The Road to Kigali – Part 8

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The next several days or weeks will determine whether, indeed, Ghana gets to live up to its accolade of “Africa’s Model Democracy.” I am not especially enthusiastic about the restrictive connotation of such accolade because, as we all know very well, things that are “African” and “political” are often not viewed in good light outside the primeval continent. In the foregoing context, such phenomena are also invariably perceived with abject condescension and amused contempt. Needless to say, this is an integral part of the ignominious after-effects of the slavo-colonial domination that we have had to collectively endure as a people. And it is for this reason that the travesty that was the Afari-Gyan-conducted 2012 Ghanaian general election ought to be promptly rectified, if our country is to be seriously reckoned among credible and respectable democracies around the globe.

I personally have the feeling that Ghana, once again, is on the cusp of making history the likes of which has never been witnessed on the continent. And that history, of course, entails the hitherto unprecedented ministration of deterrent justice that is bound to force any of the other premiers on the continent luridly thinking of rigging elections, in order to entrench themselves and/or perpetuate their dictatorial penchant under the specious guise of democracy, to sit up, swallow hard and think deeply before attempting to assay any such act of fraudulent criminality.

Indeed, it was only a matter of course, and time, before the dictators of yesteryear and their fanatical followers and disciples devised a suave and subtle means of appropriating the ballot in order to entrench themselves less unpalatably. This is what the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of Election 2012 was all about. And this is why all well-meaning, patriotic and democracy-loving Ghanaians ought to stand up and be counted by massively storming and clogging the streets and byways and alleyways of our cities, towns and villages and vehemently protesting the illegal imposition of President Mahama and his so-called National Democratic Congress on us devoid of our electoral consent.

You see, as I have pointed out time and again in previous articles, President Mahama’s understanding and interpretation of our Fourth-Republican Constitution defies common sense. In the main, the Bole-Bamboi native insists on the Constitution mandating an elected president to serve out two electoral terms, regardless of the popular will of Ghanaian citizens. And it was on this patently false interpretation on which he vigorously campaigned with the blatant and brazen complicity of the Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. Those who have been studiously following news events know quite well that I am not making the preceding up.

Indeed, barely a fortnight before Election 2012, the chief of Akyem-Akroso, in the Eastern Region, Nana Akufo-Addo’s stronghold, was widely reported to have publicly advised his townsfolk to blindly and massively vote for Caretaker-President John Dramani Mahama because Dr. Afari-Gyan had already pre-determined the former Atta-Mills arch-lieutenant to be the winner of Election 2012, and also that there was absolutely nothing that anybody could do about it, least of all the key operatives and members, supporters and sympathizers of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Anyway, bluster and all, the movers and shakers of the National Democratic Congress seem to be having an extremely difficult time wearing their badly sewn victory jackets. They are having a hard time fitting on their victory jackets because like the carpenter-tailored, one-size-fits-all Atta-Mills uniforms, the oversized jackets readily give the lie to the fact that they were stolen with the craven complicity of Dr. Afari-Gyan. And this is why Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, the lies and vitriol-spewing Deputy Information Minister, has been hopping from one radio station to another presuming to “console” the supporters of Nana Akufo-Addo, by admonishing them to patiently wait for the next four years, which “will come in no time” at all.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Dec. 17, 2012
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