2020 polls: No election worth loss of lives; army invasion of parliament ‘biggest assault on democracy’ - Sam Jonah

Sir Sam Jonah has wondered why Ghana did not tell the whole world that people lost their lives in the 7 December 2020 polls.

In a speech to Rotarians in Accra titled ‘Down the up escalator – Reflections on Ghana’s future by a senior citizen’, the executive chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa, said: “We have just finished another election, the 8th in the series since the beginning of our fourth Republican democratic experiment”.

“As usual, the accolades came in from all corners of the world, and we took them with pride”, he noted.

However, he said: “What we failed to tell the world is that some people lost their lives in the course of the election”.

“No election is as important as to warrant the loss of even one life”, he stressed.

“And the silence over it is numbing as it gives the impression that it is okay, and it is to be expected”, he bemoaned.

“No, it is not to be expected”, Mr Jonah indicated.

He said: “One of the saddest moments for me was after the State of the Nation address when an MP was asked why there had not been a serious outpouring of grief about the death of the innocent people in Techiman, his response was that as far as he was concerned, they were undeserving of any sympathy because he saw them as armed robbers”.

“For me, that was a new low for the country”, he said.

Also, Mr Jonah expressed reservations about the invasion of Parliament by some soldiers, just hours before the investiture of President Nana Akufo-Addo for a second term.

“We also witnessed arguably the biggest assault on our democracy since the beginning of the Fourth Republic when, on the eve of the swearing-in of the President, at a time when there were no ministers, and crucially there was no minister of defence, armed soldiers, that is to say, officers from an institution that works by command, invaded our Parliament and up till date, no serious answers have been provided”, he said.

“This could have had grave consequences and for the future of our country, the least the country deserves is a public enquiry”, he suggested.

“Have we become so numb to these things?” he wondered.