Nana Konadu: EC Heads Have Deliberately Taken An “Arrogant” Posture

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Category: Politics

Created on Thursday, 13 December 2012 00:00

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Nana Konadu: EC Heads Have Deliberately Taken An “Arrogant” Posture

{sidebar id=10 align=right}“If you want peace but refuse to let justice prevail, then you are equal to the person who wants war”.

The above is a quotation, extracted from Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings’ advice to Dr. Afari Gyan and his subordinates for not acting “in line with the constitution and behaving in a manner that every decent Ghanaian would do.”

According to the former first lady, grieving political parties wouldn’t cry foul if they feel they haven’t been cheated in the just ended presidential and parliamentary elections. Based on the series of discrepancies other political parties have shared, Mrs. Rawlings established that it would have been fair on the part of the various heads at the electoral commission to solve the problem with an “open mind” and not through comments such as “you can go to court”.

In the wake of claims by the NPP that they have been robbed of victory through the connivance between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and EC officials; the Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, described the allegations as “completely false” on BBC’s News Day.

Speaking on the same platform, the Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission called on the NPP to go to court to challenge the results of Friday’s poll since that is the only option available to them.

But speaking on Okay FM’s Adie Kye Bia, the leader of the National Democratic Party(NDP) stated that the comment smacks of “arrogance” and can only be associated with people who have deliberately decided to close their mind like a “book”.

She tasked the heads at the commission to remember they are working at a human institution which requires them to act in accordance with the constitution at all times.

Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/Peacefmonline.com

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Is Nana Kwabena Ofori in Charge of His Thinking Cap?

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Category: Politics

Created on Monday, 26 November 2012 00:00

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Is Nana Kwabena Ofori in Charge of His Thinking Cap?

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

I am making two passionate appeals (actually five), respectively, to the credibility-challenged Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, on the one hand, and President John Dramani Mahama, on the other, to come clean on the widely reported claim by the chief of Akyem-Akroso, Nana Kwabena Ofori, that Messrs.

Mahama and Afari-Gyan have colluded beforehand to throw Election 2012 in favor of the Mahama-led and ruling National Democratic Congress. (My other three appeals are directed, for investigative purposes, at Parliament, the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, and the Okyeman Council) – (See “Give NDC Another Term, Even Afari-Gyan Agrees – Akroso Chief Declares” JoyOnline.com 11/25/12).

We are also given to believe that, in part, Nana Kwabena Ofori has based his decision to prevail on the residents and citizens of Akyem-Akroso to massively vote to retain the NDC in power on his firm believe – very likely one that was hinted to him in a private meeting or meetings with both gentlemen – that the guaranteed retention of the NDC at the helm of our national ship of state has already been conclusively signed onto by Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama ahead of the December 7, 2012 general election.

This patently scandalous state of affairs treasonably undermines the credibility and integrity of the country’s electoral process. We strongly believe that there may be some truth to Nana Kwabena Ofori’s claim because, according to the JoyOnline.com website, where the report was initially published, the Akyem-Akroso chief made his observation while welcoming President Mahama, who was on an electioneering campaign tour of the township.

What gives further credence to this outrageous allegation, of course, is the fact that Mr. Mahama is nowhere reported to have promptly contradicted the chief of Akyem-Akroso, which he ought to have definitively done, if only to allay the anxiety of well-meaning and democracy-loving Ghanaians, as well as put paid to our long-held suspicions regarding the tacit collusion of Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama to rig Election 2012.

But that Nana Kwabena Ofori rudely and flagrantly breached Ghana’s Fourth-Republican Constitution by publicly declaring partisan support for the ruling party is also a matter that has to be taken up by both the Okyeman Council and the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, by way of the exaction of the most appropriate and necessary sanctions.

Needless to say, while, indeed, as an individual Ghanaian citizen, Nana Kwabena Ofori is perfectly entitled to his own private choice of a political party or even government, as an invested traditional ruler whose authority is held in (collective) trust, the chief of Akroso blatantly and flagrantly violated that sacred trust by presuming to unilaterally disenfranchise the moiety of residents and citizens of his township who may not share his political views and/or ideological proclivities.

Indeed, should any acts of election-related violence erupt at Akyem-Akroso in the lead-up to, during or in the wake of Election 2012, Nana Kwabena Ofori will be squarely deemed to be responsible for the same.

