Nana is a joke. He delayed filing his complaint, only to withdraw part of his petition. He keeps arguing over procedure rather than the facts of his petition. Mahama has no incentive to have the case resolved; after all, he h ... read full comment
Nana is a joke. He delayed filing his complaint, only to withdraw part of his petition. He keeps arguing over procedure rather than the facts of his petition. Mahama has no incentive to have the case resolved; after all, he has what he wanted. Justice Wood and the supreme court, amazingly, have no clue as to the adage, Justice delayed is justice denied. Even if you have no president, don't you have common sense to realize that this is not your usual case, and so treat it accordingly? The least said about those who wrote such idiotic constitutional provision to allow a disputed election not to be resolved before swearing in the yet to be legitimate winner, should hold their heads in shame for such nonsense. Laws must make sense. The booklongs of Ghana are a disgrace to themselves and to the nation. They deserve, hence forth, to be called the idiotic
profession.
TNC 11 years ago
and yet he had wanted the ec to have held on the announcement of the verdict after the election !what would ghana has become ?
and yet he had wanted the ec to have held on the announcement of the verdict after the election !what would ghana has become ?
shamu 11 years ago
The attitude of ourself in the biggest sickness in us. Because of how wicked a black man is, nothing move well on his side. If whites were to bahave the way we do , all human being would have still remain in the holes. Is a s ... read full comment
The attitude of ourself in the biggest sickness in us. Because of how wicked a black man is, nothing move well on his side. If whites were to bahave the way we do , all human being would have still remain in the holes. Is a shame that, we still do not now our problem since black was created as the first creature of mankind. If you compare where we live and where non blacks live, there is a big differece. We have been travelling since imemorial, yet still is not enough for us to learn. Even the worst of it are those who went abroad. God for bid for black man world. We cursed ourself, and put the blme on God. We hate ourselves and put the blame on whites. we kill ourselves and put the blame on our colonial masters. yet we continue commiting the most atrocities on earth. Why?
Bawumia 11 years ago
Talking like J.B Danquah.Go fuck yourself on the grass kokumonuah
Talking like J.B Danquah.Go fuck yourself on the grass kokumonuah
Agyem 11 years ago
When you fail to build credible institutions and instead build everything around personalities then you can't complain lack of justice.What you have in africa is rule of man.Rule of law always gives way to the most powerful,t ... read full comment
When you fail to build credible institutions and instead build everything around personalities then you can't complain lack of justice.What you have in africa is rule of man.Rule of law always gives way to the most powerful,the richest,the well connected and so on.Why would justice prevail if its built on such shaky foundations?Do you bribe policemen to beat justice then wonder why Ghana is not built on equal justice?Yes,you are part of the problem.When the time comes when you can't bribe anyone,when you don't have to know well connected relatives and when you pick your leaders based on issues rather than regionalism or tribe then you can ask for JUSTICE. As it is now we just want justice only when its someone else to be taken to task yet we circumvent justice with bribery,tribalism and other shortsighted without any shred of shame.Justice begins with you.
Nyansa 11 years ago
Agyem, I agree absolutely with you. We triumph on personalities rather than allowing institutions to stand the test of time. So long as the individual irrespective of his capabilities, or moral standing so long as he comes fr ... read full comment
Agyem, I agree absolutely with you. We triumph on personalities rather than allowing institutions to stand the test of time. So long as the individual irrespective of his capabilities, or moral standing so long as he comes from within our ethnic or partisan group damn the consequences.We will continue to suffer all injustices if institution are held hostage by the powerful individuals.
HAWA YAKUBU 11 years ago
You know the truth,Kenya does not have a particular tribe which feels they must rule the country by all means. Some people just woke up from sleep and think like what their kote went the knight.Why call a mangoe an orange.
You know the truth,Kenya does not have a particular tribe which feels they must rule the country by all means. Some people just woke up from sleep and think like what their kote went the knight.Why call a mangoe an orange.
Agyemang. 11 years ago
Say it ain't so.I dare you to read "The Economist" and you'll see the kikuyu have an even greater stranglehold on kenya than Ashantis do in Ghana.The kikuyu have both economic and political power.It was thier double fisted g ... read full comment
Say it ain't so.I dare you to read "The Economist" and you'll see the kikuyu have an even greater stranglehold on kenya than Ashantis do in Ghana.The kikuyu have both economic and political power.It was thier double fisted grip on the nation-state of kenya that partly to blame for the violence in'08 as the other 43 tribes felt marginalised and the kikuyu intended to rule kenya for ever.Now kenya will have a 3rd kikuyu president in Mr Kenyatta.
