... As Dark Clouds hang over 2016 election




By Kingsley Asare

Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, the Managing Editor of the The aL-hAJJ, an Accra-based private newspaper has said he strongly agrees with Mr. James Agbedor, head of the Legal Department of ADB (formerly Agriculture Development Bank) that there is disaster looming over the country, that requires appropriate measures to avert it.
He said “The observation and research I have made indicates that there are dark clouds hanging over the country. In the next 25 months, Ghana is likely to witness a civil strife through election violence.”
Alhaji Bature was reacting to The Ghanaian Times story on Tuesday, October 14, under the headline, “Disaster Looms,” in which Mr Agbedor called for prayers to avert danger, as revealed to him in a vision.
Mr Agbedor has told The Ghanaians Times, that there is a danger hanging over the country, and the only way to avert a catastrophe is through prayers.
Alhaji Bature, who is also an opinion leader at Mamobi, said “The country is sitting on a time bomb which is likely to plunge it into civil strife during the 2016 general elections.”
He said he was not surprised at Mr Agbedor’s caution considering his stature in society. “Perhaps, Mr Agbedor’s vision confirmed my position of an impending implosion in the country.”
Alhaji Bature, therefore, appealed to religious leaders, civil society organizations, the National Peace Council, the security agencies and eminent personalities in the country to rise up and adopt measures for peace, before the 2016 general election.
He said for the first time in the history of Ghana, the country “may experience chaos.”
Ask to justify his assertion Alhaji Bature said “the belligerent posture taken by the opposition party portends a gloomy picture for the country for the next general elections, which would be held in November 2016, if the current constitutional amendment goes through.”
“You don’t need a soothsayer or a Mallam to tell you that the country is heading for danger,” he warned.
According to him, the opposition had made strenuous efforts to run down the Electoral Commission (EC), the security agencies and the Supreme Court, against their defeat in the 2012 elections.
“The recent call by the Ghana Bar Association for the Electoral Commission Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, to step down is fuelling the NPP’s claim that the EC is not a credible institution,” Alhaji Bature said.
He said “Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential aspirant, who suffered defeat in the 2012 elections, is likely to lead the party again in the next general elections.
Alhaji Bature said Nana Akufo-Addo and his supporters were ranting that the NPP would neither go to court in 2016 nor sit down for the Electoral Commission or any other party to rig the elections and intimated that, it did not augur well for the 2016 general elections and the peace of the country.
“By the character of the NDC, I know they will not allow themselves to be cheated in the next general elections and that is where the danger lies for the country,” he said.
He said prior to the 2012 elections, the NPP asked its supporters to stay at the polling stations after casting their votes, much against electoral rules of the EC, saying, “If the other political parties had asked their supporters to also stay at the polling stations you could imagine what would have happened.”
He said after the Supreme Court declared its verdict, some hardliners in the NPP still refused to accept the verdict, noting that the impression was still being created that the NPP was cheated in the 2012 elections.
“It was the brilliant and incisive conciliatory speech by Nana Akufo-Addo that saved the country from strife,” Alhaji Bature said, adding that the numerous courtesy calls on Nana Addo by religious organizations and other eminent personalities helped to quell the political tension in the country.
He said “the impression should not be created that Ghana is an oasis of peace, and that civil strife cannot occur in the country.”
Countries like Cote d’ Ivoire, Egypt and Ukraine were peaceful. They had standing armies, the police, and established legal institutions, but went into the abyss,” he warned.