Charlotte Should Prove Nationality
Ebo Quansah in Accra
The announcement was hailed in gender circles as a great achievement in the fight for gender equality in this male-dominated society. Immediately, a group calling itself Network for Axim Development issued a statement congratulating the new boss of the Electoral Commission, praying that her achievement would rub off on citizens of the town, and Nzemaland in general, to urge the people to rise up to the challenge of their citizenship.
“It was a great joy and honour for chiefs and people of Axim and its environs, when the President, through the Chief of Staff, announced your new position as the Electoral Commissioner on Thursday, June 25, 2015. Indeed, your appointment as the new Chairperson, has given us the hope that, indeed, our dear town and district is capable and endowed with such productive human resources.”
For the uninitiated, nearly half a century ago, Mr. Mike Eghan, the purist on radio and television, who pronounced himself 'the Magnificent Emperor', proclaimed to the world that the “Best Comes from the West.” Who would argue against that proclamation? With about 60 per cent of Ghana's total cocoa export being harvested from the Western Region, together with gold, manganese and every available mineral from Ghana being mined in the region, who could argue against the 'Magnificent Emperor's’ mantra.
Since the advent of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as leader of this nation, there have been very few appointees from the Western Region with the kind of pedigree that Mrs. Osei brings to the Electoral Commission.
Read further from the statement from the network. “We do recognise that Mrs. Osei is a well-known daughter from Axim in the Western Region, and a fair-minded Ghanaian who has distinguished herself in rendering selfless and dedicated services in both the public and private sectors of our dear nation.”
Mrs. Osei has done well for herself. Since the commission was established under the 1992 Constitution, 24 years ago, no woman has ascended to its leadership, which was music to the ears of the network.
“With her enormous and enviable records of successes chalked during her previous positions she served,” crowed the network, “we have no doubt that you will excel to make a distinguished performance for Ghana in the dispensation of her duties as the new Chairperson of the EC. We also believe that your new appointment will continue to serve as a source of inspiration for the youth in Axim to aim high and go for the best in all endeavours.”
To her credit, Mrs. Osei did not waste her time in the classroom. She holds a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, 1994, was called to the bar two years later, after graduating from the Ghana Law School, and holds a Masters of Law (LLM) from Queen's University in Canada. As if all these academic laurels are not enough, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, born Charlotte Kesson-Smith on February 1, 1969, took a Masters in Business Leadership (MBL) from the University of South Africa.
She has held a number of very key positions in a number of establishments, including Ghana Commercial Bank, where she directed the legal section. She was also a Law Director at the former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor's financial giant – Unibank.
Before she was whisked to the National Commission on Civic Education in 2011, Mrs. Osei was the lead partner in the law firm Prime Attorneys she established. Tongues are still wagging on how juicy contracts on the state's legal matters, bordering on finance, were sent to the private firm, some I am told, at the blind side of the Attorney-General's Department.
The first hints that Mrs. Osei was feeling uneasy in her new job, emerged in an interview she granted to Starr FM, one of the several radio outlets owned by the immediate past Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission told Starr FM that managing Ghana's electoral body could be a daunting task. Friends and family members are usually ill at ease with the position. “Yes, it is difficult on some days. This is not a job that I think is easy anywhere in the world.
But I think it is particularly difficult in Ghana and Africa, when you are particularly a woman. I can take the stone, but I'm particularly worried for my children and siblings. On those days, you get siblings calling and worrying about you. I can take it, but for those, it is worrying,” she stressed.
On Thursday, July 14, 2016, Mrs. Osei went bananas on the media, complaining about virtually everything the media has been doing. For the purpose of clarity, I intend to take her complaints one by one. In her analysis, Mrs. Charlotte Osei told the gathering that 90 percent of the news churned out by the media is devoted to politics, five percent to sports, with education, health infrastructure and every other event in society sharing the other five percent. I am not privy to the kind of content analysis the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission employed to arrive at this analysis.
What I do know, as a newsman, is that quite a number of column inches in the print media, as well as the electronic media, is ordinarily devoted to politics. I accept the criticism that vital sectors of the society, the economy, education, health, agriculture, transport, especially, with a number of our drivers on the road not very conversant with road signs and generally driving carelessly. But what we all need to understand is that the media only mirrors society, and that in an election year, it is only natural that politics dominates the output of the media.
In our part of the world, politics determines how every facet of society performs. Is it not intriguing to read from The Chronicle late last week that the proceeds from public toilets we are supposed to patronise go to fund the activities of the ruling National Democratic Congress and its party apparatchiks and foot soldiers? Is there anything wrong with bringing this information to the fore?
