief-Maker – argues Kwame-Okoampa Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

He pontifically calls himself a pollster par-excellence; but even as former President Jerry John Rawlings had occasion to bitterly complain recently, there is a piddling little about Mr. Ben Ephson’s so-called periodic polling that is credible or could be said to be worthy of our attention and moral consideration.

In the latest of such mischief, the NDC-sponsored media hack claims, rather funnily, that most of the members and supporters of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have lost faith and confidence in the merit of the Election 2012 petition hearing before the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court (See “NPP Supporters Losing Faith In Election Petition – Ben Ephson” Radioxyzonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 5/31/13).

The first problem here is that Mr. Ephson does not tell his audience precisely how his polling was conducted, and the profiles of the subjects of his polling. For instance, how many respondents were polled, spread over how many regions of the country? What were the professional, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, as well as the gender description and/or orientation of those polled? And what kinds of questions were these respondents posed?

Of course, we also know that Mr. Ephson has absolutely no credible professional training in polling; and so all that one can logically conclude here is that maybe he just got a stipend and/or salary increase from his paymasters and decided to go to bat for them, by peddling such patent hot air. Needless to say, any discerning individual who has been studiously watching the Ghanaian political scene ought to be fully aware, by now, of the rank disaffection of an overwhelming majority of Ghanaian citizens for the Mahama government and, indeed, the decidedly outmoded pseudo-socialist policies of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC).

But even far more significant ought to be pointed out the fact that the Election 2012 petition is definitely not about whether anybody thinks or believes that the Akufo-Addo Revolution has merit. The latter has already been eloquently affirmed by the decision of the Supreme Court to hear the petition and make a critically considered pronouncement on the same. And so, really, other than seeking to make an abject nuisance of himself, it is not clear what Mr. Ephson is talking about.

And when he names Mr. Kwame Pianim, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe and that insufferably obnoxious odd-ball and butterball who virtually ran the Volta River Authority aground, as well as criminally pocketing at least half of the funding for the Ghana@50 independence anniversary celebration, as “hardcore supporters” of the NPP, one immediately begins to wonder whether it is not about time that Mr. Ephson checked himself into a mental asylum or seek psychiatric reevaluation and rehabilitation.

What I am increasingly beginning to admire about the man, though, is the fact that Mr. Ephson appears to be an indefatigable propagandist who takes himself and his politically-inflected opinions far more seriously than he obviously ought to.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com