RE: EC must not delete ‘NHIS voters’ - Rawlings

Honestly, power has gone to the dogs! Under the administration of President Mahama, any Tom, Dick and Harry belonging to the NDC family can open their mouth widely like that of a snake swallowing a prey of immense size.

I have just come across a publication on Ghanaweb under its General News of Tuesday, 14 June 2016 titled, “EC must not delete ‘NHIS voters’ – Rawlings”. The web link indicated below takes any interested public reader to the full content of the publication.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/EC-must-not-delete-NHIS-voters-Rawlings-447341

In this said publication, one Mr Abednego Rawlings Orstin, an alleged President of the United States Africa Command, Ghana (US AFRICOM-Ghana), is seen expressing his views with such audacity that the Supreme Court of Ghana is nothing to him let alone, their rulings.

He is not only rubbishing the Supreme Court’s ruling tasking the Chair of the Electoral Commission to delete the names of all those who used National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register their names onto the voter register but also, threatening them.

Whatever organisation Rawlings Orstin represents as its President, I should like to inform him of the following:

• His views and threatening behaviour are childishly criminal at best, and treacherous at worst.

• Even though he presides over what may be an important organisation, he appears not to be knowledgeable and wise enough to be in that position.

• A person’s acquisition of the nationality of a country is obtained either by birth, ancestry of that nation, adoption or naturalisation; and a national of a country is he who has acquired the nationality of that country.

• In any country, only the citizens who are the nationals are allowed to vote in their general or national elections.

• In Ghana, and as per our 1992 Republican Constitution, only Ghanaians, thus, the nationals, who are 18 years and above and are of sound mind are allowed to vote.

• NHIS cards in Ghana, like the NHS cards in the United Kingdom, are issued to any resident in the country who may need to access the medical services of the country. They are not issued to only the nationals but also, immigrants who may be legal or illegal residents or visitors. Therefore, NHIS card does not serve as a proof of one’s nationality hence the holders of such card should not in the first place be allowed to use them to register to vote in Ghana.

• When a problem is detected, do we address it or leave it to ramify? If it has been found to be illegal to use NHIS card as a proof of one’s national identity, do we rectify the error or leave it not only as it is but also, to continue?

• Do we by the NHIS cards accord certain foreigners, either legal or illegal immigrants, automatic Ghanaian citizenship?

• In case the millions or hundreds of thousands of all those who used NHIS cards to register during election 2012 are not Ghanaian nationals, do we allow them to continue to stay as eligible voters and Ghanaians because they had already voted in a general election in Ghana using same NHIS card?

The few bulletin points above used in attempt to bring Rawlings Orstin back to his senses are more than enough to give him the requisite electoral and constitutional education that he lacks.

It is just that the institutions in Ghana have broken down owing to the perpetuation of official corruption and cluelessness by those governing the nation or else, who will be Rawlings Orstin to threaten the Supreme Court, as infantile and silly as his expressed views sound.

I wonder why any educated-illiterate in the NDC can come out boldly to spew threats with impunity. If they think Ghana is theirs, and theirs alone, hence behaving that much irresponsibly, then I am afraid they have got it all wrong.

How clear it is that the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, is in bed with the NDC, helping them to rig election 2016 in their favour in advance. Whatever they do, it shall fail so Rawlings Orstin, a baby to the laws of the land, must get some life into his miserable being, than to continue to lay bare his ignorance in public for all to see.

Will he please acquaint himself with the reasons I once adduced in a publication arguing why NHIS cards are not to be accepted as proof of one’s Ghanaian nationality to permissibly register their names in the voter register? The web link underneath holds all the reasons.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Why-Clean-Up-a-Heavily-Discreditable-Voter-Register-392311

I am already dozing off with my head intermittently bouncing back and forth the backrest of my chair so I had better go to get some sleep so as not to allow the infantilism of Rawlings Orstin spoil my sleep.

Rockson Adofo