Ind. Presidential Candidate Slams NPP

-Says leadership behavior is an ugly embarrassment

By A A Yayra

Jacob Osei Yeboah, the only independent presidential candidate in the 2012 elections has poured a scorn on the leadership of the New Patriotic Party for what he says is calculated attempts by “remnants of Danquah- Dombo-Busia tradition to take away the shine from Ghana’s democracy.

According to him, the NPP’s decision to boycott the vetting of President John Dramani Mahama’s nominees is part of a well- hatched plan to discredit the President, undermine the Electoral Commission’s high profile and disrespect the Ghanaian electorates who rejected the party’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“Anybody who does this is a threat to the country’s democracy and obviously seeking his own interest and does not have Ghana at heart. What the NPP is doing will not only weaken our democratic structures but they want to let it suffer from chronic kwashiorkor”

Jacob Osei Yeboah, affectionately called JOY said the decision by Members of Parliament of the NPP to boycott the vetting of Ministers nominated by the President Mahama was ill-fated and a disgrace to a party that has brandish itself as apostles of rule of law and democrats”.

“I am not against the NPP going to court; that is what our electoral law says…but, I find it disgusting and condescending for MPs, who were elected by their constituents to represent them in Parliament decides to break that social contract by refusing to partake in parliamentary duties …then they should not take salaries since they don’t want to be engage in parliamentary activities…the pick and choose will not help them”.

He explained that because the framers of the Constitution don’t want to create a power vacuum in the event that the election of a President is being challenge, they provided for in article 64 (2) of the 1992 Constitution that “a declaration by the Supreme Court that the election of the President is not valid shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration”.

Mr Osei Yeboah noted that a cursory look at the allegations by the NPP; on which their MPs took decision clearly indicates a lack of understanding and some level of ignorance of the democratic process.

“If the NPP thinks their evidence is incontrovertible and will hand them resounding victory for their candidate to be declared President, why won’t their MP’s engage in duties their constituents have voted them to do whiles they wait on the verdict of the court …the NPP MPs should know that some people in their respective constituencies, who were not necessarily NPP supporters voted for them and if they engage in this unpatriotic and undemocratic act, they are being dishonest and ungrateful”.

In his view, the NPP is currently replicating events after the 1992 election where the party wrote the stolen verdict which was later described as lack of understanding of the electoral process at the time.

Minority MP’s in Parliament has served notice to boycott sittings of the Appointments Committee of Parliament to vet ministerial nominees, which is scheduled to begin today.

That decision was arrived at a crunch meeting of the leadership of the NPP and the leadership of the Minority held in Parliament on Monday, January 21, 2013.

A release signed by the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey said the party stood resolutely behind the petition in the name of Nana Akufo-Addo and others pending before the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate the declaration of the EC making President Mahama the winner of the 2012 presidential election.

"We continue to do this because of our conviction that the weight of evidence when examined would be consequently ceased. We are therefore of the opinion that the current Mahama's administration is temporary and transient and would not last beyond the determination of the case," the release added

This development, Jacob Osei Yeboah says is a disgrace to the leadership of the party and an ugly embarrassment to the international reputation of Ghana.