To many of our citizenry, this feature article may sound as sour grapes because ‘one’ candidate did not ‘win’ the 2012 Presidential election. Any person who has this line of thought has an inalienable right to disagree or agree with me. This is how democracy works. We have to go along with the majority of Ghanaians on President John Mahama’s ‘stolen’ CROWN. He is our president elect barring any hitches.
Snippets of information that came out of the meeting between the Peace Council, the Electoral Commission, NDC and NPP pointed and affirmed to the fact that figures from some parts of the country had been inflated by some NDC party apparatchiks. (It should be pointed out that there are very many decent members of NDC still around). The electoral commission and the peace council agreed that the complainant, in this case the New Patriotic Party had a strong case thanks to Lawyers Adjoa Sarfo and Ursula Owusu. I know the Supreme Court, in the best interest of Ghana would dismiss NPP’s application because it will jeopardize the stability of our country, which is paramount in any situation under any circumstances.
BUT, this is our take or analysis on the conduct of this 2012 election: On Multitv that was telecast live on December 9, 2012, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Alex Segbefia admitted that inflating election figures or ‘massaging’ are done by all political parties of which Dr. Kobbina Arthur Kennedy flatly rejected this assertion that the NPP had and will never undertake such abominable act. To add insult to injury, Mr. Ade Cocker, who believes that all Ghanaians are idiots, affirmed that over 15000 votes intended to be added to Dome-Kwabenya constituency for the president and their parliamentary candidate was a human error
Some Ghanaians especially our NDC brothers and sisters may think that this is a non-issue so we should get over it and sweep it under the carpet. But wait, we have countries in Africa where due to ‘stolen’ or doctored elections, the very citizenry do not care about patriotism and a country that loses its patriotic gene will be on a path to destruction. Countries like Cameroun, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and even Angola have what it takes to develop but because of stifled democracy these countries are reeling and poverty levels are startling. Cameroun has more oil than Ghana, timber, Cocoa, Gold and other natural resources yet very poor. Because elections are always ‘stolen’ citizens of this country do not want to sacrifice and they always fight for their pound of flesh at the least opportunity. Some twenty –something years ago, Brazil was so poor but decided to pursue the path of genuine democracy. We are all living witness (es) to amazing developments that have taken place in Rio now. The reason why the West and parts of Asia are better than us is that they allow institutions to work and denounce cheating.
If it is proven that the president and the ruling party have ‘stolen’ this election, would we as a nation have the nerve to sanction a student who cheats at the examination hall or a Professor who conducts a sham research, or even falsify his research findings in Ghana? Our Civil Servants will have all the rights to undercut contract negotiations and all admissions committees in our tertiary institutions must not be queried for admitting the highest bidder to pursue certain privileged courses in our universities.
Pharmacists may decide to sell drugs or medicines to the highest bidder and we may not have the audacity to question fake doctors, fake midwives who deliver babies in our villages or drivers because cheating is now part of our national psyche and social fabric. If a little cheating is okay then Importers and Exporters can circumvent the clearing procedures in our country, grease some palms and make hay while the sun shines. It is a fair game because our honorable president also cheated a little. The highest take will be our engineers, by cheating a little, monies for road construction, bridges and highways will be shortchanged and road carnage will increase in Ghana. The next accident victim may be our relative or whoever knows. Hey, let the teachers, farmers also cheat and let the chemical sellers import all kinds of chemicals into our country because the end justifies the means bro. We may have to rejoice if masons decide to shortchange in the buildings we put up and if they crumble on us, it would be a fair game in Ghana and God Save us all.
Those who are going to benefit from this mess are the few party fraud architects. They are going to hold our president to ransom else he will be blackmailed and I hope you know who these guys are. He is going to be a pawn president like Mills and Hilla Limann and unfortunately, this decent man, President John Mahama will suffer incessant abuse and insults on our airwaves. Above all our Chinese friends and other multinational companies will fleece us because they will be the gateway to the West, because our almighty NDC will need them for global recognition. As for poor Ghanaians like our mums, family and friends, the BNI and other State Security apparatus will be ready to teach us a lesson or even crush us into submission
Oh our wonderful Ghana, the land of life and love, a little cheating will push us all into destruction or to quote the great book, to the bottomless pit. Cheating is never right and NEVER will it ever be. Let us not rejoice for POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. We rest our case dear Odikro, Naa, Nene and Togbe.
Ansah Owusu Koduah/Akuamoah Debrah Samuel
Denver, Colorado