By Margaret Jackson

May 25, 2013

Something happened in court on Thursday May 23, which took most Ghanaians by surprise and set tongues wagging. The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia acquitted himself credibly when he stood in the witness box and was led by his lawyer Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, in his examination in chief.

Mr Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito was examined by his lawyer in the on-going Supreme Court challenge of the 2012 Presidential Election results by the NPP. And I must confess that, General Mosquito did not disappoint both the NDC and NPP supporters who watched him on television or listened to him on radio.

But whilst many Ghanaians have applauded General Mosquito for the way he explained electoral guidelines and his general knowledge of how the Electoral Commission operates, the NPP folks who never thought that General Mosquito could put up such a fantastic performance are seeking to lower the bounce he has gained in the eyes of Ghanaians by slamming him.

Notably among those who are banging General Mosquito is Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, who is also known as Sir John. Owusu Afriyie, who is a bail lawyer who has never prosecuted or defended any case in court, and perhaps has a place in the Guinness Book of records for dating 4 (four) women concurrently from the same organization, claims he lost his appetite after listening to General Mosquito.

According to Sir John, the performance of General Mosquito was nothing to write home about and added, “I was so appalled by his performance that I lost appetite when I was served with my favourite dish”.

Normally, you lose appetite when you are disappointed with something that somebody has done or said against you. You don’t lose appetite when your opponent goofs. If indeed your opponent did not perform well in court that should have been a cause for celebration and not disillusionment. You are happy when your opponent in court tumbles; it is not the other way round.

Sir John is claiming that General Mosquito performed miserably in court so he could not eat. Is General Mosquito an NPP member or Sir John’s brother? Was General Mosquito being examined to help the NPP’s case? So why will Sir John be disappointed after listening to General Mosquito and therefore could not eat when he got home?

The last time I checked General Mosquito’s examination was meant to destroy the so-called solid evidence that the NPP has propagated since they lost miserably in the 2012 polls.

I, therefore, want to put it bluntly to Sir John that if indeed he could not eat after listening to General Mosquito in court what it then means is that General Mosquito hit the NPP badly and hugely exposed their hypocrisy. There can never be a situation whereby Sir John will go home and cry that General Mosquito said stupid things to destroy the NDC’s defence of the case. Sir John will only cry when he realizes that whatever General Mosquito said puts a big jolt on the NPP’s case.

Even though Sir John was in court and claims to be a bail lawyer, there can never be any situation that he will be able to beat General Mosquito when they go at each other on electoral laws. General Mosquito’s presentation even educated some justices of the Supreme Court.

In life if you can’t beat someone, you join him, but this is something the NPP will never ever learn. Their mantra has always been, “If you can’t beat him, slam him”. If I were Sir John I will keep quiet and concentrate on how to plot a strategy to defend my General Secretary position because just as the NPP is shifting their allegations with each passing day, there are some NPP members who are plotting every day to unseat him to save the party from further embarrassment and gaffes.

magjackson80@yahoo.com http://majjacks80.blogspot.com