By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Feb. 27, 2016
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Going in, it was all too predictable that the Accra High Court was going to dismiss the political strong-arming attempt by lawyers for Dr. Zanetor Rawlings to ride roughshod over the inalienable constitutional rights of the incumbent National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for the Klottey-Korley Constituency in Central Accra, Nii Armah Ashitey (See “I’ll Stop Zanetor from Campaigning – Ashitey” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/22/16).

You see, ever since he launched his faux-revolution with his so-called Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on June 4th 1979, and again on December 31st 1981, with his so-called Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) junta that witnessed the massacre and public execution of so many hardworking, honorable and law-abiding Ghanaian citizens, Chairman Jerry John Rawlings and his family have come to envisage our country as their personal property. And this is precisely why the former president was able to shamelessly campaign for his daughter in the Klottey-Korley Constituency, knowing fully well that his thirty-something-year-old adult-child was not a registered member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Accra High Court judge who ruled against the attorneys for Dr. Zanetor Rawlings must be commended for his/her conscientious courage in letting justice guide judicial proceedings rather than sheer expediency and the imperative human need for self-preservation. The presiding judge ought to have his/her security detail upgraded, if this has not already been done, knowing the track-record of the Rawlingses, particularly their inordinate and unconscionable penchant for intimidation and downright liquidation of their perceived enemies, especially if the latter also happen to be members of the bench.

In one of my write-ups on the Zanetor electoral validity question, I objectively observed that if Dr. Rawlings met the basic requirements for filing her candidacy and running for Parliament from the Klottey-Korle Constituency, then, by all means, there was absolutely no need for anybody to attempt to put any stumbling blocks in her path, primarily because she was the adult daughter of the two most bloody couple to have emerged on the postcolonial Ghanaian political landscape. In sum, I argued that Dr. Rawlings had to be afforded the opportunity to healthily distance herself from the scandalous legacy of her parents.

Alas, as it shortly turned out, yours truly was grossly mistaken, as Dr. Rawlings started to self-righteously toe the imperious line of her parents. Well, it was just a matter of time before she hit her well-deserved snag and mine-pit. Predictably, Dr. Zanetor has been insisting that she is neither down for the count nor out. The Ga-speaking people of Accra have a terse maxim that runs as follows: “W? Baa Kw??,” to wit, “We Shall See.” In the meantime, Nii Armah Ashitey, the former Greater-Accra Minister, ought to be closely guarded in his speech and other pronouncements and refrain from making any prejudicial statements or he would soon find himself to blame and on a rocky projection, precisely where Dr. Rawlings’ attorneys want him.

For instance, Nii Ashitey has absolutely no right to stop Dr. Rawlings, who handily defeated him in a Klottey-Korle parliamentary primary last year, from campaigning in the constituency while the matter is still before the Accra High Court. That decision or verdict belongs entirely to the presiding judge. It would also be childish and totally uncalled for, for the Klottey-Korle NDC-MP to presume to be locked in a personality contest with Dr. Zanetor who is young enough to be his own daughter. That said, there is also the real danger for Nii Ashitey to look down on Dr. Rawlings as only a child. Needless to say, Dr. Rawlings is a full-fledged adult and a mother whose father was exactly her age when Chairman Rawlings savagely usurped the democratic reins of governance from the Limann-led People’s National Party (PNP).

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