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Diasporia News of Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Source: North America Coordinating Council of NDC (NACC-NDC)

North America NDC Accuses NPP Of Bad Faith On ROPAA

We of the NORTH AMERICA NDC are closely monitoring the machination of NPP and its acolytes in the matter of a lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of three Ghanaians in the Diaspora in a Kumasi High Court on May 8 seeking an order to compel the Electoral Commission to implement ROPAA to enable them vote in the December 2008 election. We are aware of the fact that the real concerns of Ghanaians in the Diaspora today is the energy crisis, water shortage and the insensitivity of the Kufuor administration in the face of widespread hardships. This lawsuit filed in Kumasi is therefore both reckless and ill conceived

The antecedents of the three plaintiffs are interesting. Not only are they dye-in the wool members of the NPP, they have in the past been used as lackeys in the service of President Kufuor and henchmen. At the height of the debate on whether or not to pass the ROPAB, these three gentlemen were hired to canvass support for the Bill in the Diaspora; setting up a group they claimed was representative of the interests of all Ghanaians in the Diaspora. In truth they pursued their own parochial interests and hidden agendas.

It is a matter of interest that the three gentlemen filed their lawsuit in no other place than in Kumasi , the political stronghold of the NPP. We can only conjecture that this is in keeping with the ethnic outlook of the NPP. Of course we do not presume to have the right to tell the three gentlemen where to file a lawsuit. However, considering the widespread perception among Ghanaians that the NPP is engaged in ethnocentric politics, the last thing one would have expected was for the party to encourage the three gentlemen who are bona fide members to file the lawsuit in Kumasi . The NPP is pushing our dear country deeper and deeper into the abyss of ethnic politics and unnecessary political confusion and this is what makes the lawsuit reckless.

It is ill conceived because it seeks to stampede the EC into taking action on a law whose implementation requires thoughtful and careful planning as well as serious consultations with all political parties. Sometime ago President Kufuor sought to reassure the nation that the timing and execution of ROPAA was up to the EC. Apparently, and not for the first time, he did not mean what he said, and now him and his party and are hiding behind Kofi Boateng and acolytes to put undue pressure on the EC to implement ROPAA. If the NPP sees ROPAA as part of its grand design to rig the 2008 elections then it should think again. They will not get away the way Kufuor?s bosom friend and mentor President Obasanjo has done in Nigeria .

We further recall with distaste the apparent coordinated move by the minister for information, Kwamena Bartels in announcing that the government is ready to fund the implementation of ROPAA- the same government that claims there is no money to improve salaries of doctors, nurses, teachers and other categories of Ghanaian workers a number of whom have been on strike lately.

Several well meaning Ghanaians have stated time and again that any attempt to implement ROPAA without considering the full ramifications will only lead to tension and political instability which Ghana does not need at this time. NDC flag bearer Prof Atta Mills and other opposition figures have also made this point time without tell but the Kufuor government appears impervious to reason. The NPP must take note that Ghanaians will fiercely resist plans by the NPP to manipulate the outcome of the Dec 2008 elections whether through ROPAA or any other means.

We of the NDC in North America see any hurried attempts at implementation of ROPAA during the 2008 general elections as gravely endangering the credibility of the electoral process in Ghana . The fact that pertinent pre-requisites have not been resolved with the active involvement of all participating political parties cannot be over-emphasized. For example, issues regarding qualification of voters living abroad, where and how polling centers outside Ghana will be chosen.

We of the NACC of NDC are of the view that the NPP?s failure to have alternative sources of energy ready to supplement the Akosombo dam in the event of a drought is grievous and inexcusable. Indeed the inaction of the NPP government has caused Ghana great financial loss, given the examples of how previous governments have laid the foundation to come up with alternatives and the fact that the technology for such alternatives is currently more advanced than ever before.

We call on the NPP government and its hirelings to desist from using ROPAA to foster malicious divisiveness on our motherland, Ghana .