Bawumia 11 years ago
you should be asking yourself why anytime the ashantis loose they cry foul
you should be asking yourself why anytime the ashantis loose they cry foul
TNC 11 years ago
simple. ruling Ghana is their God given right !
simple. ruling Ghana is their God given right !
insight to the bone 11 years ago
Center to all this corruption now is the ewe tribalism that has a stranglehold on the ndc and now most of the state agencies that are to combat this menace. yes corruption exists in all countries but ours has become more noto ... read full comment
Center to all this corruption now is the ewe tribalism that has a stranglehold on the ndc and now most of the state agencies that are to combat this menace. yes corruption exists in all countries but ours has become more notorious than the nigerian , during kuffuor's time it was know he and his cronies would try and secure a 0.5 to 5% commission now ndc is known for not less than 20% going up all the way to 200 300 or even 500% . loans achieve even parliamentary approval are withdrawn as business wise it just doesnt make sense. the civil service especial ministry of finance has turned into a money grabbing arm twisting mafia that up to 3 years ago would frustrate any endeavor undertook en if one would not pay , in short the process would move at a snails pace . the last couple of years if you dont pay your files and docs would go missing or you would eventually be accused of defrauding the state or some other fabricated heinous crime and end up with the bni , police or some other agency of repression fighting for your life. in short would take by force from you what you did not willingly give.Some now advocate for JJ methods of dealing with this system of doom, but rawlings style of governance can never come back as the revolution propaganda and media hype was nothing but a sophisticated cover and camouflage of the ewe persecution of the Akans mainly the ashantis as by the end of the Acheampong era most govt institutions and factories were being managed by Ashantis, today most are in the hands of northerners , Gas and ewes so to clean up the babies and fruits of the revolution with another is impossible , the only solution is now a civil war . now tribalistically speaking without being accused again of chauvinism or Akan nationalism we have a situation whereby this alliance of the ewes , part of the gas and northerners , that is less than 15 % of the population by varios means of election engineering , rigging divide and rule now are looting as quickly as they can all the wealth of the nation as they know this can not last forever . unfortunately when they are done we shall be left with a war and no future for our children due to our own laziness to see the truth for what it really is . here is a govt so busy with their cover up for the SADA that not a single minister or leader to come out this Easter with a message of hope as their hearts are filled with so much evil and hate . yes this govt will leave one day for sure despised and hated by the people , never to come back again.
Adae 11 years ago
Keep the spirit up. We need more of this
Keep the spirit up. We need more of this
LONTO-BOY 11 years ago
When 'party politics' stops, justice will prevail! In Africa, all too often, the existing state institutions, judicial mechanisms, procedures and initiatives are constrained by 'partisan/ethnic politics'.
Unless, we build ... read full comment
When 'party politics' stops, justice will prevail! In Africa, all too often, the existing state institutions, judicial mechanisms, procedures and initiatives are constrained by 'partisan/ethnic politics'.
Unless, we build accountable justice system on strong and independent institutions, justice will always be elusive!
Paul Amuna 11 years ago
Overall, you make some valid points about the dangers in the rather long drawn out process in Ghana. I also take the view that having sworn in the president, the longer the delay in the ruling, the more "impractical" it would ... read full comment
Overall, you make some valid points about the dangers in the rather long drawn out process in Ghana. I also take the view that having sworn in the president, the longer the delay in the ruling, the more "impractical" it would be to "overturn" the original declaration. That is not to say I believe that Nana Addo won the elections, indeed I am convinced of the opposite.
However much we may wish to praise the swift Kenyan resolution of the electoral challenge in the Supreme Court, it is worth examining the nature of Odinga's petition which did not challenge the Electoral Commission, Kenyatta's complicity in any agenda to defraud, nor the type and extent of malpractices alleged in the case of the Ghana elections. I hasten to add that much as I did not believe that Odinga's challenge was going to yield any positive results on his part, one can only admire him for his magnanimity and apparent interest in the rule of law and the peace and development of his country. That, in a very corrupt nation in which a person (or persons)indicted by an international criminal court for serious human rights violations can nonetheless stand, and win presidential elections.
Somehow I rather doubt that had this been the case in Ghana, such people would have been put forward by their own parties in the first place. I can see you having a wry smile on this one, and thinking, "what an idiot, have you forgotten Jerry Rawlings and his atrocities"? In the case of JJ as you would recall, there was no such international indictment despite some sanctions in the early part of his quasi-military regime under which people like you, Arthur Kennedy suffered (in my opinion, rather unjustly).
In short, in Ghana we have a very complex list of items on 'the menu' and even the Supreme Court has had to step in to help the 'litigants' narrow it down to the key issues!! Whether this is a sign of a 'mature democracy' or not I am not sure. I do agree with your view however that this, rather than "make electoral violence in the future less likely, would rather make it more likely for a loser in the future to take his case to the streets".
