Friday, December 19, 2008

ThinkGhana@Elections

Where there was a Papa Jay
There is a K4.

Where there was a Konadu
There is a Theresa.

Where there was a 31st
There is a Mother & Child.

Where there was a Kume Preko
There is a Wahala.

Where there was an Alliance
There is a Committee.

Where there was a Vision
There is a Strategy.

Where there was an Asemfofro
There is a Stadium.

Where there was an NDC
There is an NPP.

The NDC was for consensus!
The NDC is for primaries!!

The NPP was for primaries!
The NPP is for consensus!!!

The NDC was for Continuity!
The NPP was for Change!!

The NDC is for Change!
The NPP is for Continuity!!

NDC-speak was NPP-speak.
NPP-speak was NDC-speak.

The NDC is the NPP is the NDC!
The NPP is the NDC is the NPP!

The wheels have turned
And still remain forever still!!!

Positive Change!
Positive Blues!!
Positive Déjà vu!!!

The colour of my flag @ elections?
Red, Gold, Green with the Black Star.

What is the colour of your flag?

God Bless Our Homeland, Ghana!

It Is Time to Think Ghana!!!

LAWSUIT AGAINST GHANA BAR ASSOCIATION

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF JUDICATURE
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAST TRACK DIVISION
ACCRA

Suit No.
JOE ABOAGYE DEBRAH ]
F119B, Ashongman ]
Accra ] PLAINTIFF

VRS.

GHANA BAR ASSOCIATION ]
Hse. No. 5, 2 Ave. State House Rd.}
South-East Ridge, Accra } DEFENDANT


STATEMENT OF CLAIM

1. The Plaintiff is a lawyer based in Accra and a member of the Defendant Association.

2. The Defendant is an association with the object of concerning itself, inter alia with all matters affecting the legal profession in Ghana and is open to every lawyer enrolled as such in Ghana, subject to application and the payment of relevant fees.

3.The Defendant is governed by a Constitution duly passed into force on October 1, 1994.

4. The Plaintiff says that by the Defendant’s Constitution, an Annual General Conference took place in Kumasi from September 29, 2008 to October 2, 2008.

5. The Plaintiff avers that the agenda for the said Annual General Conference was distributed to all members at the said conference and included the election of national officers for the 2008/2009 legal year which was to be held on October 1, 2008.

6. The Plaintiff says that on the due date, the Conference was informed that due to non-compliance with relevant provisions of the Constitution, the elections had been cancelled.

7. The Plaintiff says that the Conference was informed that the Defendant did not comply with the period for opening of nominations and therefore all pending nominations for national executive office were accordingly null and void.

8. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant duly received all relevant nomination documentation from prospective candidates well before the Conference date but did not at any stage of the Conference communicate the alleged non-compliance with the Constitution until the third day of the Conference when the matter was due for discussion.

9. The Plaintiff says that the announcement followed in the wake of controversy at the Conference following the resignation of the then President and the fact that he remained the only candidate for the position of National President if the elections were to take place as originally scheduled.

10. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant’s actions surprised some of the candidates as they claimed they had met all the requirements for the elections.

11. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant admitted openly at the Conference that the error was not due to the prospective candidates but due to the Defendant’s own errors.

12. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant further announced at the Conference that nominations for national executive positions will be opened after the Conference and that all eligible members could file to contest for executive positions before the elections on November 15, 2008.

13. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant adjourned the Conference to November 15, 2008 at the same venue.

14. The Plaintiff says that on November 15, 2008, he raised the unconstitutionality of the proposed elections at the Conference but was defeated in a motion and the Conference voted to proceed with the elections as scheduled.

15. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant went through a process of elections and duly announced that the positions of national officers except that of the National President had been duly filled through the said elections.

16. The Plaintiff avers that the elections for national officers held on November 15, 2008 flies in the face of clear unambiguous provisions in Article 26(3) of the Defendant’s Constitution and are therefore null and void and of no legal effect whatsoever.

17. The Plaintiff says that the said elected national officers necessarily filed their nomination forms between October 2, 2008 and November 15, 2008 when nominations were opened after the first Conference ended on October 2, 2008.

18. The Plaintiff says that the General Council of the Defendant which is the governing body, has powers under the Constitution to appoint officers to fill casual vacancies but chose to act unconstitutionally through elections to fill the said positions.

19. The Plaintiff says that the so-called elected officers have begun acting as such and would not halt their actions unless through the injunctive powers of this Honourable Court.

20. The Plaintiff says that the Defendant must comply with its own Constitution in order to retain its high position in the eyes of the Ghanaian public as the voice and beacon of legality and constitutionalism in national affairs.

