30th August, 2013

Yesterday, our Supreme Court cleared the controversies that had surrounded the validity of the Presidential Election results of 2012. John Dramani Mahama is now known to all as the legal president of the Republic of Ghana.

It was indeed heartbreaking to see NPP fans swallowing their pains. Disappointments were written all over their faces. To them, they were so certain that they had a case. I heard they even fasted and prayed earnestly, but sadly their prayers were never answered. The verdict of Atuguba and Co. hit them hard like the uppercut. Their proclaimed faith in the Supreme Court only ended up confirming their darkest fears. Looks like Ghanaians never really wanted free education.

Meanwhile, NDC supporters were on top of the world. You should have seen the looks on their faces. Some of them thought they were dreaming coz everything they wanted the world to be was coming true for them. The reason was obvious – Atuguba had pronounced them winners, and to them that was the nearest thing to heaven! They communicated their ecstasies to us like there was wander in everything they saw, as if they had the sun in their eyes, in fact their joys were indescribable.

Anyone who is not biased certainly had some good laughs at some of the words and phrases that made waves during the Election Petition process no matter which side they came from – I am suggesting to you, Me Lord, temper justice with mercy, twenty seven zero, and of course the famous “on the face of the pink sheet”, only to mention a few. Needless to say, my favorite quote (not that I’m taking sides) came from Tsatsu Tsikata. He went like this: “my lords, respectfully this petition has proven to be factually empty, legally pathetic, poor in arithmetic, extremely poor in logic and deficient in statistics. . . ”

And so NDC won, NPP lost, what next? Should we go to the radio stations to discuss the issues all over again? That is to say are we willing to waste our time on a ruling that both parties have accepted in good faith? Our elders say: “when all is said and done, more is said than done” Talking is easy and that wouldn’t really solve our problem. My lectures are on strike. There is so much filth in our nation. What about the poor state of our roads? And the rampant fire cases? So would you, seriously, rather go to the radio stations and shout your energy out instead of working to build the Ghanaian Dream, the better Ghana you wish to see?

Enough of the politics, let us put it aside and focus on developing our nation.

Mensah Emmanuel

BSc. (Hons) Development Planning Student, KNUST

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