NPP’s Boycott Is Disdainful To The Electorates

The opposition New Patriotic party flippantly poignant, refused to grace the investiture of President Mahama in a bid to register their loath at his declaration by the EC as the President elect after the December polls. Their calamitous supporters made attempt to impede the former President Kufour, after being invited by the state from attending such a congenial occasion organized in the name of the republic of Ghana. This conduct by both supporters and the entire membership of the New Patriotic party is nothing less than scornful attitude to the nearly 48% of voters who casted in favour of the NPP during the 2012 elections.

The ignominious move by the NPP is to consolidate the petition presented to the Supreme Court to challenge the legitimacy of President Mahama as the winner of the just ended polls. It is gratifying to know that, nothing could have change should the NPP attend the inauguration of the President as the constitutionally crafted occasion just as the power conferred on every citizen by the highest laws of the land to challenge any incongruity in relation to election like the NPP had just done at the highest Court of our land.

Interestingly, being disdainfully disingenuous to the electorates of Ghana, the NPP with their legal brains reprehensibly heaped a strident silence on the legality of the investiture in the cover of principle in their version of democracy to boycott a constitutionally recognized state function. This conspicuously was missing in the NPP’s position of boycott to the voting populace of Ghana, yet pageant themselves as patriots and believers in rule of Law but with much momentous contempt for the latter and the former.

Democracy has so many components including rule of Law which proffer opportunity for the citizens to directly and indirectly participate in democratic process of a nation. For instance, the constitution mandated the chief Justice as the head of the Judiciary to administer the swearing in of the Vice and President elect of the land into office and the same constitution granted the office of the head of the Judiciary to empanel justices of the Supreme Court to determine the validity of the sworn in President.

If the ruling goes otherwise, the constitution empowered the Supreme Court to declare null and void the sitting President and to be ousted from office. Now, does the position of the Chief Justice to swear in the President by the constitution contradict the determination of the Panel of Judges selected by the head of the Judiciary for the legalization of the President as contested by citizens at the Supreme Court? The NPP know better and must not throw dust and fragment of stain on apparently reminiscent entrenchment of democracy and rule of Law to Ghanaians.

Again, the NPP and their surrogates’ presence at the inaugural ceremony have no pessimistic consequent on their case at the Supreme Court as they drum to Ghanaians and want the entire world to believe. If contesting the declaration of President Mahama at the highest Court of the land regardless the outcome of the ruling is to strengthen democracy in our Country, what about gracing a state organized gathering and yet storm the Court for a redress do to rule of Law in Ghana? Ghanaians are more discerning than perceived by the Elephant’s family.

It is unambiguous the motive of NPP’s shunning of the inauguration is not to remind themselves of the twinge inflicted on them during the elections. To lick their wounds for speedy recovery, they have to flagrantly sneer the teeming voters by their risible declaim of boycott to Ghanaians as a smoke screen to their incompetence and failure to win the 2012 elections. The NPP ostentatiously can do the electorates well by taking their clandestine motives out of National issues to transport clemency into Ghanaians in general to dispel repugnance.

Suffice herein is the repulsive effort by some disgruntled youth of the NPP to stop the former President from honoring the invitation by the state. Former President Kufuor does not belong to the NPP as it stands. He is a statesman who has all his courtesies as a former President intact and fully taken care of by the State as required in the constitution of our land. He plays a fatherly role to Ghana and must always be consulted when the need be to espouse his broad aptitude in governance to bare when required by the state.

This explains why former presidents cannot engage in any profitable venture in private for their gain or the good of their relation. Therefore, treating a former President as a politician and not a national figure is the highest form of ignorance ever displayed in the political history of Ghana. President Kuffour’s presence is not an endorsement of our premier and a rejection of the NPP’s petition but a means to strengthen democracy and respect for the state. I therefore regard the irate youth’s action as “over zealously ego driven in ignorance” rather than party loyalty. The erstwhile head of the NPP government presence at the President’s installation is well emulating and needs a rousing commendation by all patriotic Ghanaians.

Needless to say, the Boycott by the MPs in the opposition New Patriotic Party is the most unadulterated irreverence for their constituents. Unlike Presidential, Parliamentary elections are won on the first past the post. In other words, Parliamentarians represent the people in the August house with simple majority and therefore must be principled enough to read between the lines to embody the ideas of the constituents and not to co toe blindly partisan lines. Most if not all, have not explain to the constituents why they refuted and conveniently refused to be part of the investiture of the President. This myriad blind loyalty of parliamentarians to their party make the legislature the most undemocratic arm of government casting doubt on the principle of checks and balances in a sovereign state like Ghana.

Also, the NPP dishonestly made the electorates believed that, attending the investiture of President Mahama will take away the credibility of their petition at the Supreme Court and for that reason boycotted the inauguration. What the New Patriotic Party implies is that, matters pending at the Court must not be amalgamated by contrary action/s to undermine the efficacy of the case. Better still; a case in Court must not be discussed in the public court of opinion to avoid pre-judicial judgment. Yet again, the 51million judgment debt case received the uppermost rhetoric of the NPP even after the general election.

Addendum to the above, the incarcerated NPP MP for Bawku central, Adamu Daramani who recently received a Presidential pardon due to ill health held his position as an MP until the Court pronounced judgment. If it were so, where lays the principle of making nonsense of their petition at the Supreme Court by merely being part of a state function? The NPP is either being mischievous with the almost 48% voters who gave them their mandate or simply awry with the accuracy of information to the Ghanaian voters. Until the NPP leaders and financiers learn to adroitly and physically lattice the politics of lampoon avariciousness and the impartial diffusion of authentic information to the electorates, the NPP is apposite to languish on the pensive periphery of opposition for an extraordinary while.

Not Withstanding, the absence of the opposition New Patriotic Party at the inaugural grounds did not take the grand chic and beauty out of the occasion but would have be more colourful and lively to Ghanaians than the discordant Ghana it created. The truth ought to be told to enroot democracy and rule of law in this country. Individuals, groups or political parties’ whims and caprices must not override the good of the Nation. Ghana is bigger than any political party to say the least. We must respect state institutions to strengthen democracy. God Bless our homeland Ghana.

Kashaa Nuhu. Babnuh11@yahoo.com