21. Wherefore the Plaintiff claims as per the indorsement to his writ of summons in the following terms:

a. A declaration that the election of national officers of the Defendant on November 15, 2008 is in contravention of Article 26(3) of the Defendant’s Constitution and is therefore null and void and of no legal effect.

b. An order that the election of all national officers of the Defendant at the November 15, 2008 Conference is null and void.

c. An injunction against the Defendant restraining them from permitting, allowing, condoning or parading the said elected officials in any manner whatsoever and/or holding them out as elected national officers of the Defendant for the 2008/2009 legal year or acting as such pending the final determination of the suit.

DATED AT 1ST LAW, ACCRA THIS 18th DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2008


PLAINTIFF
THE REGISTRAR
HIGH COURT, FAST TRACK DIVISION
ACCRA

AND TO:

THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANT

OPEN LETTER TO NANA A. D. AKUFO-ADDO

My Dear Nana,

I know you don’t want to be receiving letters from perceived pests like me at this time. But even you will admit that sometimes what I say makes sense. I am therefore taking the liberty of sending you this letter in the hope that you will read it or at least one of the boys will see this and bring it to your attention.

We met on the road to Agona Swedru on 13th December 2008. Indeed, I never realized it was your convoy until I got to Swedru where I made a stop at Teacher Ofori Boahene’s place. He was my Sunday School Teacher and he has a shop on the main road. It’s a religious duty to stop and pay homage to a man who used to beat me with a drum stick in Sunday School. I have a duty to point out that you were not in a 24-vehicle convoy or anything of the sort. I counted about six (6) SUVs and no real police escort. The lead car I suspect is a security detail and it was the only vehicle with some warning lights on. No sirens, no lead police bikes. If I had known that it was your convoy I would have handed over this letter there and then. As it happens, I could not and here we are!

Nana, you and I go back a long way. I have watched up close and personal, your contribution to the development of Ghana, our motherland. Since you unlawfully appropriated an asset of mine ages ago, my life has also moved on. It’s rather ironic that you, Uncle Fiifi and I have something in common. You will recall that our most recent encounter was in church, when you paid a visit, early in the campaign. Those were buoyant days. These are admittedly, unexpectedly tough times for you. We all understand and appreciate the really severe fright Uncle Fiifi has given you. But I don’t worry, because it’s all good.

I just wanted to offer a piece of unsolicited advice. You are in this mess for this simple reason: the party refused to live by the very principles it was founded upon and everyone abided it until the near disaster on December 7, 2008. For a party that campaigned on a platform that the NDC did not follow the rule of law and was prone to arbitrary and unlawful deeds, there was little reason to use the same NDC as your counterfoil. Why Jake for example will justify appropriating a ‘mercy shelter’ with an ‘Ebow Tawiah indemnity clause’ still baffles me. The NPP has been sloppy, real sloppy!!! I know you know it but in times like these, you have to keep gritting your teeth and hope to deal with all the people who have created this mess when you are in the house that Yewura built. There are bad nuts in the party. They look, act like politicians of yore. There are people who have turned the law on its head and acted brazenly without regard to law. There are people who have become so arrogant that they act as if they are super citizens. The people saw. The people kept quite. The people thumbed up all those issues on December 7, 2008!!!

You were a man who would not countenance such disregard for law. The NPP has now become like the NDC in many respects and that may be a logical reason for the way the party was unable to achieve its dreams at the polls December 7, 2008. I give you another example of the sore you carry. In the lead up to the December 7 polls, there were stories that an MCE who had a vested interest in a company that had won a contract to clamp, tow and fine offending vehicles in a city’s CBD had issued a fatwa to the effect that the CBD was a ‘no fly zone’. Unknown to the drivers, this company takes the bulk of fines and only a fraction goes to the Assembly. Nana, how can such a person retain the post and mount your platform. Some of the people who mounted the platform spoke as if ‘before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they not know what they are saying; and when they have sat down, they do not know what they have said”. A liability to your birthright!!!

You recall that Jake said on the platform at Kasoa when he was introducing you that you have never smoked or drank. Can you imagine what you will have done to your personal credibility if immediately you took the mike you admitted that you had smoked before and drank before but that was all in the past? You abided that statement. Contrast that with Obama in America. He admitted that he smoked but he was working on it. And everyone know how completely strong a man must be to let go of those little pleasures. It is those little things that may have snowballed into the gathering storm. When my people see that, will they come out to vote? Then another bad mix! Pre-mix fuel distribution was apparently given to party cronies who became middlemen and made their “dough” at the expense of the fisher folk. Will they come out and vote? No! Now the party has lost the entire coastline from Aflao to Shama! Yet another sore to buttress my point, Sir. A beautiful program like school feeding is left to the encircling vultures who so fleece the programme that by the time the caterer gets funds, only 10 % is available. Inevitability, the food is so bad that many don’t appreciate it. Even Courage and Peace think twice when Her Ladyship brings some of the school feeding diet home for them.

