When the heart decides, no amount of persuasion can prevent the crossing of the Rubicon. On the 28th of December 2008, Ghanaians will again be called upon to perform a most significant patriotic duty - that of electing a new President for the country. The first election ended inconclusive. Although the New Patriotic Party’s candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo came first, he did not satisfy the constitutional provision that the winner scores 50% plus one of the total votes cast in the election.

The New Patriotic Party became complacent and has paid dearly for it. The party has learnt its lesson, and I believe in the coming days, it will put in motion all the armament in its arsenal to outwit the NDC in the titanic battle to decide which of the two parties is on top. Politics is like a game of football. It depends on the type of strategy one uses in a match. Overconfidence can sometimes result in the adoption of a poor strategy. A team might regard its opponents as weak and not field her best players. And that was exactly what happened to the NPP. Instead of sleeping with at least one eye opened or closed, we slept with both our eyes closed.

The NDC had complained about the influence of ‘koobi’, ‘kako’, ‘bentua’, ‘ntama’ and ‘sika’ during the Nkuranza North bye election. But it came as a surprise that the very people who complained about such “gifts” to the electorates as unethical would turn round to do the very things they have complained of. What was Ama Benyiwaa Doe doing with such an amount of money in the Assin North Constituency if the was not there to influence the outcome?

Some foot soldiers of the NPP had gone to a house to campaign. They said all that needed to be said and gave some ‘T’ shirts to the occupants. When they got up to leave, the head of the family asked whether that was all. They did not understand what the man meant and asked him to explain. “You just wait for me” said the man. He asked the wife to bring those items and lo and behold, textile materials, bowls of rice, a machete, a picture of Prof Mills and an amount of GH 5.00 cedis were dangled before the eyes of the NPP members.

Wow! the NDC has beaten us to it. They were working while we went to bed. But can we trust those men and women in the contraption who discourse like Angels but live like men? There is nothing in them to make people trust them. Their supporters have always complained that Rawlings is not their candidate and so I should not hold the party responsible for his utterances. Does this make sense? When he goes out and tells the people in Volta Region not to vote for the NPP because it is for Ashantis and the Akyems that is playing to the rules of the game. But when I condemn him for his utterances and the NDC’s silence on it, they accuse me of being unpatriotic and fanning the embers of ethnicity.

I am not surprised at all, since all other Political Parties, with the exception of the NDC have co-founders. The NDC is the only party in the country with one person as the owner. And Rawlings has said nobody in the party can gag him from speaking his mind. After all, when they were building the party, where were all those latter day saints? And so Rawlings tells Ghanaians that Nsawam Prison would be expanded to take care of the NPP top functionaries when they regain power, and the party and its candidate, Professor Mills, has not said anything about it. People say Mills is his own person. If he was, why can’t he say something about Rawlings inflammatory utterances? Please, Ghanaians, do not, by your vote take us back to the AFRC / PNDC era.

I believe Prof. Mills should by now have come out with the report about his personal body guard’s assault on an NDC activist, Kojo Yeboah at cow lane in Accra on Tuesday, July 3, 2007. Are we not going to see a repetition of AFRC / atrocities should the NDC find itself in power? If Mills and his party cannot sanitize their own house, shall we be safe in Mills Ghana? This is what Ghanaians should think of when they go to the polls on Sunday 28th December 2008.

They should not forget that those who sit on the back of the tiger eventually end up in its. Remember what happened to Yeye Boy, Amartey Kwei, Chris Atim, Aloga Akata Pore, Obed Asamoah, Frances Essiam, Sly Akakpovi, Kwesi Botchway, L/Cpl Sarkodie, and many others. Even Brig Nanoo Mensa who is now singing discordant tunes and has aligned himself with the NDC was not left alone. Why did he run away before he submitted his letter of resignation? We have not forgotten about the TV discussion involving NDC hatchet man, Tony Aidoo and Brigadier Nunoo Mensah soon after the latter had returned to the country and joined the NPP. It was Tony Aidoo who said that Nunoo Mensah had emerged from a hole to the same hole he (Nunoo Mensah} would be chased into. It was at that forum that Tony Aidoo alleged that it was Brig. Nunoo Mensah who insisted (much against the protestations of other members of the AFRC that Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa’s name should be included on the list of those who should be summarily executed.

