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…

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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

Analysis: As the Supreme Court cracks the whip… Fear looms – By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

The writer, Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

My good friends, I am glad that the Supreme Court has begun exercising its powers to deal with those letting their tongues loose and crossing the line. We are all aware of how the Supreme Court has dealt with the NPP’s Sammy Awuku and we can tell from the circumstances that indeed a stream of very cold shiver went down Awuku’s spine. Of course, at this point, it is clear to him that “Man pass man!”

Though spared custodial punishment, his being banned from attending the Court’s proceedings is enough to clip his wings. He may be making some ugly noises of faint defiance at the political fringes; but he knows deep down him that a severe punishment awaits him if he falls out of step—or that “steel can cut steel” (“Dadie betwa dadie”).

One immediate fallout of the Supreme Court’s cracking the whip is that the NPP’s Chief Comedian (Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie) has also sensed danger and is declaring that the NPP functionaries will henceforth cease making defamatory utterances. He knows that he may be the next in line to be dragged before the Supreme Court and is trying to be smart.

The Supreme Court’s order for three others (the NDC’s Atubiga, Kweku Boahen and the Searchlight editor, Ken Kuranchie) to appear before it on July 2 has further confirmed that the Court is determined to go to any distance to clamp down on unsavoury comments being made here and there by just anybody who thinks that he has the forum to enjoy his so-called freedom of speech.

Even before July 2 dawns, those summonsed by the Court have begun quivering with fright. A member of the communications team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Stephen Atubiga, has rendered an unqualified apology to the Supreme Court and Ghanaians as a whole over comments he describes as “irresponsible”.

Speaking on TV3’s News 360 on Thursday, June 27, 2013, Mr Atubiga said he considers his action inappropriate and contemptuous of the court. “I apologise from the bottom of my heart,” he stated.
Ken Kuranchie may be attempting to come across as bold in asking that his summons should have been in a written form but he knows deep down what is already eating away his “heart.”

Why is he dancing himself lame before the actual dancing begins? The bell is tolling loud to instill fear; not so?

I suppose that the Supreme Court will take prompt steps to deal with anybody it considers as falling out of step as far as public comments on the hearing of the NPP’s petition is concerned. Good job!!
Some have, however, been quick to isolate Justice Atuguba for personal attacks, describing him as autocratic, dictatorial, or stifling freedom of expression; but the truth is that he is doing what is long overdue to ensure that public discourse on the proceedings at the court doesn’t catalyze needless tension to deepen antagonism along partisan political lines. Or to suggest that the judges are impartial, which in itself is dangerous because of its becoming the main cause of dissension and resistance for the party that loses the case.

I see nothing wrong with how Justice Atuguba and his team are handling the matter. They are not intimidating anybody but making sure that nobody abuses the process. What is wrong about that?
But some questions have arisen about how we should position ourselves as we comment on issues concerning the Court’s hearing of the petition in order not to be roped in too as culpable for committing “contempt of court”. I have nothing to fear and will continue to make my voice heard for as long as I know my limits.

Those appearing on the airwaves and other media and letting their tongues loose for mere political capital should blame themselves for being incontinent and imprudent in their language use and the angle from which they discuss issues. And they should brace themselves up for the Supreme Court’s summons.
I won’t be deterred by current happenings because I have been one of those ardently asking that the Supreme Court crack the whip; and it has begun doing so to my satisfaction and approbation. What should I fear when I wade into the matter? Why should I even be concerned? For as long as I know how to navigate the legal and political terrain, I will play it safe as I choose issues to comment on. That’s how to avoid the wrath of the Supreme Court.

Already, some have begun complaining that by its action, the Supreme Court is curtailing freedom of speech. This accusation is baseless and unwarranted. The Supreme Court is only ensuring discipline and restricting public pronouncements on a matter before it.

That is why those latching on to the fate of Sammy Awuku to indulge in their anti-Atuguba vicious campaign won’t turn my crank.

One of such people is a Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare (alias Kwaku Azar) who has come out to say that he has sent a petition to the Chief Justice concerning the Supreme Court’s action to stem wanton public comments on the NPP’s petition before it.