It is my humble view that you need to take personal charge of the campaign. Take a leaf from Uncle Fiifi’s house to house. Go to the people! Look them in the eye and admit to them “there’s been mess but I will clean it up even if it involves my people”. Please keep perceived sinners out of sight/sound. My only ‘niggly’ is that your present predicament bears an uncanny semblance to the last days of the NDC in 2000. The NPP’s claim to fame was its distinction from the NDC. God may be doing a “Nebuchadnezzar” on the NPP. In 2000, NPP came to power on the wings of Aseeho and a message of change. How ironic that on December 28, 2008, NDC will also be on a message of Aseeho and change. If Aseeho + change = power, then you have a right to your nightmares. The race now boils down to you and Uncle Fiifi. If you don’t convince people that you will not be like the party which has closed its eyes to blatant wrongdoing, you may miss out and then you will finally have to voice out your frustrations with Yewura, the man many suspect has done little for the party though that issue has become a veritable “ehye wo bo” as its stuck in over three (3) million throats, choking people who are unable to voice it out save a buffoon like me. Now you know that strategic mistakes have been made. Now you know that you will have to allow the law to work to get credibility, if you should win.

Some of the people around you are working flat out because they know that if this slips, by Yeshua Amashua, their bums are toast! Only Yewura and the Chief Apostle don’t seem to get this! Keep working hard. Many people may be holding you to ransom during this run-off period but I know that under your rule, the law will be applied fairly and equitably and you will not broach such brazen disregard for law.

Nana, God has worked a miracle in this election. Ghana needed it and He has delivered a parliament where impunity cannot reign. The NPP lost the road map. You have to assure people that you have the original! Work hard O, because I am looking forward to compensation for all the pain you caused me ages ago. I wish you well because Ghana is the ultimate winner, whether weather. The issue now is about strength of character. If you win, will you allow the wanton chop- chop? If Uncle Fiifi wins, can he deal with “Ambodzin” That’s the question!!!

Not too long ago, one of your close compatriots who holds a very senior position in government told me that I will never get a job in this country. I had not gone asking for a job. He must have been influenced by my forthrightness. I have now grown to know that the love of God abounds and He is the one who makes provision for us all. Integrity is priceless. I will continue to speak my mind as best and as civilly as possible. Please assure that when you win, you will make integrity fashionable again. For too long, instead of honouring the people of principle, we have collectively crippled them and broken their spirits, just for daring to do the right things. In my little corner, I will impact my land with the talents Chineke gave me. This is the only land we can walk about freely. If we keep doing what we are doing, we will get to the promised land in our life time!!! I believe. Make others believe!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and madam. I know this was not the Christmas you anticipated. But you are strong and equipped to deal with the situation. Nana, I wish to write more but I must end here. I have another letter to write to Uncle Fiifi too. Chineke be with you!!! Run a campaign of hope and you have a chance. Endorse the campaign of fear and you may lose your message and the Holy Grail!!!

Why is this gospel song ringing in my head ….“onyame ei, afei na mate wa'se…?”

Sincerely
Joe Aboagye Debrah Esq.
www.osimidiaries.blogspot.com

OPEN LETTER TO UNCLE FIIFI

Dear Uncle Fiifi,

Her Ladyship and the two musketeers send their greetings! She had warned me to stay off writing but you know its therapeutic effect is such that after being silent for a long while, my doctor advised me to start writing again.

It’s been quite a while since I last saw you. I have followed every move of yours on television and radio and read all angles of your amazing improbable journey in all the newspapers and online. When I kept telling people who had been blinded by propaganda that they write you off at their peril, they laughed. See who’s laughing now? They said you were weak, sick, dying, and dead! They said your house to house was useless. Today, it has been ‘blofolised’ into ‘hamlet to hamlet’.

I believe you have reached where you are primarily on your personal integrity. People look at you and who you are and are prepared to hear you out. The only abiding pain is you know who! If only you could tell Ghanaians that the only power that can counter that is state power. If you get to the house that Yewura built, I know you will be a fine president and the oldman power will not be an albatross. But many people are not convinced. I personally think that a lot of people underestimate the power in you. Please, say something to assure people. I have tried sometimes to tell people that African political history shows that in order to have any credibility as leader, you have no choice but to deal with the counter force which may be your mentor where necessary. I know the oldman will feel accomplished when you win and will now rest properly. However, if you win, and the old man interferes in a manner that impugns your credibility as the leader of the country, you have the balls to act. I know but you have to let others know. That is your biggest hurdle! Cross it and you will give a lot of Osono and false prophets a very unhappy New Year!