You see the propaganda machinery of the NDC is being put to mischievous use. Now consider the two press statements issued some few hours after polls had ended. The first one was held at around 2:00 am in which they alleged that they had won 130 seats at the time the EC had certified results from four (4) constituencies. The statement was signed by Koku Anyidohu in the Office of Prof. Mills. The next day, the party called a Press Conference which was addressed by their chairman, Kwabena Agyei in which he alleged that there were attempts by the EC, in connivance with the security agencies to rig the election in favour of the NPP and warned of disastrous consequencies if the attempts were carried out, and that they would not tolerate any such nonsense. After the EC had declared the “contest” as inconclusive, the NDC is now full of praises for the EC. I want to say that it was these threats by the NDC that brought about the tension in the country and put fear into people so much so that they became scared to go out. And Koku Anyidohu and Kwabena Adjei issued those deceptive press statements and addressed the press conference which Prof. Mills and the NDC knew were not the reality of what was on the ground, but he has up till date not said anything on it; neither has he issued a statement to retract it. This is the greatest deception and disservice which a man who is aspiring to the highest office of the land should do to his country. Before casting your votes, I appeal to Ghanaians to take note of the following facts. It appears the NDC has thrown overboard the ancient Ghanaian cardinal principle of giving respect to our elders. The NDC initially was a congregation of those who had shown disrespect to constituted authority. And of late this is re-emerging. The fact that we belong to opposing political parties does not mean that we should disrespect our elders.

I was therefore saddened when the polling agent of the NDC attempted to prevent the sitting Weija Constituency MP, Ayorkor Botchway from casting her vote with the excuse that she should have joined the queue. The fact must be made clear that a polling agent has no authority to prevent anybody from exercising his/her franchise. That is the duty of the Presiding Officer. In some polling centers, those who were pregnant, the old, and the infirm were given preference to cast their votes as soon as they arrived. Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates hardly joined the queue. They were given preference to cast their vote so that they could move on to other polling centers to monitor proceedings. What happened at the center on that day was something we should all condemn in no uncertain terms. By now, an apology or some form of clarification should have come from the Office of Professor Mills.

It appears there is a gradual re-emergence of lack of respect for constituted authority which permeated the entire duration of the AFRC / PNDC into the NDC and should Ghanaians give them the power to administrate this country, I wonder the sort of programme and policy they will put in place for the aged in the country. After all, the Founder was not averse to punching, kicking, slapping and head-butting of his Vice/Deputy who was old enough to be his father. And we should not forget the consequences of the introduction of PDC and WDC into the educational system of the country. In those days students demanded for representation on the board of Examinations Committees in various schools and institutions in the country. This, according to them, would give them a say on the type of questions to be set for them during examination. Do we have to demean our educational standards? If no, then do the right thing by voting for the NPP for continuity.

We should also beware of the campaign of hatred being waged by the NDC against Akans living in the capital and other places. Since the results were announced, the sort of inflammatory statements coming from supporters of the NDC is enough to send shivers down the spine of NPP members. We have been reliably informed that in some parts of the Northern and the Upper Regions, the Azorka boys went on rampage and demanded for the keys to the Metro busses brought into the country by the Kufuor Administration. In Ashaiman and other places, NDC supporters went and destroyed NPP billboards. They defaced the posters of NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The evidence is there for all. Go to the areas around the Arts Centre and you will be disgusted at what you see. Just last Sunday, NDC macho men took over the whole area of Kantamanto and unleashed their fury of Akan traders. Is this the type of Ghana the NDC wants to build? As if these were not enough, another inflammatory statement has emerged from their supporters in the Northern part of the country to the effect that they would seal off every rat hole in along the borders so that in the eventuality of the NDC gaining power, no top member of the NPP Administration would escape. And the NDC is keeping quiet and not doing anything to stem the tide of abuses and anger against other ethnic groups living among them. I wish at this juncture to comment on another negative campaign message being used against the NPP. These NDC apologists would go to a Krobo, Ewe or Akuapem settlement and tell the inhabitants that if they vote for Akufo Addo, and he wins, they would be ejected from the lands. But the question is, Kufuor has been in power for nearly eight years and the Akans have not ejected any of them from Akan land. In making a case for Nana Addo, I want to state that customers would rather choose a polished diamond than a rough diamond. Yet they are both diamonds. Let me state that the only decent hotel that I have read about where flies are tolerated are in Casablanca, Morocco. But then the whole of North Africa is bedeviled by the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

Nana is the hotel without flies. He is articulate and has ‘class’. A tradition of excellence has been established in the Presidency and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has gone through the rigours of training for the job which will make him conform. The country at this stage of its development needs a unifier – someone who can easily blend, someone who can move a little to the left and a little to the right. Someone who can offer balm to sooth the pain of others. Yes, this is an area where Nana easily excels. He has been part of the socialist fraternity before opting for capitalism. He will blend the best of both doctrines.

