I listened with disdain comments made by the Deputy Information Minister, Mr. Felix Ofosu Kwakye last Friday on ‘Ekosi sen’ a political program on Asempa FM. Such effusions could only emanate from an overly enthusiastic young man with a ‘sharp teeth’, apologies to President Rawlings.

Like the proverbial adage, which is often quoted by all, ‘when your mum is dead and you claim she is sleeping, the night will soon catch up with you’. It will greatly help Mr. Ofosu Kwakye if he hangs his propaganda cloak elsewhere and begin to face reality as a Deputy Minister of Information and not misinformation. Ghanaians no longer have the laxity of time for celebrated propagandists.

Unfortunately for him, there are many discerning people in this country who are able to decipher the truth from falsehood and are not carried away by such verbal poisons.

The President must uphold his integrity by relieving Mr. Felix Ofosu Kwakye of his post with immediate effect to protect the sanctity of our judiciary. His comments are absolutely unacceptable and cannot be taken with a pinch of salt. For a key member of government who has unfettered access to classified information’s to have dared Ghanaians and placed his precious life at stake by making a contemptuous and categorical pronouncement that the NPP will loose out the court case, is indeed calling for dangerous times. Is there something he knows that the rest of us don’t know? Since when did Mr. Ofosu Kwakye became a soothsayer? Is travesty of justice staring at us in the face?

That is why Felix Kwakye must resign or be fired by the President to restore faith in our constitution and our judiciary. The President by that action would have demonstrated his belief in good governance, our institutions and set the tone of his administration. He would have been living to the testament and pledges he made to Ghanaians. He would have been seen as a statesman with the capacity to place the aspirations of Ghanaians above loyalty to reckless party fanatics in pursuit of their selfish ambitions.

Contrary to his feeble admonishing that the petition is a waste of everyone’s time, many other individuals, civil society groups, international and diplomatic bodies, and including His ‘Errorcy’ sorry Excellency John Mahama who appointed him as a Deputy Minister have made it abundantly clear to all that, the path chosen by the petitioners is one that has again enriched our enviable democracy- so where is Mr. Felix Ofosu Kwakye coming from?

What are our options and choices? I want to submit, that the people of Ghana have been presented with the Scylla of accepting what Felix Kwakye said with all its serious complications and failure to meet the standards required of the Judiciary of a modern liberal democratic Republic, and the Charybdis of being saddled with and executive which is openly subverting the constitution and hell-bent in remaining in power at all cost. This is a cruel choice.

In fact, to make a dubious claim that the NPP is peddling untruth in their petition before the Supreme Court is in itself a blatant untruth, especially when the witnesses for the respondents have on several instances made admissions upon admissions which has left their noses bleeding profusely.

Mr. Ofosu Kwakye must get it right and clear that, there are so many ways of padding votes which amounts to fraud. How about the many instances where on the face of the pink-sheets, columns that were meant to be filled with the number of persons who were supposed to have cast their ballots were left blank? Just to site this example, there are many ways of killing a cat indeed!

Even in open court the EC and counsel for the 1st and 3rd respondents i.e. John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress have consistently connived to prosecute their case as if they were not distinct from each other, how much more under the cover of darkness? Again, Mr. Ofosu Kwakye in his quest to sustain his unsustainable propaganda avers that, he is surprise the New Patriotic Party took matters of unsigned pink sheets, same serial numbers and others to support their claim. I am not sure whether Felix has been following the court proceedings; did he not hear Dr. Afari Gyan make a vivid admission that those were indeed irregularities? Clearly, before the commencement of the case, all the issues were prune down to only two; as to whether there were indeed irregularities, malpractices, omissions, statutory violations, and, if they actually affected the Presidential results so declared by the electoral commissioner.

“Sometimes Ghanaians don’t want to be told the truth. We tolerate mediocrity; we need to hold people who seek public office to a high standard of conduct”. Very ironic indeed for Felix who is poor in standards and weak in discipline talking about high standards. It must be very rich coming from him.

This is a clear case of interference of the judiciary by the executive- now the judges cannot make a fair decision. His comments has thrown the court case into jeopardy. If NPP should loose the case, they will only say, it was because of executive control and a well-executed conspiracy.

The NPP must consider hauling Mr. Ofosu Kwakye to the Supreme Court hearing its petition and cite him for contempt of court, or alternatively threatening a withdrawal of the petition before the Supreme Court.

.Chief Obosu Mohammed

NPP Member, Mfantseman West Constituency

Obosu.mohammed@yahoo.com