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

If I am not misreading the proceedings of the ongoing Akufo-Addo/ New Patriotic Party (NPP) Election 2012 Presidential Petition in the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Ghana's Electoral Commissioner for some twenty years now, is apt to spend the rest of his life in prison for perpetrating the most vicious hoax, to-date, on the 10-million-plus eligible Ghanaian voters who exercised their franchise on December 7 and 8, 2012.

In my latest reading of the aforesaid proceedings, Dr. Afari-Gyan has been voraciously eating the proverbial humble pie by stunningly admitting in open court that, indeed, he brazenly lied through his "Tweapea"-scrubbed teeth when he imperiously insisted that only 905 pink sheets, amounting to 3.5-percent of the entire polling results, had not been signed by polling station presiding officers. And then just this past week, it came to light that an additional 553 pink sheets had, in fact, not been signed by polling station presiding officers. This, therefore, brings the actual number of unsigned pink sheets to 1,458, at least for now, for it is almost surefire certain that as proceedings hurtle towards a climax and then a denouement, more July surprises are likely to sping up. I am not very numerate, but I think that puts the percentage of unsigned pink sheets somewhere in the vicinity of 5-percent, significantly more than the officially reported percentage of votes between Messrs. Mahama and Akufo-Addo (See "Afari-Gyan Confronted With 553 Unsigned Pink Sheets" Graphic.com.gh/Ghanaweb.com 7/5/13).

I strongly am of the opinion that Ghana's Electoral Commissioner is likely to spend the rest of his life at the "prestigious" Nsawam Medium-Security Prison, because one critical look at the copy of his fraudulent gazetting of Mr. John Dramani Mahama dreadfully brings home the full import of the enormity of the treasonable crime perpetrated against the good and longsuffering people of Ghana. And for the reader to fully appreciate the gravity of the criminal hoax perpetrated against the unsuspecting Ghanaian voter, let me hereby reproduce the sinister contents of the sacred constitutional instrument which Dr. Afari-Gyan callously invoked in order to fraudulently impose Mr. John Dramani Mahama on them:

"Constitutional Instrument 80 DECLARATION OF PRESIDENT-ELECT, INSTRUMENT 2012: / In exercise of the powers conferred on the Electoral Commission under Article 63 (9) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, this Instrument is hereby made. / Mr. John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress Party (NDC) presidential candidate having, in the Presidential election held on the 7th day of December, 2012, pursuant to Article 63 (3) of the Constitution, obtained more than fifty percent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election is hereby declared as [sic] President of Ghana at the election of the President. / Given under my hand and seal in Accra this Monday, the 10th day of December 2012. / DR. KWADWO AFARI-GYAN / Chairman, Electoral Commission / Date of Gazette notification: 11th December, 2012."

In essence, what Dr. Afari-Gyan, a former political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, is implying by his gazette declaration of Mr. Mahama as President of Ghana, is that the country's 1992 Republican Constitution empowers him to even fraudulently and treasonously impose any Election 2012 presidential candidate of his personal preference or choice on the people of Ghana!

And as if the foregoing was not a capital crime enough, now we have a fraudulently appointed President Mahama thumbing his nose at his arch-rivals and political opponents and declaring that, indeed, it was GOD HIMSELF/HERSELF who appointed Little Dramani our president, and not a criminally minded Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan! Now that kind of vainglorious rhetoric ought not to stun, or shock, any avid student of postcolonial African politics. It is veritably the rhetoric of dictators; and Mr. Mahama has amply demonstrated by his sinister collaborative usurpation of the sacred mandate of the Ghanaian electorate, and also by cavalierly flouting rules governing biometric voter verification, that, indeed, he and his party, the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC), ventured into Election 2012 with no other motive and objective other than pure bad faith.

Anyway, we haven't quite as yet determined the most appropriate punitive sanction for Ghana's present "democratic" dictator; but even as the dictum goes, we shall shortly cross the bridge when we arrive at the same.

I also have a news article before me captioned: "If Ghana Were A Company, Ghanaians Will Choose Mahama Over Akufo-Addo To Run It - Omane-Boamah" MyJoyOnline.com 11/28/12). In the foregoing article, Dr. Omane-Boamah, Deputy Mahama Campaign Coordinator for Election 2012 and former Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, claims that when it comes to competently managing the people's business, Dr. Omane-Boamah's paymaster has no rival. Presently, of course, Dr. Omane-Boamah is the substantive Minister of Communication in the Mahama cabinet.

It is not clear whether Dr. Omane-Boamah, a physician, really believes that the "Cash-and-Carry" healthcare agenda of the erstwhile Rawlings-Mills and Mills-Mahama, and now Mahama/Amissah-Arthur regime is more progressive than the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) minted National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), however practically imperfect the latter may be deemed.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
July 5, 2013
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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