Sadly, (and perhaps inadvertently) it seems to me this is precisely the scenario the NPP petitioners are creating (I say this not in support of the NDC). It is said that "justice delayed is justice denied" and whichever way the case goes, I would argue that the long delay would have delayed justice and in the process, weakened, (not strengthened) our democracy as some analysts have tried to suggest.
Ours as Africans is indeed a very long struggle and once again you have alluded to the tide of history and how ultimately Africa and Africans have fared over the Centuries. I believe we can change all that going forward.
I would hope to see Ghana emerge tough out of this current process, and a bipartisan parliament (whatever the outcome of this case) and the government set up an independent committee of inquiry to examine all aspects of the electoral process, and to put ion a more robust process backed by law, to make 'going to court because you have lost' a more rigorous and difficult process.
I would also hope to see a stronger and tougher mandate for a truly independent electoral commission whose functioning will be properly scrutinised by independent Civil Society organisations to ensure true transparency, fairness and accountability. Finally, in the process, I would like to see better clarity of the constitutional instruments governing the means of conducting elections and the voting process, to ensure that there is no ambiguity as to the validity of votes cast as a result of m'malfunctioning of machines' for example, and that all officials who fail in their responsibilities e.g. appending signatures where required, are very clear what the consequences are.
If such an inquiry were to be set up and all parties were to uphold and adhere to its recommendations, then the current impasse would have been a true watershed and helped us to once again 'lead' in democracy in Africa.
Kwame 11 years ago
The tribal and ethnic conflicts how do they start and when will they end. The tribal conflicts that emerged soon after the second world war were the creating of the state of Israel, the partition of India and the emergence of ... read full comment
The tribal and ethnic conflicts how do they start and when will they end. The tribal conflicts that emerged soon after the second world war were the creating of the state of Israel, the partition of India and the emergence of apartheid in Southern Africa (the issue of apartheid and racial segregation must also be given the ethnic connotation).
The issue is that the Jews in Europe or to say the Zionist in Europe and United States of America want a nation of their own when they together already have a nation named Palestine with the Palestinians. They want to have a pure Jewish state without any other Semitic tribe. Before the Zionists effected their terrorist acts on the people of Palestine in 1948 the country that had the highest Jewish population was Egypt.
The fact was and still remain that since the time of Joseph Egypt became the home of Jews, just as India and Pakistan became the home of Greeks during the period of Alexander the Great. Caucasian Indians, Pakistanis and even Arabs accepted that they have a new home which is theirs forever.
On the other hand the Zionists want to have a home of their own which goes contrary to all rules of human settlement. There is no country in the world that is made up of single tribe, but unfortunately this bizarre idea was supported by the super powers who were and are still hold the veto power in the United Nations.
Then followed the war of partition of India into three separate states: India, Pakistan and Western Pakistan, which seems to mean that there is only one religious sect in the countries that made up the United Nation's Security Council. Then came the war of liberation of Korea in which the U.S. and her allies sided with the capitalist elements in that country against the nationalist who want to be free from Japanese socioeconomic control. The United States of America intervened on on behalf of the liberation forces, but on the side of pro-colonial elements in Seoul and it was repeated a decade later when the U.S. intervened again in Viet Nam in 1963 again to protect and defend capitalist elements in Saigon, now Ho Chi Ming City against the liberation forces in Hanoi.
The United Nations through out its existence never declared the Racial Segregation laws in the U.S. as crime against Humanity and never proposed that since the Negroes in the U.S. were prosecuted and persecuted socioeconomically as was the case in Southern and South-West Africa by the apartheid regime in South Africa, which the U.S. and her NATO allies support. It is on record that NATO and Israel supported both the apartheid regime in Southern Africa, Portuguese and Spanish fascist colonial regimes against the people of Africa. It is on record that NATO members supported the separatist groups in Africa and still support them and so is the case in all parts of the world.
The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, Russia and other parts of the world are supported by NATO on the flimsy ruse of members of the majority tribe or religion being ruled by the minority.
It is also on record that whiles NATO members supported monarchies in the Middle East they call governments that are elected dictatorial regimes. They support and arm several terrorist groups with the support of those monarchies which do not respect even the most simple fundamental human rights of their citizens. If the case of Africa now NATO want to force us back to the colonial era with the fundamental Islamic terrorist who they said they are fighting against elsewhere being their comrades in arms to force us to obey at gun point all the tenets of the Islamic code.