Speaking tongue-in-cheek, Mrs. Charlotte Osei told the world at the Kofi Annan Centre for Peacekeeping at Teshie, near Accra, thus: “It is not important to us that politicians talk to us every day but have no manifestoes; we haven't shown any concern.
What is important to us seems to be the supposed screen saver on the phone of the Chair of EC, as seen by an overactive imagination of the political party activist. And so we continue as a society, and as members of the media, to fail in holding political players to higher standards.”
I will like to assure the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission that journalists in this country are doing their best to hold officialdom accountable to the people of this country.
Like every society, the media in this country has the good, the bad, and the ugly. I accept that, sometimes, the ugliness threatens to do the good the media is doing, which is unfortunate. But if Mrs. Osei would like to address herself to the performance of the media in this country, she would appreciate that an umpteen number of scandals are uncovered by the media.
It is not too long ago that the investigative work of Anas Aremeyaw Anas led to the dismissal of judges in this country, and led to several reforms in the judiciary.
The brilliant job a young journalist has established that, at the blind side of the 27 million Ghanaians, the Head of State of this Republic accepted a gift from a contractor who was awarded a juicy contract of a single wall with the price tag of US$650,000. Do not mind if the time lapse between the acceptance of the gift and Ghanaians knowing about the exchange is a staggering four years.
On a more serious note, Mrs. Osei has to be reminded that if the content of her screen saver “as seen by an overactive imagination of a political activist,” was truly the picture of the President of the Republic of Ghana, as was being alleged, then her impartiality as the Chair of the Electoral Commission has been called into question.
Mr. John Dramani Mahama is a candidate in the presidential election on November 7. There are many other candidates. Mr. Hassan Ayariga, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Dr. Edward Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have all been confirmed candidates. So, if the picture of Mr. Mahama is boldly displayed as a screen saver of the phone of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, it could be deduced that the head of the Electoral Commission in the Republic of Ghana is rooting for one candidate against the rest.
From my point of view, this is a very serious dent on the EC Chair's impartiality badge. If the Chairperson is unaware of this serious breach, then I wonder what makes her tick.
She has no business lecturing the media on what to do. She has a duty to perform, and that is what is important. From where I sit, as a journalist, Mrs. Osei has very serious issues of nationality to deal with. Is Mrs. Osei truly a Ghanaian? According to an entry on her in Wikipedia, the world-wide web, “Charlotte Ama Osei was born on February 1, 1969.'
Read this carefully: “She is currently Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. She became the first female to serve in this office since the independence of Ghana. Before her appointment, she was the Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education. OSEI WAS BORN IN NIGERIA (caps mine). Her mother is of Nigerian nationality.”
It is interesting to note that all is silent on the front of the father. Mrs. Osei's maiden surname was Kesson-Smith, suggesting that the father was named Kesson-Smith. What I know about that kind of name is that the person could come from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana or Nigeria.
I am told that the husband, whose surname Charlotte is clothed in, is also not a fully-fledged Ghanaian. I understand that the man, Mr. Osei’s, mother is also a Nigerian and that he himself may only be a quarter Ghanaian. All these feed into the woman's true belief about these two countries. I am told that on the Legon campus she was christened 'Ama Alata.' That is not all.
Those who truly know her attest to the fact that she has spent her entire life hating anything Ghanaian. At Queens University in Canada, Charlotte was a member of the International Nigerian Students Association. What is of interest is that at that time, there was an International Ghanaian Students Association as well. Why she did not bother to be identified with Ghana in Canada, in spite of the fact that she shared a room with a Ghanaian, tells everything about how she views this country as a nation.
In case you are wondering about the fact that her first official assignment as EC Chair was to jettison the Coat of Arms on the EC logo, there is your answer.
How such an anti-Ghanaian advocate came to head the Electoral Commission is a conundrum only the appointing authority can answer. I am challenging the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission to flaunt her Ghanaian identity.
For the avoidance of any doubt, the Constitution of the land spells it out clearly that only bona fide Ghanaians shall head the Electoral Commission. Under Article 43, clause (1) “A person is not qualified to be appointed a member of the Electoral Commission unless he or she is qualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament.
Article 89 (Clause (1) states: “Subject to the provisions of this article, a person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament unless he is a citizen of Ghana, has attained the age of 18, and is a registered voter.”
From every analysis, Mrs. Charlotte Osei has a Ghanaian identity problem, and should do well to put doubting minds at rest. If she was born in Nigeria of a Nigerian mother, how did she acquire the Ghanaian citizenship that qualifies her to head the Electoral Commission? I pause for the answer.
I shall return!