By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Folks, I want to raise something for discussion, which has been bothering me all this while. It has to do with the tons of congratulations given President Mahama vis-à-vis his inauguration in office as Ghana’s legitimate President while Akufo-Addo and his band of malcontents are still flexing their muscles, spoiling for a fight to attempt overturning that done deal.

Here is a timely instance for my raising this issue. The Paramount Chief of the Nandom Traditional Area, Naa Dr. Puoure Puobe VII, the Chiefs and people of Nandom in the Nandom District of the Upper West Region, have released a statement congratulating President John Mahama on his election and successful assumption of office as the fourth President of the Fourth Republic. They also commended Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor on his elevation to the high office of Leader of the House and Majority Leader of Ghana’s Parliament.
“We the people of Nandom Constituency and District have an unalloyed confidence in President Mahama and Dr Kunbuor, the reason why we voted massively for the pair in the 2012 general elections. It is our belief that Nandom would experience unprecedented development in the next four years under their leadership,” said the statement, which was issued in Nandom and signed by Dr. Puoure Puobe.
Other congratulatory messages to President Mahama have already come from both far and near. He has already been installed in office as Ghana’s President, mandated to rule for the next four years and eligible to stand for re-election in 2016.
Is there anything difficult to understand about this fait accompli to warrant any struggle at the Supreme Court for a reversal of what God and the good people of Ghana have already put together?
I continue to wonder why Akufo-Addo and his followers can’t see things as all these people congratulating President Mahama have done.
Are they saying that after boldly and genuinely confirming President Mahama as the winner of the Presidential elections, based on the official declaration and gazetting of him by the statutory body (Electoral Commission) as the winner of the free, fair, and transparent December 2012 elections, these people will swallow their congratulatory messages back and vomit them for Akufo-Addo if the Supreme Court says so? Or that the structures being put in place for governance will be dismantled for him to institute his own, mindless of the dire consequences?
Or that the voice of only 9 Ghanaian individuals sitting at the Supreme Court is more valid than the votes of the millions of voters who chose President Mahama as their preferred leader, not to mention the millions of others who didn’t vote (either because they were not in Ghana at the time or because they were not of the voting age or because they were just not interested in voting but would want a leader of President Mahama’s calibre to steer the affairs of the country)?
It is baffling why Akufo-Addo and his gang of malcontents think that the verdict of the Supreme Court is more authentic than that of the millions who stood under the scorching sun to exercise their franchise which they must move heaven-and-earth to get.
I find it difficult to rationalize why Akufo-Addo is hell-bent on forcing a river to flow upstream. Again, it beats my understanding why he thinks that in his estimation, he is better qualified to rule Ghana than President Mahama despite all the shortcomings that glaringly positioned him as an underdog in the elections.
Even in defeat, he is still belligerent, confirming the poor opinions that made it compellingly difficult for the voters to connect with him. I can’t imagine how he understands the intricacies of governance to think that even if the Supreme Court makes the mistake to insult the will of the people, to disregard reality, and to twist legal technicalities to favour him, he can become Ghana’s President under these trying circumstances and still hope to rule.
How does he think that he will be ushered into office, anyway? And how does he think that he can use the apparatus of state to function as an imposed President with little support in the Legislature and all over the country? Is his ego running too wild for comfort?
I am being very blunt here to say that Akufo-Addo will be deluding himself to think that he can become Ghana’s President. He cannot. The matter is before the Supreme Court to be determined; but we can put two and two together to say that the odds stacked against him—regardless of the NPP’s faith in the Supreme Court—are really heavy. Truth be told, Akufo-Addo doesn’t have the support of the apparatus of state, particularly the security services.
I have been given to know that the special voting that preceded the general elections on December 7 and 8 went against him, indicating that he has no goodwill among those who are entrusted with securing the country. These are the people not to toy with. They didn’t give him their mandate, which sends a clear and alarming signal that he doesn’t enjoy goodwill from there. You can imagine where I am leading you to.
Akufo-Addo needs to know that conditions don’t favour him in his morbid quest to use the technicalities inherent in our legal and judicial labyrinth to curry favour from the Supreme Court. He should hasten slowly. This is no threat but a friendly reminder that the Lord has already fought the battle and appointed his leader for Ghanaians.
Those of them thinking of doing anything to make the country ungovernable had better think twice because if they stick their necks out, they will be cut for them. They just need to be reminded that the die has already been cast and the message read and understood. Fate sealed tight!
Obviously, what you cannot see during the day, you will not see at night. Akufo-Addo failed to see the electoral trend when public sentiments were not in his favour and shouldn’t have expected to win the elections. He didn’t understand the beginning well; so, the end is now troubling him. That is why he is in court and not the Osu Castle (or Flagstaff House). Now, he is leading the NPP members to turn their mouths into knives and shouldn’t be surprised when they cut their own lips off and spit blood.
President Mahama, whom others have fondly labelled as the “Lion of Gonja,” is our President and will continue to be so. Of course, as an ant-hill that is destined to become a giant ant-hill (Ghana’s President), he will ultimately become one, no matter how many times it is destroyed by elephants. And he is already consolidating his hold on power as such. What can’t anybody understand about this reality?
I shall return…
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