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John Boadu Must Rather Be Proactive Than Reactive

Feature Article John Boadu
JUN 1, 2020 LISTEN
John Boadu

Mr. John Boadu, the General-Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), ought to be far less concerned about the decision by the administrators and staff of the National Identification Authority (NIA) to spend some three days “mopping up” districts and constituencies in the country in which the Voter Identification Registration exercise may not have been effectively executed, than the fact of whether the names and the relevant details of all eligible voters would have been duly captured on the National Biometric Voters’ Register (NBVR) by the end of the duration of the actual exercise itself – (See “We’ll Resist NIA’s Mop-Up Exercise – John Boadu” StarrFM.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/27/20). The New Patriotic Party’s stalwart was reported to have issued his intended protest on the sidelines of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting at the Accra Headquarters of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) recently.

His concerns are perfectly well understood, in view of the vacuous threat being posed by the leaders of the country’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to rig the entire compilation of the Parliament-approved National Biometric Voters’ Registration Exercise (NBVRE) in favor of the NDC, as well as to ensure that the issuance of the National Identification Card, the main acceptable voters’ registration document, is rigged in favor of registrants resident in the electoral strongholds of the National Democratic Congress. Rather, what is more significant is for progressive leaders like Mr. Boadu to healthily liaise with the administrators of the Prof. Kenneth Agyeman-Attafuah-headed National Identification Authority, to ensure the provision of adequate staffing for the execution of the issuance of the National ID Cards during the period scheduled for the same.

Behaving like a scared hare will only encourage his main political opponents to believe that their crude strategy of stampeding the Jean Adukwei Mensa-chaired Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is effective or is successfully proceeding as planned. There can, of course, be no gainsaying the fact that the ruling New Patriotic Party has a much larger voter register and support base than that of the faux-socilist so-called National Democratic Congress. As well, the fact that, traditionally, the electoral strongholds of the New Patriotic Party have invariably been the most densely populated regions in the country, means that the leaders of the New Patriotic Party have a bounden obligation to ensure, by the close of both registration exercises, that the number of eligible voters registered in their strongholds, as well as the strongholds of the National Democratic Congress’ political minority, realistically reflects the respective eligible adult populations in each and every one of these regions.

Impetuously vowing to resist any attempt by the NIA to adjust its ID issuance exercise to more accurately reflect eligible or qualified voters would be rather presumptuous and tantamount to a flagrant violation of the civil rights of other Ghanaian citizens on the part of the General-Secretary of the New Patriotic Party. I also strongly doubt than an astute lawyer and knowledgeable scholar and sociologist like Prof. Agyeman-Attafuah would stand for such a criminal attempt to undermine the integrity and credibility of the National Identification Authority. At least, that is not the Ken Attafuah that I have known since our PERSCO days.

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

June 1, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]

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