I have already commented elsewhere on this petition for all that it entails to suggest that the Supreme Court is right in moving forward to clamp down on the reckless public utterances regarding the case that it is sitting on. If it can’t take on people on the basis of “contempt of court,” what else can it do to prevent all manner of comments being made on a case that is “sub judice”?

The mere fact that the constitution guarantees freedom of speech doesn’t mean that the petition hearing should be prejudged by all manner of people rabble-rousing in the society for cheap political capital. If the Supreme Court cannot restrain people from judging the case at the bar of public opinion, what else should it do to ensure that the matter before it is not prejudiced and poisoned by those with loose tongues?

Of course, one can comment on a case after judgement has been given, not when the case is in the middle of being heard. I see this petition as part of the rabble-rousing anti-Atuguba campaign by those who feel uncomfortable by what the Supreme Court has begun doing.

In any event, it is the Supreme Court that is mandated to hear the case to its logical conclusion and give a ruling on it, based on whatever evidence/facts adduced before it by all the parties. What is currently going on in the public domain won’t serve any useful purpose but create conditions for tension and needless mayhem. The Supreme Court is right and should be left alone to do its work.

I shall return…
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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.
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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

New Advocates Join Global Effort to Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases

Former presidents of Guatemala and Chile and former PAHO director join forces with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to eliminate diseases of poverty

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 7, 2013 – Today, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network), a major initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, announced His Excellency, President Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen of Guatemala (1996-2000), His Excellency, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile (2000-2006) and former Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago as the organization’s newest Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Special Envoys. They will join the efforts of current NTD Special Envoy, His Excellency, President John A. Kufuor of the Republic of Ghana (2001-2009), who was appointed in April 2012. The collaboration was announced at a panel hosted by the Global Network and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to welcome the new NTD Special Envoys.

The new NTD Special Envoys will focus primarily on the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. President Arzú, President Lagos and Dr. Roses will provide the political voice and the technical expertise needed to reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal to control or eliminate the most common NTDs by 2020. The NTD Special Envoys will encourage endemic country government officials to prioritize the development and implementation of national plans of action for NTD treatment and control and to increase resource allocation toward these programs. Additionally, they will work with key G8/G20 countries, such as Brazil, Canada and Japan, to increase their support for the prevention and treatment of NTDs through expanded technical assistance and increased investments across the region.

“We are thrilled to expand our team of NTD Special Envoys,” said Dr. Neeraj Mistry, managing director of the Global Network. “President Kufuor’s efforts have paved the way for increased NTD bilateral engagement and advocacy. With President Arzú, President Lagos and Dr. Roses joining him, I am confident that we will see increased commitment towards global NTD control and elimination efforts—particularly among health ministers and policy makers in endemic countries.”

NTDs cause blindness, massive swelling in appendages and limbs, severe malnutrition and anemia. They are a leading cause of pregnancy complications among women and are a key source of poverty, reducing school attendance among children and worker productivity for adults. In the LAC region alone, 100 million people are currently infected with one or more NTD, most of whom live in impoverished, rural areas.

“NTDs disproportionately affect marginalized groups, such as indigenous populations and people living in isolated, rural areas,” said President Arzú. “I am honored to be a part of the Global Network’s special envoy team and the global effort to improve the lives of billions of people currently living in poverty.”

NTD control and elimination programs are some of the most cost-effective public health interventions available today. For a cost of approximately 50 cents per person, a packet of pills administered once a year can treat and protect against these diseases. Pharmaceutical companies donate most of the treatments and many programs use existing infrastructure, such as schools and community centers, to administer them.
“Addressing NTDs today is a highly cost-effective investment in the region’s future,” said President Lagos. “NTD treatment programs help increase school attendance, improve maternal and infant health and support economic development. Eliminating or controlling NTDs will accelerate existing efforts to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The LAC region already has made significant progress towards NTD control and elimination. While serving as the Director of PAHO, Dr. Roses set the stage for the passage of the resolution, “Elimination of Neglected Diseases and other Poverty-Related Infections,” which was adopted by all of the PAHO Member States in 2009. This critical call to action set the goal of eliminating 10 neglected infectious diseases and drastically reducing the burden of two others by the end of 2015.

“The LAC region is poised to become a leader in the global movement to control and eliminate NTDs,” said Dr. Roses. “We have already seen unprecedented collaboration across governments, the private sector and civil society groups through the London Declaration and the 2009 PAHO resolution. In my new role as NTD Special Envoy, I will ensure these efforts are carried forward until we meet our elimination goals.”

