Dan Botwe
He is a hardcore operative of the so-called National Democratic Congress’ Legal Team. But in the news story carrying his rather farcical argument against the proposed creation of at least 4 additional regions in the country, Mr. David Annan chooses to style himself as “a private legal practitioner” (See “Government Cannot Create New Regions Without Backing of Opposition – Lawyer” RadioGold905.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/23/17).
Maybe people like Mr. Annan and his cynical political associates need to be swiftly and promptly told that there is absolutely no way that they would be allowed to hold the development agenda of the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to ransom. The present government has the largest mandate of any democratically elected Fourth-Republican government, with the exception of the Rawlings-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which ruled the country from 1993 to 2001.
And it is on the basis of this solid mandate and the very progressive nod, or approval, afforded President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo by the Council-of-State, and the mandate that will be afforded the Akufo-Addo Administration by the citizens and people of the affected regions that will determine the question of whether these additional regions get to be created or not.
Mr. Annan may have conveniently forgotten that the copycat Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) also had the creation of additional regions as part of its Election 2016 manifesto. And so he had better explain to the nation precisely why the NDC operatives had included the creation of additional regions in their manifesto, if ex-President John Dramani Mahama had won reelection, knowing fully well, at least in the imagination of the NDC’s Legal Team member, that the real or certain possibility or likelihood of such an occurrence was decidedly a pipe-dream. It goes without saying that it is only the crass arrogance of Mr. Annan that makes him think and believe that the political relevance and significance of the opposition National Democratic Congress is much bigger or greater than the reality on the ground.
If the massively defeated National Democratic Congress wants to make itself relevant by progressively throwing its weight behind the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party, they are all the more welcome to the same. However, if, on the other hand, the key NDC operatives have “sabotage” enshrined as their first order of business, then they had better promptly prepare to celebrate or mourn the imminent demise of the Rawlings-created robber-baron political machine. Mr. Annan should also stop fatuously pretending as if he was the only Ghanaian qualified to practice law in the country, or the savviest or most genius constitutional expert in the country.
At the end of the day, he can blow all the steam that he wants, but it is those with the constitutional mandate to govern who are apt to make most of the far-reaching decisions vis-à-vis the destiny of the country for at least the next 3 years and 3 months.