In an uncanny reminiscence of Kofi Busia’s exile close to 50 years ago, I Nana Afua Frema Busia on election day December 7 2008, with my candidature as MP for Manhyia previously withdrawn, embarked on an historic journey to exile to free my life from the torturous ravages of a Danquah/Busia regime under President Kufour. I am in exile to protest arms and drugs inflows into Ghana, to protest multiple death threats issued against me, to protest injustice and inhumane treatment meted out to me by the Kufour Presidency. I insist that when my father Kofi Busia made a 30 year old Mr. Kufour Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs he was wrong, he made a sad mistake. With God as my guide, I shall return with my head held high, my reputation, dignity and integrity intact to seek due redress in a post Kufour Ghana. I should like to see a Ghana that prioritizes human security and national stability as well as holds individual rights and freedoms inviolate regardless of who is at the helm of national affairs at the Presidency...
I thank God for given me the courage and determination on October 27, 2008 even as a dirge was sounded by national security war drums, even against the tidal weight of Presidential life threatening oppression, as I swam upstream, to launch a PROTEST candidacy as a symbolic freedom overture, as an unqualified act of POSITIVE RESISTANCE of which I am proud. I remain resolute in my pursuit of justice which shall continue; I am encouraged by Kofi Busia’s quintessence of Truth declaration,’ The fire of freedom is unquenchable in men’s hearts’ It is my hope that my actions of political defiance will resonate as an imperative for future generations and leave a footprint in the sands of time. I also anticipate that the eventual resolution of this search for justice will contribute to and entrench our democracy and restore our faith in the resilience of TRUTH
On Thursday December 4 2008, simultaneous with news reportage of multiple death threats issued against me, I made a principled withdrawal of my candidature in continued PROTEST of intensified governmental persecution and human rights violations which have engulfed me in a quagmire for the past 6 years and in high gear since the launch of my Protest parliamentary candidature which has been effectively voided by the office of the President.
My challenge is to institutionalize freedoms, human rights, rule of law, governance and justice predicates which are integral to democracy. My bid for MP as a protest candidate was in essence a tactical move which enabled public exposure of presidential menace when all other avenues were closed. True to its character the Presidency itself gave a public illustration of the depths of its unflinching wickedness in seeking to eliminate me over Presidential crimes and governmental misdeeds.
The office of the President has set a dangerous precedent unknown in the annals of the political history of Ghana with a most unconscionable and indelible stain on our collective conscience in our struggle as a nation to achieve democracy by declaring a dynamic professional woman with exceptional intellect whose international credentials and political pedigree they envy ‘insane’. Even the military dictatorships whose excesses have been deemed reconciled by the Kufour Presidency did not COMMIT SUCH AN OUTRAGE. This is why Manhyia ‘fontonfrom' drums intone stolen verdict, stolen verdict, stolen verdict by mediocre minds who do not have the intellectual ability to comprehend scholarly text or to appreciate distinguished uncorrupt service.
The government of Ghana as represented by the Kufour Presidency has by crude; ‘veranda boy’ tactics effectively nullified the election results for the Manhyia Constituency. The cold blooded and underhand methodology utilized by the office of the President is certainly the functional equivalent of rigging the election in Manyhia. The Manhyia results are in fact a nullity whether or not they are deemed as such; consequently any declared winner is a default Member of Parliament, and has no authentic or valid claim to legitimacy.
• The vicious and depraved plot was masterminded by the chief of staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs Kwadwo Mpiani through confirmed undercover cowardly whisperings with the open connivance of a Presidential mind boggling appointee to the council of state Madam Ama Busia whose real name is Ama Serwah Bame to select media houses. Why did the office of the President not pose a legal challenge to disqualify my candidature?
• In their zealous indulgence in this morally hazardous and dastardly act as well as other dirty tactics including securing undercover News black outs through payouts, threats of lawsuits to media houses and influencing punitive measures against journalists to blot out my objective critique of national issues raised and human rights violations made public for which their answer is an all telling SILENCE punctuated by deathly threats; the Presidency of Ghana has displayed rigid ill logic and machismo intolerance of truth; their hypocrisy and innate incapacity to embrace a competitive arena of ideas laid bare in their brutal oppression and stampede of political dissent in a manner that confounds.
• This is dull-witted for a Presidency that is devoid of decency but as a cover up for its undemocratic tendencies established a women’s ministry with a current Minister for women’s affairs who incidentally is a legal colleague and close friend and also appointed a woman Chief Justice who incidentally has received an insightful briefing and seen some documents in this case.
