Opinions of Saturday, 22 August 2015

Columnist: Musa, Mansa

Open letter to the electoral commissioner

Dear Madam,
GHANA POTENTIALLY COULD BURN AFTER 2016 GENERAL ELECTIONS
If anybody tells you today that Ghana is a peace nation, it is possible that that individual could be dishonest because of the inherent anger in the minds of Ghanaians due to the poor mismanagement of the economy. Last month, a very beautiful lady by all standards cut herself up in multiple wounds at Moshi Zongo, Kumasi, to the amazement of everybody in absolute desperation. Whether she survived her cuts or not, I have no clue as pedestrians and onlookers managed to whisked her to the hospital. Last Sunday, a pregnant woman attempted to commit suicide when she heard that her husband has been laid off at Tema. Incidentally, the month of July alone recorded over 9(nine) homicide events in the nation, many of them through hanging which are indicative of the fact that we are living in tough and dangerous times. In Ghana today, it is a fact that the NDC government has mismanaged the nation’s resources and plunged us into abject poverty with huge taxes; it is also true that President Mahama’s Administration will move heaven and earth to maintain power after 8 years in office( technically); it is a constant that the NDC government having improvised the masses, will use some of their ill-gotten wealth to harvest for votes in the villages and small towns; it is accurate to state that Asiedu Nketia and his associates will attempt to circumvent the sovereignty of the masses by ensuring the manipulation of the elections which will be strongly and fiercely resisted. Madam, the scriptures foretold the story about the Messiah and His death, but woe on to the person through whom He shall be betrayed. Verily, verily I say to you, Ghana is poised for a heavy confrontation and I would advise you to just stay out of this mess by doing the will of the masses- CHANGE THE VOTERS REGISTER. Please, do not allow your life to be maligned and tagged for doing the wrong thing because the stakes are high and nobody is prepared to be confronted with any ‘galamey’ verdict again. Any conscious person can foresee danger looming!
This chapter of our history is very perilous and the tide is certainly against us which should alert any conscious person to be circumspect and objective in his/her way of reasoning. I am not trying to be pessimistic by preaching any doomsday theory but to unearth what I believe to be the objective reality based on indicators on the ground. Although Ghanaians are desperate, they feel in their cry that nobody speaks for them including the Chiefs and the Media who are currently in the grips of the government. Nobody talks about the power of the TUC and the NUGS any longer because they have also sold their mandate to the government; the country is in disarray because all the bodies capable of organizing the masses to develop a voice have sadly sold their conscience to the highest bidder. No organized body can withstand the NDC government because they understand how to divide and rule in this economic time. It is not surprising that what the populace see as their only triumph card in exercising their sovereignty is the 2016 elections and they are prepared to defend that right with their lives after all they are already ‘dead walking’.
What is money when the lives, properties and sovereignty of the masses that pay the taxes are concerned? Who is Asiedu Nketia to determine how Ghanaians should be managed? What is the labour cost for the re-registration of voters when we already have the biometric machines? What is Ghana’s problem when we have over 270,000 non–working graduates who could easily be roped for this assignment? Madam, we are certainly in dangerously and frustrating times, and we need serious-minded people to shepherd this nation, and not tricksters and vampires who have already amass enormous wealth. Ghanaians cannot sit on the fence and allow foreign nationals to determine our leaders for us; we will not allow names of non-existing human beings to be used to undermined our sovereignty; we will not allow loud mouth Asiedu Nketia the luxury of using the old register which is over bloated to load the boxes with absentee voters. This is not the time for explanation of ‘foreign substance and padding’ in the ballot box by Asiedu Nketia; we now know that elections are won at the polling stations.
The president has indicated that Ghanaians have a short memory which may be right but not so much with the encumbrances and intricacies of the Election Petition Trial also known as “The Trail of the Century”. We all saw the ‘galamsay’ verdict where the constitution of the land was circumvented with impunity. Is it true that the re-made pink sheet without signatures was a criminal offence? How did we get a 5-4 verdict when the decision of one of the 5 who voted for the respondents was conditional indicating that certain areas be re-run? We have not forgotten Dr Afari Djan’s classic definition of over voting and will not allow the old over bloated register to stand for them to manipulate it again with fake ballot papers (foreign objects). Consequently, for Ghanaians to allow the current register to stand is to declare NDC winners prior to thr elections knowing what they have planned with it.
The Supreme Court recommended that the voters register must be amended. How possible can we amend or clean the register without doing a new one? How can we locate all the dead and eliminate their names from the register? Do we know the number of people who die every day in Ghana? The doctors strike alone has claimed over 500 lives in two weeks and how are going to identify these potential voters and eliminate their names? Does the EC collaborate with the Department of Death and Birth to identify and eliminate the deceased? Does the EC know all the potential voters who have unfortunately passed away in the villages? We are all aware of the fact that the register the EC provided for the presidential and parliamentarian elections were different, why? Madam, the current voters register is flawed as it is consumed with a lot of dead beats and must be changed to ensure peace. It should be acknowledged that until we develop a National ID and further link the EC with the Dept of Death and Birth, it will be fair and appropriate to always embark on a fresh voters register for any general elections.
There is no gain saying that our current register is full of foreign nationals which is against our constitution. The use of NHIS card was master-mined by the NDC government as a means to register foreign nationals at the expense of the nation. Their interest was not the cost to the nation but how to win elections, creating untold hardships for the scheme and the nation. As we are all aware, the Supreme Court has stated that the NHIS cards ( Abu Rahmadan vrs Attorney General) cannot be used for voting as planned by the NDC and the EC but how do we identify and eliminate those infidels who have already registered to vote? Madam, this form of aggression on our sovereignty by Burkinabes, Togolese and other foreign national should not be allowed to stand, and I am humbly calling on you to save this nation from foreign invasion of our electoral process by coming out with a new voters register.
Madam, how reasonable can it be to state that the voting public constitutes about 55% of the populace? Where on this planet earth can you access this data apart from Ghana, the most wonderful country where a national could be given over $35 million for no work done; a country where majority of the people cannot get food to eat and yet we spend $62,000 a month on accommodation for a useless outfit? Nigerian voters register is about 41%, Senegal has 41%, Tanzania has about 42%, Angola has about 43% and Kenya has about 34%. From where did Asiedu Nketia’s voters register figure of 55% evolve? Madam, this statistical figure does not add up as argued by Asiedu Nketia and his NDC men, and therefore unacceptable granting the fact that the going rates among African countries are between 34% and 42%.
If the president could advise neighboring Togo as ECOWAS Chairman to suspend their elections and re-align their voting procedurals to ensure peace, what prevents us from doing same to prevent the unthinkable? We have all heard in recent times the snatching of voters card for fertilizers and other violations towards the innocent public and impoverished Ghanaians. You heard all the double registrations that went on and multiple voting notwithstanding the humongous increases in the nation’s border towns. Madam, you and your department have the mandate to change the course of history by doing what is right; if you feel that verification by the thump is a problem then I will suggest the use of the eyes but please, do not attempt in God’s name to change the constitutional provision on “ No verification, no vote”; it is not perfect but certainly the best measure to protect our sovereignty and young democracy. It is imperative that we have strict laws because you cannot depend on the goodwill of human beings, we are selfish and evil; we strive hard to live in abundance at the expense of many who live in abject poverty. Go to the villages, the same people we mesmerize for their votes and see their way of life as if they are not part of Ghana.
May the Good Lord grant you the power of bravery and the wisdom of the mind to do what is right for Mother Ghana because when the rain falls, it does not fall in one man’s house. Let us sacrifice to protect our nation and the unborn.
MANSA MUSA, VA USA