You have shown that integrity pays. You have shown that sincerity and stead fastness pays. You are a true patriot. If you win, Ghana is still the winner. Thanks for rocking the boat, big time! If Aseeho + change = power, then some people may have one heck of an adjustment to make, post December 28, 2008!

Gyekyewaa, myself and the boys wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Uncle Fiifi, wo ye bad paaaa!!! Wa ma amanfo ho hyehye won pa pa!!!

Yours faithfully

Joe Aboagye Debrah Esq.
www.osimidiaries.blogspot.com

Monday, December 15, 2008

SILLY SEASON

“Politicians are like monkeys. The higher they climb, the more revolting the parts they expose”. – Gwilyn Lloyd George (decd.), British Liberal Politician.

Fellow country men, lend me your ears. Silly season is here!!! It crept up on us after we absorbed the results of the December 7, 2008 presidential polls. Silly season, thankfully, is rather short. It is actually only about three weeks but most of the silliness takes root only by the beginning of the second week. When Agya Afare announced the results, I knew instinctively that a lot of weird stories would emerge between that date and December 28, 2008. Its happening thick and fast. I have always held the opinion that in Africa, the politician always does something silly when he realizes that power may be slipping away. Many people act rather weird during the silly season. It’s not worthwhile trying to rationalize most of the actions within the silly season. This applies across the board to most of the big men in the society. Silly season is a time when people who frankly ought to know better do not mind embarrassing themselves at all in a desperate bid to win the mandate of the people. My medical friends tell me that in the initial moments of shock, some people can act basabasa. They also say that certain levels of euphoria could also lead to the same weird behaviour.

We have been here before, haven’t we? In 2000 during the silly season, the NDC became unsure whether to hide Papa Jay and Maame Konadu or allow them on the campaign trail. These are critical decisions during the silly season. Unfortunately for the parties involved in the season’s activities, there is a very tight timeline, essentially only about 14 days to really act silly. Let me take you through a few that have popped out so far.

The Ashanti DCOP is more of a gangster than a policeman”. Ha ba! Why would you say that to a police boss? But it’s the silly season. Silliness begets more silliness which begets crass buffoonery among mpanyinfo! If a police man sees a man assaulted but rather arrests the assaulted man and grants him bail and then denies the assault, a silly return is the gangster rap that is flowing from Pap Jay’s camp. Then the champion of human rights Osagyefo Nana A.D. Akufo-Addo (remember the name is not spelt with a double f) is reported as having witnessed the assault on a photo journalist but did not intervene to save the poor guy. Can it be true? The Venerable Sir John has come out to say that they were nowhere near the fracas and it involved another person completely unconnected with the campaign team of Nana. A clear case of show me the evidence! Don’t expect Nana to say anything on this. There really isn’t time to waste on such little things as a small matter of some slaps and kicks. In the silly season, our credentials don’t matter when we have to go back to our strongholds to beg them to prevent the impending Armageddon.

Then there is the other matter of Pap Jay’s bodyguard or minder or bootlicker or macho man who chose to use a handkerchief as a holster in Manhyia. The story is that he pulled the gun in the presence of the Venerable Yewura. What was he thinking of? Then it gets really silly. Yewura’s men had AKs. Guess what would have happened if they had not acted professionally. And oh, Pap Jay says leave my man with me and am going to bring him to DCOP, Ashanti later. The same gangster? Then the national government says that no borders will be closed during the elections. It was a calculated lie by people tasked with the highest responsibility of governing the entire land. Boom! Two days before the elections, the border of Ewe-Togo land is clammed shut! Ebei, NPP, is that how you are? Now, all ewes as far as Timbuktu are reporting well before Christmas and they wont go anywhere till after they have cast their vote. The silliness unites a people who already don’t like you!

It can only get better! I hear Christine Churcher was on TV kneeling down fiili-fiili in Simpa, begging the people and the chiefs to vote for the Osono. Oh, me nkrofo Central Region, look at what you done to the holiest people in the land. Antie Christine, whom I needled a long time ago in the underground at St. Augustine’s by having the guts to tear into her girls verbally, on her knees? On national TV? Probably on ghanaweb? I hear Yewura himself was also pleading in Oseikrom that if the NDC comes to power, they will deal with certain people in the party. Ebei, is that the reason we should stand in the sun and vote? To prevent a government from dealing with people? I pray the people in Ashanti become contrite as fast as possible because at this rate, if by the final week it is perceived that they are still stubborn, oh, Yewura, his sons, the chief apostle, myself and all the others who are suddenly afraid of the same laws they have been superintending and applying liberally will have no choice but to call a nationally televised medias conference and weep till you are shamed to go and vote to prevent Armageddon.

