<<Print>>If I have ever been worried and saddened about Ghana, it’s been this month. My worry and sadness stem from a series of actions and utterances by state officials. I’ve been very sickened by these things.
First, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and his Electoral Commission (EC) took GH¢317m meant for the conduct of the district-level elections scheduled for March 3, and wasted it. It sounds so strange and shameful that a fisherman, Benjamin Eyi Mensah, who had not studied law, should be able to interpret the laws of Ghana better than Dr Afari-Gyan, himself a lawyer; the legal team of the EC, and the Attorney-General’s Department.
Having conducted a number of elections at national and district levels before, it beats me how Afari-Gyan would want Ghanaians to remember him with this shameful action of his commission. But, I’m not too surprised because one thing many Ghanaians would remember Afari-Gyan for after his achievements and failures is his ‘go-to-court’ syndrome.
Interestingly, the EC, with all its legal team, did not understand that the C.I.85 required 21 parliamentary sittings before it becomes operational. Again, despite all the concerns expressed by some parliamentarians and the letters sent to the commission by Mr Eyi Mensah’s lawyer, Afari-Gyan’s ‘go-to-court’ syndrome blinded him until the Supreme Court told him Mr Eyi Mensah understands the laws better than he, the EC Chairman does. What a pity!
What happens in assemblies?
Now in a country where we have no money to produce electricity, GH¢317m has gone down the drain and the EC says it needs another GH¢90m to reorganise the elections. Despite the wasted amount in a ‘dumsor’ era, another big problem is the vacuum created. From today, there are no assembly and unit committee members anywhere in the country and District Chief Executives (DCEs) have been directed to be responsible for day-to-day administration of the assemblies but should not take decisions requiring the aproval of the entire assembly or its Executive Committee. This means the DCEs cannot assume the role of assembly members. The term of the assemblies ends today, March 14. What will happen next in the assemblies is anyone’s guess.
Koku Anyidoho
Only a month ago (February 18) I commended Mr Koku Anyidoho, a Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, (NDC) for maturing from his days when he was insulting people left and right, after he rebuked one of the presidential staffers, Sam George, for mocking the New Patriotic Party (NPP)for organising its ‘Wongbo’ demonstration’.
It seems Mr Anyidoho was faking his act. Unsurprising to many, he used very crude, rude and undeserving words on the Chairman of the Christian Council, who is also the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev, Prof. Emmanuel Martey, for saying he could fix the ‘dumsor’ problem in three months if he were the president.
Anyidoho is reported to have, in the name of politics, sarcastically retorted that, "because of dumsor, Prof. Martey is trying to say we shouldn’t urinate, eat and talk about other issues? Prof. Martey should use his celestial decree to solve Ghana’s energy crisis if he thinks he can be of help to the nation”. I’m not sure Koku can use the same words in reference to his father, the respected General.
House arrest in Ghana?
I’ve been wondering whether the Ghana Police Service and the Police Council have any judicial powers. First, the service placed Patrick Timbilla the embattled Commissioner of Police, under house arrest, and when we cried out that it was an illegal act, the Public Relations Directorate could not do the honourable thing of apologising but tried to deny it.
As if that was not enough, the Police Service arrogantly published the freezing of Timbilla’s accounts and even disclosed to the world that the man had over GH¢1 million in his account, a very disguised way of asking how he got that money if it was not from the alleged bribes from the recruitment scam. Real show of arrogance!
PURC
And when will Nana Yaa Jantuah, the Public Relations Manager of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), stop her arrogant way of speaking to Ghanaians? It is only in Ghana that a body like the PURC is much concerned about utility companies, at the expense of consumers.
In the United Kingdom, for instance, there is Ofcom (independent regulator and competition authority for the communications industry); Ofgem (the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets), and Ofwat (the Water Services Regulation Authority), all ensuring that there is fairness between utility companies and consumers, unlike our PURC which has become the mouthpiece of all the utility companies.
In many of her communication with the public, Nana Yaa has been very arrogant, showing no respect to consumers.
She says she has come to accept the ‘dumsor’ and Ghanaians must do the same.
She has unashamedly become the spokesperson for the utility companies and had the nerve to tell Ghanaians to accept dumsor because she had accepted it. Listen to her: "As long as we ourselves don't accept that we are in a certain situation, that is where the problem is. I can hear frustration in your voice but you should accept it (dumsor). Me, I have accepted it,” adding that "they (the companies) are telling you what it is. That is the truth. That is the picture. If you don't want to listen to them, that one, it is your problem”.
Dead goat
In faraway Botswana, President Mahama likened the thick skin he has developed for workers’ demonstration to a dead goat which does not fear the knife. Ordinarily, this should not have attracted any negative interpretation, but the issue is, we don’t ask what ‘caused today’s fight’ but rather ‘what happened last time?’ – Remote, rather than the immediate cause.
Mr Mahama is already being taunted with ‘Yentie obiaa’, meaning he is impervious to counsel, hence he doesn’t care about any criticism against his government or governing style. With this in people’s mind, using an anecdote which gives credence to ‘yentie obiaa’, worsens the President’ case.
But I’m tempted to believe, reluctantly though, that the President won’t listen to us (ontie obiaa) because of past and present appointments that he has made to sensitive positions - people with serious unanswered questions, when in a real democracy such people should be before court. The latest to support his ‘yentie obiaa’ and ‘dead goat syndrome (DG Syndrome)’ is the report that he has appointed Dr Joe Oteng Adjei as the Board Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, at a time his previous dishonourable conduct of taking a state vehicle away from his last post is still fresh in people’s minds.
From all indications, Dr Oteng Adjei should have been prosecuted because taking state property without any permission amounts to stealing and until he has purged himself of that charge, one cannot understand why the President would put him in charge of another state institution.
Anyway, if we have to prosecute Dr Oteng Adjei; who will do it, since our Attorney-General is sleeping on the job, having filed a nolle prosequi against the six persons who allegedly abetted Nayele Ametefe to export cocaine to the UK and set them free, and also could not defend the state against Alfred Agbesi Woyome?
And can you imagine the arrogance and impunity of a former Attorney-General, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, telling Ghanaians that her mention in Woyome’s GH¢51.2 m case does not worry her because the case has not destroyed her political career. “I don’t know how that has destroyed my political career because I won massively at the NDC congress as second vice-chair and I was democratically elected”, she is reported as say on radio.
Indeed, dead goats don’t fear knives, otherwise the Attorney-General, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, should have resigned after the judgement was given in favour of Woyome instead of telling Ghanaians that she was going to appeal. Appeal to which court? She makes me miss the ‘Tweaaaa DCE’ very much.
*The author is a Political Scientist, and Media and Communication Expert. [email protected]