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

In the wake of the Ghana Supreme Court verdict affirming the declaration of Mr. John Dramani Mahama as winner of the 2012 presidential election, Ghana's former United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, released a statement calling for the Government to embark on the task of correcting the structural flaws in the country's electoral system "that were [forensically] identified during the hearings of the election petition" (See "Kofi Annan Pushes for Reforms in Ghana's Electoral System" MyJoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 8/30/13).

If the movers and shakers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were very thoughtful, they would be sobered and subdued in their jubilation over the dismissal of the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party petition by the Atuguba-presided panel of nine Supreme Court judges. That the ruling was a skin-of-teeth narrow 5-4, ought to poignantly inform the Mahama team that it really does not have the convincing mandate of the Ghanaian electorate that it falsely claims to possess.

What makes matters even more dubious is the fact that Mr. Mahama's party, the Rawlings-minted National Democratic Congress, has no enviable record of respect for either the rule of law, in general, or past rulings, as a whole. And so, clearly, when Mr. Annan states as follows, "I also congratulate the New Patriotic Party and its leader, Nana Akufo-Addo, for the spirit of responsibility that they have demonstrated by respecting the ruling of the court," Ghana's sole Nobel Prize Laureate could be aptly envisaged to be speaking in proverbs to NDC scofflaws like Messrs. Kwabena Adjei, Okudzeto-Ablakwa and Omane-Boamah, among a legion of others.

And when Mr. Annan further adds that Akufo-Addo's laudable demonstration of political maturity and statesmanship has "helped to further entrench the rule of law and deepen democracy in our country," the ironic indictment of the Rawlings-Mahama posse cannot be lost on the critically thinking Ghanaian audience. But that the eponymous founder of the Kofi Annan Peace Institute may be aptly envisaged to be squarely on the same page with Nana Akufo-Addo, when it comes to the abjectly flawed structure that is the institution of the country's Electoral Commission, is clearly borne out by the following quote:

"This success [of non-violently grieving their utter dissatisfaction with Election 2012, via the Supreme Court, on the part of Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Mahamudu Bawumia and Obetsebi-Lamptey and the New Patriotic Party, as a whole] must not blind us to the [major] flaws in our electoral system that the judicial review has brought to light. All concerned need to work energetically to ensure that these flaws are addressed through the necessary institutional reforms."

It cannot be gainsaid that even as he heroically struggled against the daunting odds of legitimately overturning the critically flawed electoral process which enabled a smug and cavalier Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to cynically declare Mr. John Dramani Mahama as winner of Election 2012, Ghana's former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice kept reminding those who cared about the salutary destiny of the country that at the very least, a radical and thoroughgoing overhaul of Ghana's electoral system was an equally well-desired objective of the petitioners.

And so when Mr. Annan concludes his press release with the poignantly progressive observation that: "We have a bright future to build together, as the Ghanaian people," and that "That future begins today," the global diplomatic giant of our time could not be more accurate and astute, and acute, in his observation.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
August 31, 2013
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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