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

The report, originally carried by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), that the two major presidential candidates in the hotly disputed 2012 election would be meeting today, Wednesday, August 21, 2013, gave me the creeps, as it were (See "Mahama, Akufo-Addo to Meet Wednesday" Ghanaweb.com 8/20/13). It gave me the creeps because rather than waiting for the verdict of the Atuguba-presided panel of Supreme Court jurists that just concluded the hearing of the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party petition against the fraudulent declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, and the subsequent swearing in of the former by Chief Justice Georgina T. Wood as substantive President of the Democratic Republic of Ghana, and then making up their minds and declaring their respective stances, there is absolutely nothing worthwhile for the two men to gab about.

In other words, unless Messrs. Mahama and Akufo-Addo are meeting to hash out the former's terms of surrender and/or rules of engagement on the battlefield, in the event of either party finding the Supreme Court verdict to have fallen far short of the direly sought justice, I am extremely suspicious and would rather advise the aggrieved party not to venture forth until the Atuguba panel has had it say.

For starters, President Mahama and his ruling National Democratic Congress did not demonstrate any good faith going into their judicial slugfest. The Gonja native has also through it all demonstrated obdurate and obnoxious posturing such that that the only language that may get him to fully appreciate the seriousness of his crime is force. And Nana Akufo-Addo had better be prepared to resort to the surgical and meticulous application of force, if necessary, and if justice is to prevail.

I make this observation because Mr. Mahama continues to adamantly insist, against the reality on the ground and common sense, that it was Divine Providence, rather than the morally depraved Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who declared him winner of Election 2012 and gazetted Mr. Mahama as President of Ghana. That the Chief Justice would passively slide along with such travesty and downright charade by offering the judicial seal of her approval, without first and foremost calling for a forensic and/or judicial review of the Afari-Gyan coup detat, also worries me disconsolately.

Then also, I have a great problem with the credibility of the young man who is reportedly spearheading the meeting. Mr. Hassan Ayariga, presidential candidate of the so-called People's National Convention (PNC), throughout the 2012 presidential debates and electioneering campaign, amply and shamelessly demonstrated that, indeed, his main objective was to tactically distract the southern-born Nana Akufo-Addo from eloquently putting across his message, while Mr. Mahama, his clansman, got a free pass. In so doing, of course, Mr. Ayariga hoped to vigorously drive home the politically divisive and morally invidious Mahama message of : "Fellow Northerners, This Is Our Time And Turn!"

This was very offensive because it cynically and mendaciously presumed Dr. Hilla Limann, of blessed memory, to have been a neocolonial president wickedly imposed on Ghanaians by some alien critters. More significantly, we must also bear in mind that Hassan Ayariga has a younger brother who currently serves as spokesman for Mr. Mahama, if memory serves me right. And so, clearly, there is a conflict-of-interest situation here.

Couple the preceding with the fact that a relative of the presiding judge, Dr. Raymond Atuguba, who also serves as Executive Chief of Staff to President Mahama, recently succeeded in getting vital portions of the judicial terms of reference of the Atuguba panel (CI 75), verging on the finality of the verdict of the Supreme Court curiously quashed by a section of the membership of the same Supreme Court. I firmly suspect that the aforesaid meeting is tactically meant to finesse Nana Akufo-Addo and his associates, in much the same way that the Manhyia-hosted Peace Accord was aimed.

If I were Akufo-Addo, I would either send Sir John or Nana Akomea to represent me. This is a veritable political ambush that may well come to haunt the NPP flagbearer.

_____________________________________________________
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
August 21, 2013
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
###