In 1996, former President Arzú signed a peace agreement that put an end to the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war. He is also credited with reducing crime rates, improving infrastructure, education, indigenous rights and health care in the country during his term. The dedication of former President Lagos has been instrumental to the economic, health care and educational development of Chile. Dr. Roses, a native of Argentina, recently concluded a widely successful two-term role (2003 to the beginning of 2013) as the Director of PAHO, the oldest international health organization and the regional office for the Americas of the WHO. Dr. Roses has shown a deep, unwavering commitment to achieving equity in the delivery of health care and has championed the cause of marginalized populations in the region who shoulder the greatest burden of disease.

For more information about today’s discussion and to learn more about the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, please visit http://www.globalnetwork.org.

About NTDs

NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that are the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest people. They blind, disable and disfigure their victims, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and disease. Research shows that treating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.

About Sabin Vaccine Institute

Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering caused by vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world’s most pervasive health challenges. Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate these diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments. For more information please visit http://www.sabin.org.

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

Ghanaian Politics: “A Renewed Sense of Potential”? Maybe! By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

I read Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama’s speech of the quoted title, presented at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and felt a dolorous sense of wistfulness (See the Opinions section of MyJoyOnline.com 5/26/13). I felt a palpable sense of wistfulness because the leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) expediently sought to shortchange the facts of history by rather mischievously describing Ghana’s first Prime Minister and President, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, as the “founder” of the erstwhile Gold Coast. The grim reality is that Mr. Mahama claims to be a remarkable historian in his own right.

His gaping failure, or even deliberate omission, to mention at least a couple of the Founding Fathers, and Mothers, of Ghana readily informed me that as a nation, we have a pretty long way to go, let alone to speak of a continent fervidly in search and in need of organic unification. The fact of the matter is that inasmuch as he is incontrovertibly regarded as a standout, or even foremost, among the ranks of the legendary and immortalized BIG SIX, Kwame Nkrumah is not the “founder” of Ghana in much the same way that Gen. George Washington is not the founder of the United States of America.

And until our leaders soberly come to terms with this objective and plain fact, the vigorous push towards African unification is unavoidably bound to be arduous and rancorous. I make the foregoing observation because recently, a young and apparently cynical reader of my columns wrote to demand why none of the African leaders celebrating the golden jubilee of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, had been heard to mention the name of Dr. J. B. Danquah, Ghana’s foremost constitutional lawyer and thinker of his generation and a fierce fighter for democratic governance.

Well, I don’t know that many staunch supporters of African Unification recognize the inescapable fact that without the democratic rule of law and order, the noble dream of a United Africa will continue to be a pipe dream. This is where the lofty democratic ideals of Drs. Danquah and Busia and Mr. Dombo come to the fore. In other words, it is absolutely nothing short of the unpardonably insulting for Ghana’s President Mahama to cavalierly presume to take for granted the high moral stance taken and hard fought by the putative Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics to ensure that Ghana became the virtually unique and/or exemplary bastion of democratic culture and governance that leaders like Mr. Mahama proudly brag about today.

In the main, and predictably, Mr. Mahama’s Addis Ababa speech was fraught with platitudes. But it was his allusive and brief concluding paragraphs that piqued my attention and interest the most. In concluding his speech, this is what the electorally embattled Ghanaian president had to recall: “At that first African summit [in 1963] in Addis Ababa, Emperor Haile Selassie said[,] ‘May this convention of union last 1,000 years.’ With the renewed sense of potential on the African continent, indeed, it shall.”

It is not clear exactly how Mr. Mahama appreciates this memorable quote from Emperor Haile Selassie; but it clearly could be interpreted in two distinctive ways: Either the Ethiopian monarch meant to say that the annual talk-shopping festivities of the erstwhile Organization of African Unity were apt to last a thousand years, or that an organically and politically united African federation was being wished a millennial span of existence.

Linguistically speaking, the first interpretation, as logically superficial as it may seem, was clearly what Emperor Selassie meant. Indeed, had he meant the second interpretation, the Ethiopian potentate would have worded his speech the following way: “May this [present] covention [or gathering] lead us to 1,000 years of continental African unity.

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