A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh Approaching

Alex Bossman Baafi

From my nonprofessional law viewpoint, it is notoriously difficult to tell with adequate certainty where the pendulum of the Supreme Court verdict will swing come Thursday August 29, 2013. I know that we are all sitting on tenterhooks or an edge of cliff waiting anxiously for the outcome.

Many good people and opinion leaders including the renowned institutions for Peace have counseled that the winners of the impending 2012 election petition case at the SC should not celebrate. By implication, the losers for that matter should also not grief in pain, mourn, or cry. They are of the view that in order not to sacrifice the peace the country is enjoying, people should remain calm irrespective of the verdict. That is laudable but highly impossible to attain in my candid opinion.

Human nature as we are, and in real life situations, there are certain feelings that come as a matter of natural sequence. These include feeling good and happy when luck smiles on us at a very critical moment in our lives. We feel down and dejected when we fail to clinch to victory after giving our best in very crucial circumstances. It is very difficult to suppress sudden good or bad news that directly affect our lives. That is natural. That is also not to say that we can exercise our freedom to the detriment of peace because piece denied is freedom denied.

In looking for an acceptable explanation to the two opposing human instinct of weeping and laughing, among other things, I extended my search and came by the truth from the good book, the Holy Bible. I read the New King James Version (NKJV).

Ecclesiastes 3:1- 4 says clearly that to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up. The verse 4, which motivated these few words of advice to the good people of our country, continues as “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”. This is exactly the reality that is going to happen and we need to prepare ourselves psychologically to manage the situation because it will happen.

Fellow citizens, we cannot discount the wisdom in the above quotation because nobody can cheat nature. Therefore, my personal appeal to the supporters of the two greatest political parties of our beloved country, NDC and NPP, is to be magnanimous in their celebration and jubilation of victory when the verdict meets their expectations. In much the same way, those who may have to weep, cry or mourn should do so generously. Whatever be the state of the day, let us make it a duty to give peace a chance after the SC judgment. In my humble opinion, victory will be meaningless in the face of wanton destruction of lives and properties because of war. We witnessed it happened in many countries around the world.

Personally, I am confident that victory would be for all of us. At the end of the day, the anxiety, the tension, the dilemma, the suspense, the uncertainty, the hopelessness, the socio-political and economic stalemate that have afflicted our country since the beginning of the year will soon change for the better. In addition, we will have a credible and respected electoral institution, justice, peace and maintain the rule of law in the democratic journey of our country to the land of equal opportunities in prosperity.

It is therefore my fervent player that the Creator of the Universe, He who ever lives, blesses the Supreme Court Justices with courage and wisdom to pronounce the true verdict without fear or favour. Better still may the Almighty God continues to visit our dear country and shower on us His marvelous Grace of Peace after the verdict Forever Ever and Ever More. Long live Ghana in Peace. AMEN.

Email: abkbossman@yahoo.co.uk