But it is not over yet! The best one is the bit about the Attorney-General ordering prisoners out of jail. I hear the Deputy A-G said that he had no clue that courts were applying a non-law until a close relative was also jailed. I may be dumb but in all my years of curiosity, I have never come across such a move. If Efua Abakoma gets canned by a Judge who is asleep, fed by prosecutors who are all asleep, sadly joined by lawyers who ought to have known better but chose to sleep for some "no ko fio" and the Ministry of Justice who woke up after many people have been jailed, I can go to Nsawam, knock on the door of the prison executives and tell them that there was no legal basis for the jail terms so they should release her for me! That is the sure cream on the silly season so far. Ghana is a land of beauty! The Ghana Bar Association may be unaware of the silliness being perpetrated. Since when did an Attorney-General have the power to release persons who have been jailed by a court of competent jurisdiction, WHETHER LAWFULLY OR OTHERWISE? But if you do not do this within the silly season, when?

A word to the NDC. Stop being silly! You claim that you want to have power because you are ready to govern. Why all these explosive statements which just go to stoke the fire. No matter the issues you may have with persons or institutions in the governance structures, remember that if you win, you will inherit the self-same structures and indeed some of the same persons like the gangster in Kumasi. How can you work with a gangster? Please tone down the rhetoric and focus on your core message. Look for your votes without threatening fire and brimstone. Uncle Fiifi has already set fire among the Osono and her bum is burning. Please do not denigrate government so much that everyone begins to see government as really that bad. Remember the Osono is in this mess because of words not matching up to deeds.

To the Osono, words! I beg, you are embarrassing yourself. Nana, please get some ice cold water and wash your fine face. Get some of the really bad guys who have actually caused this debacle away from the limelight and market the essential you. Why are you abiding the destruction of the very principles of the party in your bid for power? Remember the NPP told the people that the NDC stole opipipipiii and they have no respect for fundamental rights. Your claim to fame is therefore a fundamental distinction from them. I cannot understand the panic. Speak your mind, remain true to yourself and let the silliness end. Going round the country begging people just debases everything you represent. It may be true that begging is an acknowledgement that you have goofed big time. It’s a risky strategy because Ghana is big and you will not have enough time to convince everyone. Some people who share your platform would be elsewhere if the law was applied fairly and equally. It was Walter Mondale, former Vice President of Obamaland who said “ political image is like mixing cement. When its wet, you can move it around and shape it, but at some point it hardens and there’s almost nothing you can do to reshape it”. Osono, just pray the cement has not hardened yet!!!

Before the silly season arrived, some folks spoke dismissively of the importance of Pap Jay accepting to hand over to Yewura. Now due to Osono silliness, we now see how painfully difficult it was for Papa Jay to hand over power to his arch-enemies. As avowed democrats, I expect the NPP to be better prepared to manage a handover than Papa Jay. So why the mad panic? Please chill! If you have not stolen any monies or messed yourself up such that Tsatsu becomes a nightmare scenario, you have no cause to act silly.

Before I sign out, I have heard the latest move in the silly season. If you are a public servant and the government inadvertently pushed some unearned millions your way, I hear all deductions have been halted. That’s not good enough. If you really want to earn a vote with that kind of silliness, you have to go the whole nine yards. Just say that we wont ask you to pay again. That’s your "chobo" for the eight years. If its not wiped off, this Ghanaian voter will be told by your arch-enemy that he should not smile because immediately they vote you back, you will come back for your money. The it really gets tricky because you may then not have the vote which may then mean you may not win which may them mean you will have to answer for all the …… which may then mean you will have to go to ,……….. and then all the silliness comes to naught! Please don’t give them the chance to say “me gyimi a, enka mo pe paaaaa!!!!

Fellow countrymen, enjoy the silly season while it lasts. It may be the lull before the perfect storm!!!

Relax, all! Go and vote on December 28, 2008! Protect the ballot! Remember silly season aint over yet! The fuel price will sink lower!

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana
And Make Our Nation Great and Strong!

JOE ABOAGYE DEBRAH Esq.
www@osimidiaries.blogspot.com

Friday, December 12, 2008

STAY SANE, ELECTORAL COMMISSION

“Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.

This piece has been prompted in part by certain suggestions that have been made to the Electoral Commission in the wake of the first round of voting for possible amendments to the voting process before the second round of voting on December 28, 2008.

The first was by the headline in the Graphic Newspaper of Friday, December 12, 2008 captioned “Open More Polling Stations for Presidential Run-off, Elections Task Force Urges”. It was written by Albert Salia. The Graphic reported that the National Elections Security Task Force has suggested the opening of more polling stations to reduce the tension and conflict that are associated with elections in the country. It noted that whereas some polling stations had between 500 and 600 voters, others catered for more than 1000 voters. Such high numbers, the story continued, often contributed to anxiety among voters to vote early and also accounted for the late close of polls at those stations.