Needless to say, predicating his personal support for the National Democratic Congress on grounds of the NDC government’s purported electrification of Akyem-Akroso township, is a rather facile and pathetic mode of reasoning. One readily be certain that the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has also assisted in the development of the township in other equally significant ways, such as health and education. Besides, electrification is only one key sector of our economic development, and I bet it was not extended to the people and township of Akyem-Akroso free of charge!

What is more, unlike the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party government which initiated the landmark Bui Dam Project, to primarily serve the northern-half of the country, from whence hails President Mahama, the ardent and shameless promoter of northern micro-nationalism, the P/NDC which has dominated Ghanaian politics for some three decades never initiated any such “big-minded” and capital-intensive project in any part of the country.

Indeed, the routine approach to chronic power outage by the NDC has been for President Mahama to sarcastically and imperiously blame God for being a grossly incompetent Managing-Director of Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG), as the Bole-Bamboi native had occasion to do recently.

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

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Nov. 25, 2012 ###

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NPP have themselves to blame for defeat - Amakye-Boateng

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Category: Politics

Created on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 00:00

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NPP have themselves to blame for defeat - Amakye-Boateng

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology political science lecturer Mr Kwasi Amakye-Boateng says that the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) should stop crying foul and rather blame themselves for the party’s defeat in the just-ended general election.

He said the NPP leadership lacked strategic planning, and that it was little surprise that the party lost.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Graphic in Kumasi on Monday, Mr Amakye-Boateng said the party’s electoral machine did not possess the firepower to outdo the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“It is clear that the NPP needs a major shake up at leadership level if it wanted to recover its lost glory,” he stressed.

He stated that it was clear the party leadership had lost touch with the political environment.

“On the whole, I think the party needs to take a second look at its understanding of politics.

“For instance, the NPP must start looking at how they relate to people who do not belong to their political tradition,” he stressed.

Mr Amakye-Boateng accused the elite in the party of influencing the selection of the presidential candidate who “was not competitive,” Nana Akufo-Addo.

He said that in light of Akufo-Addo’s defeat in the 2008 and 2012 elections, the NPP should now realize that he is not competitive.

The political science lecturer said the fact that President Mahama carried some of the “garbage” associated with late President Mills into the elections and yet managed to win in the first round should indicate to the NPP that all is not well with them.

For Mr Mahama to win the election one touch in spite of having limited time to campaign shows that the NDC were tactically superior to the NPP in electioneering.

He said the defeat should be a wake-up call to the NPP that the Ghanaian voter cannot be taken for granted.

Mr Amakye-Boateng suggested that in choosing national leaders in future, the NPP should look at people who do not come from their support base.

From: Daily Graphic/Ghana

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We In NDC Are Already Winners...No Need To Derail Democratic Dispensation - Prez Mahama

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Created on Sunday, 25 November 2012 00:00

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We In NDC Are Already Winners...No Need To Derail Democratic Dispensation - Prez Mahama

25 Nov 2012

{sidebar id=10 align=right}President John Dramani Mahama on Sunday concluded his three-day campaign tour of the Eastern Region with a call on supporters of the National Democratic Congress to tolerate their political opponents.

“Political campaign is not about the number of insults you can churn out, neither is it about attacking your political opponents, but it is all about how you package your ideas and issues to make them acceptable to the electorate”, he said.

President Mahama who was addressing a rally at Abirem, said victory in the 2012 general election was already staring the NDC in the face and that there was no need engaging in fruitless attacks and violence that could destabilize the peace Ghana was enjoying.

“It is often said that in every football match, it is normally the weaker teams that create troubles to end the match, but we in NDC are already winners and there is no need engaging in activities and tendencies that can derail our smooth democratic dispensation,” President Mahama added.

During his three-day tour of the Eastern Region, President Mahama outlined the development plan of the NDC for the next four years, inspected and inaugurated development projects, interacted with party supporters and held meetings with the party hierarchy in the region.

The President called on Ghanaians not to allow elections to serve as a divisive activity, but to rather unify them to fight against poverty, illiteracy, disease and hunger.

“There is no need to continue pointing out that we are Gonjas, Dagombas, Ashantis, Fantis or Ewes, but what we need now is to see ourselves as Ghanaians with a common destiny ready to fight the ills of society such as poverty, disease, illiteracy and hunger,” he reiterated.

President Mahama gave the assurance that he would do everything under his purview as the President of the Republic to ensure a peaceful and successful election, just like the five previous ones the country had gone through.

Source: GNA/Ghana

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