History In The Making Today

As NPP Fights The EC At The Supreme Court Over The Election Results Declared On 9th December 2012.

By Otchere Darko

(Written on 28th December 2012)

Nearly half of the population of Ghana are happy that at long last the NPP has filed a suit in the highest court of the land to challenge what they see as a naked robbery of the NPP by Dr Afari Gyan and his staff to favour NDC. At the same time, nearly another half of Ghanaians are angry that the largest opposition party in Ghana (NPP) is wasting time and the tax-payers money to engage the Supreme Court in a fruitless battle that will end in a court defeat for the Opposition party. The remaining small percentage of Ghanaians who are neither NPP nor NDC members [or supporters] watch the scene with extreme trepidation, praying that the resultant would-be landmark judgment arising from the history-making case will not turn Ghana into a ‘Kenyan-style’ post-election ‘national concussion’.

In my last article published at Ghanaweb on Christmas Eve, I made a passionate appeal to the leadership of both NPP and NDC to caution their respective members and supporters to accept a court decision that goes against either of them, since it is clear that the Supreme Court cannot make a judgment that will satisfy both parties. In that said appeal, I was only basing my appeal on an assumption that the anticipated case that was going to challenge the declared results may, or may not happen. Today, however, my appeal is not based on an assumption. It is based on a fact that the long-awaited suit has been filed at the Supreme Court. My appeal today to the two parties, therefore, arises out of a more realistic political situation that should compel all Ghanaian hearts and minds to swing in one common direction, which is the direction that favours peace, unity and national cohesion. Nobody can tell NPP members and supporters to sit down and accept defeat when they have evidence that the elections were rigged in favour of the ruling NDC.

NPP members and supporters must however remember where they come from. Their ancestors, led by Ghana’s version of Shakespeare’s Mucus Brutus, Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, claimed they believed in the Western-style of democracy. There is no better example of a Western-style democracy that has been put to a modern test than the American system of democracy in the case of “Florida-2000”, where the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate (Albert Gore) challenged the Florida State election results on the grounds that they contained irregularities that worked in favour the Republican candidate (George W Bush). Al Gore, as he was affectionately called, lost the ruling made by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court. When that happened, he (Al Gore) did not line his supporters on the Streets of Florida or elsewhere in America to demonstrate against the Supreme Court decision. Instead and like a true “democrat”, he accepted the Supreme Court ruling, conceded defeat, and congratulated the winner (George W Bush). That is how those who believe in Western-style democracy behave. They accept court rulings or they appeal against them, where appeals exist.

With NDC members and supporters, even though their party was founded by Jerry John Rawlings, who was not [and is still not] a disciple of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, most members of that party would have voted for the CPP if they were voting in the days of the greatest African patriarch. Dr Nkrumah devoted his whole life and work to promote the welfare of Ghana and Africa. Even though Dr Nkrumah did not believe in the Western-style of democracy, he believed in the concept that law was the backbone and anchor of all forms of democratic governance. That was why he made and depended on laws to back his “Nkrumahist-style” of democracy. Dr Kwame Nkrumah would certainly not want “his Ghana” and “his Africa” to descend into hell, because of a court ruling that has gone against his party. Jerry John Rawlings too, “controversial” though he is often seen to be, is on record to have called on President Mahama to “investigate” the just concluded elections. *I agree that the 1992 Constitution appears to give no other choice than the right of any aggrieved Ghanaian to appeal to the Supreme Court to challenge any results that declare the election of a President. While it is true that the [1992] Constitution has not provided for the kind of “investigation” Mr Rawlings was recommending to the sitting President, the Constitution has also not ruled out such investigation. Thus, one can assume that had President Mahama heeded the advice of the founder of NDC and asked the EC to keep the “declared results” on hold, while an investigation of the claim made by NPP was being made, there might not have been the need by NPP to go to court and thereby ‘pass the buck’ on the Supreme Court to rule in a case involving the declared presidential election results. *In short, President Mahama and his NDC must bear part of the blame for the situation that has compelled the aggrieved Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP to go to court. They (Mahama and the NDC) chose to ignore the founder of their party (Mr Rawlings) whose advice could have averted the court option, in preference to a mutually agreed investigation that could establish, or lay to rest the allegation of “election fraud”. Now that the case has gone to court, however, President Mahama and his NDC party must vow to accept a ruling of the Supreme Court that goes against them. They do not want; neither does any other Ghanaian want another Kenya, or another Ivory Coast in Ghana.

Lastly, but most importantly, NPP and NDC members [and their teeming supporters] must respect and heed the on-going advice of two august Ghanaians and the institutions or symbols they represent. The first of the two august Ghanaians I am referring to is His Excellency Busumru Dr Kofi Annan, who before the elections made a passionate appeal to all Ghanaians and all parties to allow the democratic credentials and respect that Ghana has won outside the country to continue. The other august Ghanaian I am referring to is Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the King of Ashanti, who just before the elections invited all the leaders of the political parties to his palace and asked them to sign an undertaking not to do anything that could undermine the peace and tranquillity we enjoy in Ghana. Very few African countries can claim to have such great and visionary national figures who always consider it their sacred national duty to work to promote the peace, unity and tranquillity of their nation at all times, but most especially during and after national elections. We (Ghanaians) are lucky to have these two and other monumental national figures who genuinely seek the overall national interest of Ghana. NPP and NDC should NOT let these people down!

Source: Otchere Darko (My Political Views {Domestic})