This call was made by the Venerable Patrick Acheampong Esq., who is the Chairman of the Task Force and the incumbent IGP when he addressed newsmen. The IGP was of the opinion that if more polling stations were opened to accommodate fewer voters, voting would end early and the counting of votes would be made easier.

Lately, another suggestion has also been made that the indelible ink must be applied after voting has been completed and not prior to voting!

I beg to differ!

I must, however, first of all use the opportunity to congratulate the National Elections Security Task Force for the exhibition of supreme competence at the just ended first round of elections. Having been on the ground in one of the rural constituencies during the period, I bear testimony to the work that the security services have done. The nation salutes you, all!

It is understandable that in the period before the second round, a lot of opinions will be bandied about. I also do not dispute that these suggestions may be informed by the desire to improve the process and further assure transparency and efficiency in the electoral process. I am however calling on the Electoral Commission not to change the procedures on voting prior to December 28, 2008. The suggestion by the National Electoral Task Force seems fraught with the very dangers it seeks to avoid. Having voted at particular polling stations, every citizen who participated in the process will not wake up on December 28, 2008 unaware of which poling station he should go to. The second round is where all the suppressed bad traits are going to show. Establishing more polling stations will lead to chaos because there will be no time to exhibit the changed Register so that eligible voters can ascertain where their polling stations are before the election date. It will throw up the possible scenario of citizens scurrying around on Election Day determining where they have been assigned to. It is a recipe for the same disaster that the Task Force has been assigned to prevent and-or manage. The Electoral Commission should keep the polling stations as they are. After we have cast our vote on December 28, 2008, they should seriously consider the suggestion by the Venerable Patrick Acheampong Esq. and reduce the numbers at polling stations by creating more polling stations to cater for them. Agya Afare, after the elections but NEVER before the second round!!!

On the issue of marking the finger with indelible ink after voting and not prior to, the least said about it the better. It is a rather strange way to resolve a non-issue. I fully agree with Dr. Akweetey of IDEG, I believe, whom I heard this morning on Joy FM make the arguments rather forcefully that it is near impossible to enforce and will also lead to more chaos. If implemented, it also has a very high potential to disrupt the elections. In the first round, macho men were brazen enough to attempt snatching ballot boxes in Akwatia, Eastern Region. After an individual has voted, he has very little incentive to hang around for the finger to be marked. Further, it will give an unnecessary incentive to people who have made up their minds to engage in double voting. Agya Afare, please ignore this suggestion completely. Please tell them, tofiakwa!!!

The Electoral Commission should remember that at this time when both candidates are so jittery and re-strategising, it should not do anything to provide fodder for fertile minds to begin imagining all sorts of nefarious thoughts and use that to justify any attempts at impugning the integrity of the impending vote. There are still trying times ahead for the Electoral Commission but I have a strong belief that you are equipped to deal with them.

To the Electoral Commission, I say ayekoo! You have made us all proud. However your work is cut out for you. On December 28, 2008, remain impartial and let a fair process determine who our next leader should be. Around the world, Ghana is challenging perceptions of the African. Yes we can. Yes we have! Yes, we would!

To the National Elections Security Task Force, I say your work is cut out for you. The real work will be done on December 28, 2008. In Africa, when push comes to shove, some one always does something pretty silly. You are the professionals. You have already demonstrated your abilities. I have an abiding belief in your ability to remain as professional as possible in these trying circumstances. As indicated in an earlier piece, God has given us the best Christmas package this nation could ever ask for. Our Parliament which was a source of bitter disappointment to some of us has been given a lifeline to act like a real parliament. All we therefore need is for our citizens to exercise their franchise in a free, fair and transparent manner to assure us an executive that will have to contend with a real House which has lost all its rubber stamps. I do not envy you in your rather tasking job but I do wish you well on December 28, 2008 and beyond.

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana
And Make Our Nation Great and Strong!

JOE ABOAGYE DEBRAH Esq.
Accra

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

ELEPHANT OSTRICHES: THE REVISED STANDARD VERSION

“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and
all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted;
when the man of controversy is looked upon as
a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be
a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of
the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.”

- John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-born American Economist.

Have you ever seen an elephant digging a hole in order to bury its head? Guess you have not. Okay, let’s try again. Can you imagine an elephant digging a hole to bury its head in? Can u imagine the size of that hole? Well, look no further. A mighty hole is being dug right close to you, right now, as you read this! My manager, being the typical Ghanaian wife that she is, has issued a fatwa that having lost my faith completely, it was enough to nurse my wounds at home and keep my thoughts to myself, especially on the state of Ogyakrom’s elephantiasis. The fatwa only allowed for public musings on her and the two musketeers. I could even define my daily struggles with old men who ought to know better but show nothing of that. But I was not to muse about the creeping pandemic. I am therefore pleading that on one tells her I have breached her fatwa. The ‘net is not her friend and she won’t know unless you become an okro-mouth!!! I am compelled to ventilate due to the impending Armageddon that’s about to engulf a certain domesticated elephant and to which none but the elephant is oblivious to. How can an elephant survive in the forest after being domesticated?

