Sam Okudzeto to install Akufo-Addo as Ghana’s President?



By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor



Thursday, September 26, 2013



Everything about Election 2012 is over for most Ghanaians but not the disappointed, frustrated, and hot-headed NPP activists and sympathizers who continue to make ugly noise just for its own sake. And that ugly noise betrays their deep-seated frustration and ignorance about the dynamics of contemporary Ghanaian politics.



But for purposes of placing their tantrums in their proper perspective, one won’t deem their ugly noise as worth one’s bother. That is why I want to respond to pronouncements made by some of those NPP elements at the forum organized by the Danquah Institute.



First, Samuel Okudzeto, who calls himself a constitutional lawyer. He said that from his analysis of the judgement given at the end of the Supreme Court’s hearing of the NPP’s petition, the verdict was 5–4 in favour of the petitioners. He wondered where Justice Atuguba came from with the reverse to confirm the legitimacy of President Mahama.

In his own analysis, he saw only what he set out to see and concluded as such to create the impression that Akufo-Addo won the petition hearing (and not the general elections)! Of course, the petition hearing was based on two perspectives as against the general elections that were based on nothing but the ballot boxes. The general elections didn’t favour Akufo-Addo; but Okudzeto gave him victory in the petition hearing. What a self-serving analysis!!

Samuel Okudzeto is someone I won’t normally bother my head over because he is nothing but a frustrated spent horse in Ghanaian politics. If he can ask himself why he was in the late Agbeli Gbedemah’s National Alliance of Liberals (pro-Nkrumahist) to represent the Tongu constituency in the 2nd Republic only to be set aside by the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP) and repudiated by the chiefs and people of that area when he sought a second bid to be in Parliament, he should free himself of the worries that reinforce my poor opinion of him.

Then again, if he can explain why he crossed carpet from the pro-Nkrumahist camp to the United Party (NPP) camp, he should be seeing himself more clearly in his political element. In effect, then, Sam Okudzeto has been a frustrated politician all these years. If he thinks that the petitioners won the case, he is free to install Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia in office to rule Ghana.

Now to, another angle concerning a professor of Law and the Dean of Research and Graduate studies at the Mountcrest University College (Professor Kwame Frimpong) who also stated that in its judgment of the election petition, the Supreme Court disappointed Ghanaians and failed to uphold the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana.



He said that the judges failed woefully to discharge their constitutionally mandated duty; and he explained that the petition filed by the petitioners was a perfect opportunity for Supreme Court to “take a firm position against impunity that has been ravaging this nation” but rather chose to endorse an illegality.



According to him, the judgment has “sent us back to the stone age”. And he asked rhetorically “When will the Supreme Court wake up?” (See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=287049)

I want to tell this Sergeant-at-Law that the Supreme Court didn’t disappoint any Ghanaian but people like him who couldn’t differentiate the trees from the forest. It discharged its constitutionally mandated duties by proving to the whole world that general elections are won or lost at the polls on Election Day, not through useless technicalities adamantly pursued because the petitioners and the entire NPP machinery felt comfortable and optimistic that they had “friends” in the judiciary to fight their cause for them.

The Supreme Court discharged its responsibilities to prove that the Electoral Commission conducted free, fair, and transparent elections that were commended by both international and local election monitors and that world leaders appreciated as a concrete achievement in consolidating Ghana’s democracy for which reason they didn’t hesitate in congratulating the winner (President Mahama) on his victory.

The Supreme Court proved beyond all reasonable doubts that it is worth its status by ensuring that rabble-rousers (such as those it punished for criminal contempt of court) didn’t use the court of public opinion and their favourite media houses to foment trouble in the country under the guise of promoting democracy with the NPP’s election petition.

The Supreme Court prevented anarchy by the NPP elements by proving to them where naked power lay. Its judgement sealed the sad fate of Akufo-Addo and provided an epiphanic moment for the NPP leaders and members to reappraise their “book politics” to be able to remain relevant in contemporary Ghanaian politics.

By proving beyond all reasonable doubts that the NPP petitioners were using mere technicalities to overturn and insult the political will of the people, the Supreme Court reaffirmed confidence in the electoral system and proved that only the ballot box/paper should be the primary instrument for determining winners and losers at the elections.

The Supreme Court performed its constitutionally mandated responsibilities to prove this Prof. Kwame Frimpong wrong in many other ways. If he is peeved because his expectations for an Akufo-Addo Presidency were thrown overboard, then, he can prepare his stomach for the Atlantic Ocean.

Such characters are still wallowing in a time warp, something Prof. Frimpong aptly describes as the “stone age.” This “stone age” is for people like him who cannot come to terms with the reality that has hit them that Ghanaians didn’t choose Akufo-Addo at the polls to be the President.

That explains why all this noise being made won’t yield anything to change the equation. To these NPP people still fretting, I have a simple advice: either quit or continue fretting while your house of cards collapses on you.

With the factionalism seriously tearing the NPP apart, one continues to wonder why these people can’t see the need to redirect their useless energy toward rebuilding the party rather than persistently forcing a river to flow upstream. And they call themselves “the interrectuals” of Ghanaian politics. Hoodoo!!!

As mandated by the voters, President Mahama is well ensconced at the Presidency. The going may be tough for him because of the difficulties confronting his administration but he is in charge of affairs; and with much determination and vigour, he will surely pull through till Election 2016 determines his fate.

Those in the NPP who think otherwise can keep chasing the mirage that they’ve been expending all resources pursuing in the hot political desert that they have planted themselves. Eventually, they will realize only after the fact that there is more to Ghanaian politics than meet their eyes.

If Sam Okudzeto is convinced that the petitioners won the case by a 5–4 margin, he can choose to install Akufo-Addo in office and defer to him as Ghana’s President. We know who our President is and we know that the Supreme Court hasn’t thrown Ghana into any stone age but a period of enlightenment for us to know that elections are won or lost at the polls and not in the dark chambers of the Supreme Court.

I shall return…

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