• Were either of these high level governmental appointees to criticize the Presidency for bad governance or injustice or violation of women’s or human rights in this matter which is within their professional purview will they also be declared mad? No wonder there is a fearful ‘conspiracy of silence’ by supposed women’s activists, democracy and human rights institutions.
The Manhyia election cannot be said to be a free non-manipulative and fair process or an accurate reflection of an objective assessment of the populace based on track record of public service or ideas put forward on a competitive basis in an equal playing field; based on message or capacity to engage the youth, the women, the aging population, the various segments of interest on issues and convince on outlined programs worthy of their support. There has been an effective ouster of my candidacy orchestrated by the Presidency. Certainly it is unfair when a candidate is declared falsely unfit with the weight and authority of high office through public deception by an unscrupulous Presidency. It is particularly disturbing when the candidate for the ruling government is from the household of the President, indeed a veritable grand child of the President.
The fact is if I won a Parliamentary seat under such circumstances I would not take up the seat because it would be puerile uninspiring victory, the result of a process that is so fundamentally flawed as to render it legally, constitutionally and morally untenable, if I won elections under such circumstances I would have to stimulate constitutional excitement by filing a court motion to unseat myself. The Danquah /Busia tradition should be able to withstand genuine competition at this its core or any constituency just as in the presidential primaries 17 candidates were tooted as the hallmark of democracy; never mind the intriguing fiasco of a public drama that heralded its end.
I withdrew my candidature to disable myself from taken up a legal challenge as candidate. I shall incorporate my challenge on the glaring electoral victimization within the context of human rights violations and overall issues in my active CHRAJ actions against the former national security Minister Francis Poku and against President Kufour/ Presidency for which I now seek international as well as contemporaneous national redress. A ‘national insanity declaration’ by the office of the President and its allied agents certainly fits within the ambit of institutional ongoing torture which is now conspicuous in the public domain with governmental supporters joining in the foray.
There were lapses also at the level of the electoral commission which linked up with governmental action to entrench the ouster which I shall address to the electoral commission for improvement in their future electoral processes.
I am happy that my image was on the ballot and therefore presented a physical possibility of protest votes on my behalf although they will ultimately be discounted, due to the withdrawal of my candidature. I have however achieved the first part of the objective I set out to accomplish as stated clearly on October 27, 2008 ‘I am standing as a protest candidate. On Election Day, December 7 2008, I want the registered voters of Manhyia to witness my protest on their ballot’ This public survival bid is intended to be a demonstration of an undaunted human spirit as well as a conscientious appeal to the silent moral minority to rise up and be counted. I am grateful to those who heard the clarion call to join me in an ode to freedom.
I have chosen to embark on a journey to exile, ‘a place without elixir’, that haunted my entire childhood and adolescence, overwhelmed by grief. I cannot underestimate death threats which ensured that I did not do a single day of campaigning. I do know that the stakes are so very high. I am not afraid of death but I will not die a senseless death. I do know there are desperate elements within the Kufour Presidency and national security operations still controlled by Francis Poku’s residual power of the whip.
Furthermore my security cannot be guaranteed for the remainder of the Kufour administration since the security agencies that should be entrusted with my care including national security, BNI and CID operatives have been inducted as agents of my oppression. I certainly cannot depend on the very security set up which is involved in my persecution to provide me with security protection. It is obvious that the framers of the Whistleblower Act which is deficient in a lot of regards did not anticipate this extraordinary circumstance involving the Presidency and security agencies that merit special attention.
If persons who have their rights abused expose acts of impropriety by public office holders as mandated by the whistle blower act and are consequently deftly excluded from the provisions and protections of the very ‘ whistle blower act’ which was to guarantee their protection and then doubly victimized through further abuse of power by the very forces whose initial abuse of power led to the whistle blowing in the first place, would this not amount to an incongruity which operates against the intended purpose of the act ? Here we are shouting the eminent passage of freedom of information act from the roof tops, can our system handle freedom of information?
God has brought ‘Angels’ into my life; People I do not know, People I have never met who remember me in prayers and send me messages of encouragement and support. There have been moments through this crisis when I thought I would just die. It is through God’s will and purpose for my life and the support of these ‘Angels’ including everyone who has cast their votes for me that I find the will power to carry on in this quest for true democracy and for justice.
One message brought tears to my heart, it said, “I will help you until you tell me to stop; I will be your friend until you tell me not to be your friend anymore’ I say to all whose lives I have touched by the incredible crevices of pain I have experienced, infinite thanks. ‘I must end by congratulating Samia Nkrumah for her Parliamentary win. Go Samia, Go make a difference. God bless.
To support journey to exile Contact: busiapetition@yahoo.com or busiafordemocracy@yahoo.com
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