Adukwei Endangers Our Democracy And Cheats Us Of Victory

There is no doubt that former President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress are being cheated of victory in Ghana's general elections of 7th December, 2020.

President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress went into the elections as clear statistical underdogs based on the 2016 general elections outcome. The former President went into the elections with a deficit of about one million votes and our parliamentarians had a deficit of 69 seats to cover up.

Not only were there constraints facing the NDC and its candidates as they faced an increasingly demanding Ghanaian electorate, and their opponents, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his 169 parliamentarians have amassed financial fortune through massive corruption that is unprecedented in Ghana's history, since the founding of our nation in 1957 by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The more devastating of those corruption incidents surfaced just before the elections when a video said to have been recorded in July 2017 of President Akufo-Addo receiving a bribe of US$40,000 from the Director of Urban Roads pleading with him not to sack him surfaced. The alleged bribe giver Mr Abbass Awulo the Director of Urban Roads has remained at post till date, while all his colleagues at the department of Urban Roads have been dismissed from office by Akufo-Addo.

Many Ministers accused of corruption were vehemently defended publicly and protected by Akufo-Addo using the force and authority of his office.

Then there came the ongoing deadly worldwide corona virus outbreak and this has given Akufo-Addo and his government the opportunity to flout the country's fiscal responsibility laws and went on a borrowing spree of huge amounts as listed below, resulting in a projected huge fiscal deficit for this year. The breakdown of corona borrowings are :

• US$1,000,000,000(one Billion US Dollars) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or in terms of the Cedi equivalent, this is GH¢5,741,000,000.
• US$100,000,000(One Hundred Million US Dollars) from the World Bank, which in terms of the Cedi is GH¢574,100,000
• US$300,000,000(Three Hundred Million) from our Stabilization Fund(Oil Money) saved by the NDC government of President Mahama, which in Cedi terms is GH¢1,722,300,000
• GH¢5,500,000,000 (Five Billion and Five Hundred Million CEDI's) from Bank of Ghana
• US$69,000,000(Sixty-Nine Million Dollars) from African Development Bank which in terms of the Cedi is GH¢396,129,000

In the name of giving relief to the people, the Akufo-Addo government went on a massive vote buying spree spraying cash around till election day in the name of corona relief.

Electricity and water became free for citizens from March till election day, the Electricity Company of Ghana wallows in a debt of over GHC4billion, while the government is not able to pay power producers who on the eve of the elections were threatening to cut off power, with the government scrambling to find money to sort them out somehow.

With such herculean tasks confronting the NDC's presidential and parliamentary candidates no one gave them a dog's chance in a plainly skewed contest as the days draw neigh.

Yet most surprisingly over six million Ghanaians defied all odds to vote for President John Dramani Mahama and the parliamentarians fielded by the NDC. By the end of the count after the close of polls, the NDC has garnered 140 parliamentary seats clinching majority in parliament, wiping out the governing party, New Patriotic Party's 69 seat majority.

With defeat staring them in the face, the Akufo-Addo government in collusion with the partisan Electoral Commission which it appointed swang into action putting into operation a well rehearsed rigging scheme put in place long before the presidential election, in anticipation of such a situation.

It is not surprising that when on Wednesday the 8th of December, 2020 just a day after the election the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Jean Mensah hurriedly announced a flawed presidential election results full of arithmetic errors, declaring Mr Akufo-Addo President, it immediately stocked uproar across the country.

The mandate of the people has clearly been stolen.

In less than 24hrs, the Electoral Commission has come out to admit that the figures it used to announce the results of the presidential election were wrong. Since then the EC has changed the presidential election figures six more times, and we are not sure they are done yet with tweaking the presidential election figures to make Akufo-Addo the winner.

Has the EC any plausible explanations to offer Ghanaians for this clearly stolen mandate of the people?

No Not!!!. So far they have attempted some vague and lame excuses which have not satisfied anybody, not even their most ardent supporters.

The first laughable explanation they have attempted to give is that the EC Chairperson Evil Jean Mensah has inadvertently used wrong figures in her declaration of the presidential votes.

The fact is that if these figures do not exist within the calculations of the Electoral Commission and in the mind of Evil Jean Mensa, she wouldn't have used them. So, how did she come by those figures in the first place?

Now this brings us to another aspect of this deadly election- Akufo-Addo's use of his vigilantes clothed in police and military uniforms who are killing innocent citizens whose only fault is that they are protecting their votes in constituencies the Akufo-Addo government is trying to snatch from them by the force of arms twisting.

So in Techiman South constituency five innocent citizens have been gunned down and killed by Akufo-Addo's hoodlums.

In Odododiodioo in the heart of the city of Accra, daring attempts were made to kill the NDC candidate and incumbent member of Parliament, the Honourable Nii Lante Vandrrpuije. It is by following his own instincts and not sleeping in his house in the night of election day that he is alive today. In the wee hours of 8th December dead in the night, armed vigilante groups affiliated to President Akufo-Addo, dressed in military uniform, stormed the residence of the NDC candidate/incumbent MP and ransacked his house looking for him to kill. When they failed they managed to trace him to a hotel where he has lodged for the night. They succeeded only however in manhandling him because he has his own security around.

This is not the first time Ghana is holding elections in the Fourth Republic. This is the eighth time in succession. This is the only time people have been short dead as a result of voting and collation at an election.

The NDC has hinted at seeking redress at the appropriate forum to protect the sanctity of the votes citizens have cast in favour of its presidential and parliamentary candidates. This will open up more secrets and the flaws and the collusion between the EC and president Akufo-Addo.

African democracies are fragile as we have recently seen in Mali where the military have taken power again after a short period of Democratic rule. It can happen in any other country in Africa.

This is why Ghanaians must rise up to speak against Akufo-Addo and his government and how they are subjecting innocent citizens to brutish treatment and killing our own citizens like animals.

Let not one man's ambition lead this country over the precipice and into another dark period in our democratic journey.

Enough of this dictatorship. Rise up Ghanaians to defend the motherland. Defend your votes and defend our democracy.

"Freedom and Justice" is our credo. Let us hold it to our chests.