Mahama Campaigning Already

Rumour has it that President Mahama sensing possible presidential election re-run, has already started accepting unnecessary invitations to have the chance to campaign. Jittery and jumpy Mahama started the political campaign in a church atMamfe in the Eastern Region on Sunday, June 23, 2013 to jump the gun for possible re-run presidential election and claiming his presidency was ordained by God.

President Mahama made this embarrassing comment when he joined Christian Worshippers of the Mount Horeb Prayer Centre at Mamfe in the Eastern Region. This occasion was to mark the church’s 20th anniversary since it was established on June 23, 1993. This claim left a sour taste in the mouths of the people of this gathering whose community voted massively for his opponent only to see their votes “transpositioned” for the NDC presidential candidate.

President Mahama was sworn in as president on Dec 11, 2013 but the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana AddoDankwa Akuffo-Addo; his running mate, Dr MahamaduBawumia, and the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey have alleged that the December 7 and 8, 2012 presidential election was fraught with gross and widespread irregularities on the face of the pink sheets from 11,842 polling stations. The malpractices are over-voting, non-signing of pink sheets by some presiding officers or their assistants, voting without biometric verification and duplicated serial numbers of pink sheets.

It sucks that instead of steering away from politics in a churchand talking about economical developments, social and moral issues, the president chose to legitimize his presidency at such a religious gathering. It is the tradition of Ghanaians to invite rich and notable personalities to grace occasions like annual harvests, anniversaries and even birth days. Such invited personalities are not screened; their importance at such gatherings is their money and fame so their speeches can be disheartening and embarrassing and Mahama’s speech falls into this category.

Cheating campaign is not anything new to the president.Intrinsic value in the Ghanaian culture is, showing kindness and respect to the sick and the dead, when President Arthur Millsdied on 24th July 2012 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, all Ghanaians rallied together to celebrate his life: farmers stopped farming; miners refused to go down the pits;the police refused to stop ‘cars’ and of course all the politicalparties stopped campaigning. The presidential candidatesdonned their batakaris, kuntunkunis and akomfo their doso to mourn the death of John Arthur Mills. Arthur Mills funeral took place for a whole week. The opponent’s conundrum was whenat the end of the funeral Mahama started a tour of the whole country, organized super mammoth political rallies in all the regional capitals with the pretext of thanks giving for Arthur’s funeral celebration. All the presidential candidates even though feeling double-crossed could not restart their campaigns, they had to wait for 2 weeks before Mahama had warmed himself in the hearts of the people. They did this in respect of the dead.Therefore for Mahama to claim he campaigned for just 40 daysis spurious and wicked coming from the evil pit of the devil.

Now the learned Mahama reviewing the evidence adduced in court as per Asiedu Nkatia admitting to “foreign materials in the box” and Afari Gyan admitting to double registrations, overvoting in the areas the petitioners are complaining about has become nervous, jittery and jumpy knowing full well that sooner or later the harmer can come down heavily on his presidency. The president utterance during invitations is therefore “deliberately designed to influence, intimidate and frighten the Court into acquiescing in a so called status quo”. Unfortunately for Mahama these nine judges have exhibited their judicial independence and impartiality. They have been ruthless in court to all the contesting parties and are poised to give the rightful judgment. These judges will not botch this golden chance in their career in this historical matter. They are not just there to serve their nation but to be part of history; their good judgment would be part of reasoning and citations to precedents in court, all over the world. With over whelming evidence the judges willnot support the wrong person to rule the nation. More over the article 64(2) provides that the Supreme Court’s declaration will be without prejudice in terms of the presidency. If it comes to their lives these judges are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice like their three colleagues who were murdered by the NDC cronies.

President John Mahama has said his victory in Ghana's 2012 presidential poll was “ordained by the Lord”. Well, not so fast for the Lord is Patient, Tolerant and Compassionate, Heordained good people like Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela,Felix Houphouët-Boigny to rule in Africa but also allowedIdi Amin, Emporer Bokasa and Colonel Acheampong to be heads of states. The end of tenure is what proves who wasordained by God. So far the evidence adduced in court does not support Mahama’s claim with respect to God’s ordination.

Let all Ghanaians at home, in the Diaspora and the world know that the president has access to wall mounted jumbo tronLED tv at the Flag Staff House and at the end of the day sits to review the Supreme Court proceedings. When he sees restless and nervous Afari Gyan looking left and right for cues from the lawyers and answering,” I don’t know; I have to check that; this was an error “ the president freezes, his manhood shrinks, sleeps in the couch and his wife sleeps single on king size bed. Another backbreaker is that the petitioners through Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey have already indicated that they need only 1,500 pink sheets to be sustained by the court to bring the declared winner of the elections, JohnMahama below the 50% required to be elected president and 3,500 to overturn the declaration in favour of Nana Akufo-Addo

Compounding the situation of Mahama is that the light of truedemocracy is shining in Ghana, the whole world is watching; thecameras are running live and gone are the days when governments used police or the military to sustain illegitimate rule. Mahama knows that when the Supreme Court rule comes down against him, neither he nor Afari Gyan would be presiding over a re-run election, the court would appoint a TrusteeshipCouncil and he will not be in the herm. Afari Gyan, would be fired and would not be allowed anywhere close to the ElectoralCommission. Consequently, the president is campaigning in frenzy, his opponents should not sit mum but should challenge him word for word, boot for boot for equal heartwarming strategy.

Kwadwo Nyantakyi Akosomo