By Otchere Darko

Reference: “NPP MPs wont be part of Appointment Committee – Jake” (By courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Tuesday, 22 January 2013; Source: radioxyzonline.com)

NPP is the oldest modern political tradition in Ghana, tracing its ancestry from UGCC, which was formed in 1947, two years before the former (Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s) CPP was formed. If all Ghanaians could put contemporary partisan politics aside, NPP is a party we all have to respect, because of the fact that it is the direct heir to UGCC, from which Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the five other Ghanaian political patriarchs whose portraits ‘enrich’ our national currency descended. But respect, it is often said, is earned.

NPP, through its executive, cannot continue to make the same mistakes over and over, and expect time and posterity to judge them kindly. At least, the gargantuan mistake made by its executive during the commencement of the Fourth Republic and under its first leader (Professor Adu Boahen), one of the most respected African historians of his time, should have taught the current NPP executive that the only reason why we learn history is to get the opportunity and the advantage of being guided by its counselling lessons.

Nobody, except NDC members and a few other people, can logically condemn NPP for going to court to challenge the results announced by the Electoral Commission on 7th December 2012, IF and WHERE they, (NPP members and supporters) sincerely believe that the results announced by the EC did not reflect the wishes of majority of Ghanaians. *In view of the fact that article 64 of the 1992 Constitution gives any aggrieved Ghanaian citizen [and for that matter any NPP member or members] the constitutional right to challenge the announced results, if they (NPP members) believe that the results declared were wrong, then the court action they took should have the full backing of all Ghanaians who respect the 1992 Constitution.

*What people, like me, do not understand is why NPP members, or rather its executive, should interpret the 1992 Constitution the way they like and expect us (people like me) to back them.

Article 64 of the 1992 Constitution explicitly allows any aggrieved Ghanaian to challenge the election of the President of Ghana within twenty-one (21) days after it is announced by the EC. The same article 64 also allows the declared elected President to continue to play the role of President until the Supreme Court declares his election invalid, if and when it is successfully challenged. This means that.....

AS AT NOW AND UNTIL THE SUPREME COURT DECIDES THE CHALLENGE BY NPP AND FINDS THE ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT TO BE NULL AND VOID, PRESIDENT MAHAMA IS CONSTITUTIONALLY AND DULY ELECTED.

*If so, why “NPP MPs wont be part of Appointment Committee”?

NPP is a party that openly boasts that it believes in respect for law. NPP has said the EC has rigged the election to favour the NDC candidate who was then incumbent care-taker President Mahama. *Is it not a cardinal principle of law that “an accused is INNOCENT until he is found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction”? Therefore, if the Supreme Court has not, as at now, found the EC [and by extension President John Mahama] guilty of election “fraud”, why should they (EC and President Mahama) be deemed to be guilty of the offence of election “fraud” that the NPP is challenging in court? I further refer NPP scribe and astute lawyer (Owusu Afriyie), who is popularly called “Sir John”, and his other colleagues on the executive of NPP to another legal principle; in fact, one of the principles of equity; which is: THOSE WHO SEEK EQUITY MUST GIVE EQUITY.

If NPP will win the petition they have lodged at the Supreme Court, it is not the participation of NPP members on the Appointments Committee that will let them lose it. Similarly, if the NPP will lose the petition, it is also not the boycotting of the vetting of presidential appointees that will help them to win it. *The decision of the Supreme Court will and should, in fact, not be influenced by these ‘sidelines’.

*Let Jake, “Sir John”, and the rest of the NPP executive allow the individual respect they command separately through their individual pursuits in real life situations guide them collectively, in their collective decisions and actions; so that they will stop making the kind of ‘repetitive mistakes’ that they and their ancestors have been making since 1951, when their tradition was put to its first real challenge.

Source: Otchere Darko; (My Political Views {Domestic}).