Compare the sizes of the heads of the ostrich and that of the Osono. The ostrich proverbially digs a hole and buries its head in times of wahala and chooses to show its bottom. Picture the elephant trying to dig a hole to bury its head in the sand. To my messed up mind, it will be near impossible. My prognosis is that the elephant by definition will have to stare issues in the face and basically face up to it. In Ogyakrom today, what’s happening?



‘Asonomma’ are so busy doing deeds that they don’t seem to know or care about the sentiments of the very same hot men who carried them on the back of ‘opipipiipi’ to the Castle. People are so busy trying to be Presidents that they don’t even see that gradually, the NPP is becoming like the NDC in its last days. Everyone, including the venerable Ben Ephson knows that the NPP won the elections because of the votes of the floaters. Foot soldiers of the Osono deferred their pay in order to bring the Osono from the bush. They worked for the NPP for the love of party and country, hooked on the intoxicating fumes of the promises of positive change, dished amidst the melodies of awurade kasa. Under the umbrella at the time, their people had also decided that “le hwua de kwasia, Ce nest pas tia so deux, cest tia so une” (forgive my French). To them, their big people had so enjoyed the booty and promptly forgotten them that they would demand all their back pay and take front pay, side pay and kickbacks. In long, their message was simple: “unless you cough up some of the money lodged in your throat, no footwork, period”! If you call them soldiers, you got to pay them! That’s what caused the umbrella the throne in 2000! The reverse is playing itself out in the NPP now now now!!!

Almighty Yeshua Amashua (respect to the Archbishop!) has a very sophisticated way of playing all of us, when we begin to think that we have arrived! “He makes all things beautiful in His Time”. Today, NPP foot soldiers are also demanding their pound of flesh. Unless you drop some dough, none is prepared to move. While you slept over the past Osono years, a quiet evolution has taken place in Ghanaian politics. The NPP has become the NDC!? And instead of that waking up the gamekeepers to the realities on the ground that people are getting increasingly disillusioned, Osono has ordered fresh excavation equipment and promptly begun digging one giant hole for the elephant to bury its head! Ebei, is this love that am feeling? And by the way, who chose the word “kukrudu” as a slogan? Do they know that it may come back to haunt them? Kukrudu means an earthquake or earth tremor. Over the past few months, with the tectonic plates sifting all over the place, we have heard and seen reports of kukrudu in disparate places such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Solomon Islands, Japan etc. We sit in an earthquake zone and the gamekeepers’ slogan is “kukrudu”. No wonder the prayer warriors of the NDC have been imploring Yeshua Amashua to send us, not an earthquake, but a small tremor bii. Just to show the commentariat and the masses that “kukrudu, enye adepa!”. Where was I?

Yes, the NPP rode on the back of perceptions to the Castle. The Osono encouraged perceptions at the time in order to score political points. Having been assured that the Ghanaian has a 24-hour memory span and generally does not recollect anything beyond the previous 24 hours, the Osono proceeded to promise paradise in Ogyakrom. I have always maintained that we have a paradox on our hands. The Osono without the promises and declarations could make a fine argument as being one of the best governments in Ogyakrom. Sadly, that’s without the promises and if the manifesto is hidden. Matched against the manifesto and the promises and the long talk, ouch, that’s where the pains of positive change are felt, Frankly, a feature of life in Ogyakrom now, and I don’t know whether you have also noticed same, is that, when you step out, you cant help but notice that apart from people who may have their fingers in the pot, its becoming very rare to find people ready, willing and able to defend the Osono and its policies. I dare say that it is only the elephant ostriches that don’t see what’s happening. Out there in the field, where elections are won, the Osono is fast losing the battle for the hearts and minds. Osono’s claim to fame was its distinction from the Umbrella in all respects. Toady, Ogyakromanians increasingly find it difficult to make that distinction. When the distinction is fudged, the NDC will be the net gainer. Positive change means that the things we used to see or hear, we’d see and hear them no more. Listen to the news. Don’t you have a sense of déjà vu? Sometimes you feel like you have heard the news before. If you have ever felt that way, you aint wrong. You may have indeed heard it before , just that where there was a papa jay, there is a K4 and where there was a Konadu, there is a Theresa. Positive change means a 180 degree turn, not a 360 degree turn.

