There has been lots of public scrutiny into the activities of our elected representative in parliament lately, partly because some of them have proved that they don’t actually represent the interests of anybody apart from themselves. Some of them spend valuable times arguing about the size of their pay pocket instead of the moral duty to serve the masses who voted for them. Parliamentarians must show commitment to the rule of law and service to others.
I was in Ghana during the recent national election which replaced the NPP with the NDC government. It was obvious Ghanaians were showing signs of changing the NPP government prior to the 2008 elections; this led to desperate attempts by some ‘big men’ in NPP to adopt unorthodox and sometimes very dangerous tactics to win the election in 2008.
Mr Atta Akyea’s conduct during the 2008 election clearly shows he possesses characters that make him unsuitable to be in parliament .We can recall that Atta Akyea, in recorded conversations broadcast on Radio Gold FM’s “Election Forensics” programme, made statements that clearly suggest that he knew his party could always rely on certain judges to deliver favourable judgments for the NPP government if they were to go to court over the results of the 2008 elections. Atta Akyea is said to be a lawyer but is prepared use the courts only because he believe he and some members of his party have’ planted ‘enough judges to give rulings in their favour.
This anti-democratic and subversive nature of Atta Akyea makes him unsuitable to be in parliament, he does not believe in rule of law or making decisions by consensus, Atta Akyea, believes that the will of the people could be overturned during the 2008 presidential and parliamentary election simply because he has the ability to unleash his ‘dark’ powers on the judiciary.
On the “Election Forensics” tape-recordings broadcast by Radio Gold Atta Akyea was allegedly heard saying in Twi: “…saa democracy nonsense yii…”) He clearly believes democracy is nonsense. Atta Akyea was exposed when he thought he was having a covert operation planning meeting against the people of Ghana, with the hope of stealing the election by stealth. However, the eagle eyes of the media and the people of Ghana unmasked them, it is important that we keep such elements out of our democratic corridors; after all, what good are they to rule of law? Keeping Atta Akyea in parliament is an affront to the spirit of parliament. Atta Akyea and democracy are like the North Pole and the South Pole they would never meet.
There are others like Atta Akyea who parade themselves on the corridors of honour and preach rule of law democracy in public, but in private they sought to manipulate the judiciary. He is not honourable keep him out of parliament, he is dangerous to our young democracy.
Kwame Agbodza