The Sudanese civil war was and is still the continuation of what led to the war in Palestine, the partition of India and all other ethnic wars which were instigated and fueled by the U.S. and her NATO allies.
It is the game of knocking the head of tribes and clans allover the world to control them, divert their attention from their socioeconomic aims and continue to dominate them.
We have just witnessed that the bells of ethnic cleansing after the reform from socialism to capitalism is tolling for the people of Burma.
koohia 11 years ago
Arthur Kennedy,
You are confused. You imply that part of the delayin hearing the petition was caused by dilly-dallkying by the petitioners. But they needed to be thorough, for they would be fighting against a sitting governm ... read full comment
Arthur Kennedy,
You are confused. You imply that part of the delayin hearing the petition was caused by dilly-dallkying by the petitioners. But they needed to be thorough, for they would be fighting against a sitting government -- with all its resources, including dirty tricks by their clandestine services -- as well as an Electoral Commission that was in possession of most of the evidence of its own wrongdoing and was not about to admit it had been dishonest.
Besides, the petitioners knew they had a deadline, and they worked assiduously to meet it. Would you rather have had them hurrying to court and being sent marching?
I think if you are following what has been going on, you will see that they are running scared. First, there were the people caught trying to get signatures on to unsigned pink sheets. Then came legal thuggery from the Kpegan hate machine. Is nthat how normal people behave? You must apprecdiate that the petitioners' case has convinced the NDC thieves that they are in a very weak position and that's why they are becoming listless and aggressive. Someone amongst them even said Nana Addo should be detained! They definitely are defecating in their pants, as they contemplate the amount oif money they have chopped from the public purse and which they will soon vomit out.
Arthur, you also wrote this:
"Finally, we must vote wisely. If we support possible mass-murderers and gargantuan thieves and crooks with our votes and our money, we undermine our historic quest for justice. We must fight the perception that most of those who care about injustice in Africa are non-Africans."
Nothing wrong with that. Except that the people of Ghana duid vote wisely and their votes were stolern b y a band oif gangsters anbd their corrupt abettors from the Electoral Commission. Those who are fighting the theft of votes deserve your full suppoer, not this lackadaisical approach from you, which partly blames the victim.
The Supreme Court will go by the evidence. You shall see.
Nana is a joke. He delayed filing his complaint, only to withdraw part of his petition. He keeps arguing over procedure rather than the facts of his petition. Mahama has no incentive to have the case resolved; after all, he h ...
read full comment
and yet he had wanted the ec to have held on the announcement of the verdict after the election !what would ghana has become ?
The attitude of ourself in the biggest sickness in us. Because of how wicked a black man is, nothing move well on his side. If whites were to bahave the way we do , all human being would have still remain in the holes. Is a s ...
read full comment
Talking like J.B Danquah.Go fuck yourself on the grass kokumonuah
When you fail to build credible institutions and instead build everything around personalities then you can't complain lack of justice.What you have in africa is rule of man.Rule of law always gives way to the most powerful,t ...
read full comment
Agyem, I agree absolutely with you. We triumph on personalities rather than allowing institutions to stand the test of time. So long as the individual irrespective of his capabilities, or moral standing so long as he comes fr ...
read full comment
You know the truth,Kenya does not have a particular tribe which feels they must rule the country by all means. Some people just woke up from sleep and think like what their kote went the knight.Why call a mangoe an orange.
Say it ain't so.I dare you to read "The Economist" and you'll see the kikuyu have an even greater stranglehold on kenya than Ashantis do in Ghana.The kikuyu have both economic and political power.It was thier double fisted g ...
read full comment
you should be asking yourself why anytime the ashantis loose they cry foul
simple. ruling Ghana is their God given right !
Center to all this corruption now is the ewe tribalism that has a stranglehold on the ndc and now most of the state agencies that are to combat this menace. yes corruption exists in all countries but ours has become more noto ...
read full comment
Keep the spirit up. We need more of this
When 'party politics' stops, justice will prevail! In Africa, all too often, the existing state institutions, judicial mechanisms, procedures and initiatives are constrained by 'partisan/ethnic politics'.
Unless, we build ...
read full comment
Overall, you make some valid points about the dangers in the rather long drawn out process in Ghana. I also take the view that having sworn in the president, the longer the delay in the ruling, the more "impractical" it would ...
read full comment
The tribal and ethnic conflicts how do they start and when will they end. The tribal conflicts that emerged soon after the second world war were the creating of the state of Israel, the partition of India and the emergence of ...
read full comment
Arthur Kennedy,
You are confused. You imply that part of the delayin hearing the petition was caused by dilly-dallkying by the petitioners. But they needed to be thorough, for they would be fighting against a sitting governm ...
read full comment