When Ballot Thieves Call for Justice

Mercury-tongued Johnson Asideu-Nketia was back at work again, this time trying to hoodwink His Majesty, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, into backing the Presidential Candidacy of the man who not very long ago called him a pathological liar before the global community (See “NDC Run[sic] to Otumfuo to Order for Free and Fair Elections” 5/16/20). Yes, we are talking about former President John Dramani Mahama here. He called The Asantehene a liar after the latter frankly told a plenary (full) session of the United Nations’ General Assembly that as part of his yeomanly contributions to the development of the still-fledgling but unquestionably robust Ghanaian democratic culture, The Asantehene had prevailed on a severely beaten incumbent President John Dramani Mahama to concede the 2020 Presidential Election to his main challenger and most formidable opponent, the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Interestingly, we also find General Mosquito, as Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, the General-Secretary of the present main opposition political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is popularly known, lying through his teeth because while, on the one hand, the former Rawlings-appointed Deputy Defense Minister claims that Otumfuo Osei-Tutu played a laudable statesman’s role in amicably resolving the 2012 Presidential Election Impasse, the same Mr. Asiedu-Nketia has also publicly asserted that but for the abject lack of vigilance on the part of polling agents and assigns of the then-Candidate Akufo-Addo, and the callous complicity of the extant Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, there is absolutely no way for the then-Interim President John Dramani Mahama to have won the 2012 Presidential Election.

Now, what the foregoing means is that Otumfuo Osei-Tutu has always come in handy whenever the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress had well-positioned themselves to ensure the rigging of general elections in the country. There may, indeed, be some truth to this most scandalous allegation, especially when one critically looks at the politically regressive boost and fillip that Otumfuo Osei-Tutu and some key operatives of the National House of Chiefs, including the President of the NHC, Togbe Afede, XVI, and the Omanhene of Asante-Asokore, Nana Krobea Asante – aka Prof. SKB Asante – gave the decision by the leadership of the National Democratic Congress to suicidally sabotage the December 17, 2019 Referendum that was geared towards the visionary and progressive democratization of the selection process and appointment of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the country.

But, of course, the main grievance of yours truly here is the flagrant and wanton violation of the edict of the 1992 Republican Constitution for our invested traditional rulers to conduct themselves over and well above partisan politics. Put in simpler terms, what Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, the former National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for the Wenchi-West Constituency, in the Akufo-Addo-created Bono Region, is unmistakably implying here is that The Asantehene’s most significant contribution to the development of Fourth Republican Ghanaian democracy has been in the patently ungodly realm of strategically undermining the highest governance instrument of the land. Which clearly means that in the opinion of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu may very well go down the annals of Ghana’s history as a ruler who made a total nuisance of his enviable position and status as the most powerful and influential chieftain.

Now, that is clearly not the most ideal tribute to pay the Chief Resident of the most famous and majestic palace in Ghana. If, indeed, in the opinion of the recent graduate in War Studies from the Senior-Staff College of the Ghana Armed Forces, “During his 21 years on the throne, Otumfuo has brought stability to the country,” then almost definitely such “stability” has exclusively been at the convenience of the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress, the Chief Architects of the inexorable regression, if not the total destruction, of Fourth Republican Ghanaian democracy. Now, I don’t know what Otumfuo Osei-Tutu makes of such inescapably unflattering encomium.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

July 5, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]