Yet, my people call this phenomenon a perception. I say they are all ELEPHANT OSTRICHES! The love of the people is fickle. Now the Osono seems to be supplying on a daily basis, ample reasons why they ought not to love you anymore. The earlier you stop digging in, the better for you. The energy crisis, the Ghana@ 50 hullaboutwho, nepotism and corruption in high places and that phrase that’s evaporated from presidential lexicons… “zero tolerance for corruption” etc are but a few of the “perceptions” that may send the Osono back to the bush. By the way, Mr. President should fire whoever put that phrase “zero tolerance for corruption” in his inaugural speech. I wonder why they keep doing that to him. Recently they slotted in the fact that the energy crisis would be tackled by defined actions within a fortnight. The damage control ops are still on-going on that score. The ugly beauty contest is another turnoff for the floaters but a cocoa season for the parasites. Why the President would allow people we have tasked with responsibilities to walk around with state assets on presidential campaigns beats my imagination. For a party that used to whine that the NDC was using state assets to campaign, what do we see today? Not a single person has lost his job as a result of the energy crisis. Out there, the “perception” is that its chop time. Have you seen that advert in the newspapers on drug trafficking? Well, still stealing our money? Good luck!

Perceptions as the Osono should know, hurt politically and the perception now is that the NPP is a promise and fail party. Every leader of a household who has fundamental financial problems in his house but goes out on a spending binge can’t say he’s an agya pa! Never forget that Uncle Fiifi is a formidable personality. The NDC also doesn’t seem to have internal problems to the degree of the NPP. To the NDC, their problem is external, that is the floating voters. If only they can get their act together and exorcise the ghosts, what a season Ogyakrom will witness. The NDC never thought losing was a possibility until it was sprung on them. The Osono is doing the self-same things. These days we hear language used by the dying NDC: “we can’t lose”. We are on the ground”. Ostrich talk, that!!! The typical Ghanaian is an “afraid man”. He will look left and right and weigh the implications of his actions before he does them. If he has to express his mind publicly and that will cost him or his family, he will smile a Pentecostal smile and tell you exactly what you want to hear. You have to create an enabling environment for the Ghanaian to really express what he feels. The ballot box creates that environment perfectly. In there, no one will destroy his business or mark him down for destruction. No one will walk to the Police and demand his arrest for daring to speak. Ghanaians have shown they aint no dumbos. They are the smartest politically minded Africans you would ever find. The NDC lived to tell the tale of the mulling they received at the hands of these seeming docile people. What about you?

The possibility that the NPP will lose the election is very real. And it grows by the day! Instead of letting that possibility focus minds, energies are rather being expended on pedicures and manicures for the beauty contest. How come the tummy always wins in Africa? The NPP has deep internal problems which will be exacerbated by the beauty contest. Then the party has to deal with the externals who are already disillusioned. Teachers… gone. Health workers… gone. The people… going? Most of even the discerning that I have come across are sending signals that they may stay at home during the 2008 elections. After, all the value is the same! I have labeled that psychological feeling that someone has shortchanged us as “positive blues”. We took a wrong junction on the road to positive change. The earlier the lost road map is found, the better. Otherwise JAK may have to see JJ for lessons in insomnia-management, ex-post Castle. If you think its impossible, think again. Uncle Fiifi may become the next President and then the pain becomes just unbearable for you because you cant sleep again. If you say am making noise, wait till you hear the latest release from A-plus. “Asem kese eba a, na franka si so!!!! But again, why do I bother myself so? People are so busy eating that they don’t hear anymore.

“Healey’s first law of politics: when you’re in a hole, stop digging”.
- Denis Healey, British Labour politician

P/S: I never knew I had the spirit of prophecy until earlier this morning when I was checking my folder and saw this piece. I wrote and posted this article on April 3, 2007. Yewura, if only you had listened. I told you Uncle Fiifi is formidable. The man who was said to be on his death bed is now giving the mighty elephant sleepless nights? I am indeed grateful that God had given Ghana the best Christmas gift in years. A parliament where agreements will not be stampeded through passage in a manner where even the so-called parties to the agreement dispute their status. A parliament where the other side will be consulted and their views taken on board before decisions are made. An end to rubber stamping by parliament. An end to the opposition having their say and the government having its way. An end to certificate of urgency where there were no emergencies. An end to impunity on all fronts. A little breathing space for state institutions to function properly as they can be defended strongly by the other side. A chance for the law to assure equality. A chance for the Parliament to wake up and live!!!

So please go to church or the mosque next time round and say a prayer of thanks to God for His boundless mercies. And don’t be bothered by any talk that Uncle Fiifi’s ascension to the Presidency means scary times for you and me. Remember, if Nana wins, we will be okay. If Uncle Fiifi wins, I bet my bottom dollar that we will be okay too. Thank God for Ghana!

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana
And make our Nation Great and Strong!!!

JOE ABOAGYE Debrah Esq.
www.osimidiaries.blogspot.com