We should not forget the role he played when the country was at the bridge of the precipice as a result of dictatorship which made men act like women. But with tact, poise and determination, he was able to bring together people of different ideologies to confront this menace. The Peoples Movement for Freedom and Justice and the Alliance for Change easily come to mind. We should not lose sight of the period when the Israelis and the Arabs/Palestinians were on the brink of war, it needed a man with tact, diplomacy and poise of Nana Addo posture to spearhead the affairs of the Security Council to calm frayed nerves. At the end of the session, representatives of the two opposing sides smiled at each other and exchanged pleasantries – all thanks to Nana Akufo-Addo adroit handling of the situation.

Just listen to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo as he talks about his expectations of the Run-Off Presidential Election. “I feel excited about the prospect of working with this Parliament and of course, I am uniquely positioned to work effectively with this kind of Parliament. In the days of the struggle against dictatorship, I was able to bring together many people from different political backgrounds to fight for a common cause” The Presidential candidate has the knack of getting the best from others. Sometimes he moves one step backward in order to take two steps forward. I recall vividly when the NDC threatened to walk out of Parliament at the time the National Reconciliation Bill was being discussed on account of a so-called remark made by Nana Akufo Addo. He said he would withdraw the statement if that will calm the nerves of the opposing members so that they stayed behind to make their contributions towards the eventual passage of the bill. We should understand the fact that the National Reconciliation Act was his idea.

Before ending this piece, let me correct one very erroneous statement being peddled by the NDC to the effect that they have a majority in Parliament. This is a blatant lie! They don’t! As at now, NDC has 113 seats and NPP has 109. Four NPP members went independent and won their seats. This includes a sitting MP. The party has held discussions with them and they have all pledged their loyalty to the party. Even during the campaign periods, they told their supporters to vote for them and vote Nana Akufo-Addo for President. So, if you add these four seats to the NPP, it will have the same equal number of seats with the NDC 113. There is also the Akwatia issue which is pending. Baba Jamal, the NDC candidate for Akwatia was alleged to have imported into the country, some Malians, Nigeriens, Chadian and Burkina be nationals to cause commotion in the constituency. Led by a macho-man from Akwatia, these hoodlums moved from one polling station to the other where they perceived the NPP to be stronger and hijacked ballot boxes. They vandalized some of them and spilled its contents all over the place. The vehicle used for their nefarious operation had a foreign registration number. Thank God, the macho man from Akwatia has been arrested and very soon, we shall know who and who were behind this anti people’s operation. Even there, the NPP thrashed the NDC with over four thousand votes. If we add that of Akwatia [which we are sure will be given to us by the Electoral Commission, the NPP will have 114 seats while the NDC will have 113. The three seats belonging to the CPP and the PNC will remain and it will depend on the negotiation skills of the two parties to see where the three candidates will go. But we should not forget the fact that it was Rawlings and the P/NDC who overthrew the Limann Government whose offshoots are the CPP and the PNC. We should also not overlook the fact that it was Rawlings, Mills and the NDC who took away the House built for Madam Fathia Nkrumah by the executed General, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. The house was re-allocated to the late Justice D.F.Annan, Speaker of the First and Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic. If Samia Nkrumah would give her seat to the NDC, then it is her “jejereje”. We should not forget what David told his son, Solomon just before his death concerning Shimeia who had cursed David when he sought refuge to escape the wrath of his son, Absalom who had usurped the throne. Solomon acted accordingly in line with his father’s wish.

In ending this write-up, I am appealing to all those whose relatives are outside the country for fear of being arrested by the NDC should they come back to the country. These people were arrested and some of them sentenced on very frivolous charges. Some have had their properties confiscated by the P/NDC Government. A vote for the NDC is an elongation of their stay outside this country. So if you want your relatives to be exiled permanently, then vote for the NDC.

On the other hand, if you want them to come back to Ghana, the country which our forefathers toiled to build, then do the right thing. Use you thumb to retain the NPP Government in power. Use your thumb to make Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the next President of Ghana. Nana will not disappoint you, for “Yenim No Firi Tete”. Move forward with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Mahamudu Bawumia in the Lead. May God bless you as you make this wise decision.

Daniel Danquah Damptey. Danieldanquah_damptey@yahoo.com 0243715297.