Finally, the Big Man Has Spoken

Kofi Annan

In my most recent column last night, and one which hit the media websites and perhaps several newsstands, as well, this morning, I highlighted the need for one of our most respected and distinguished elderly statesmen and citizens to promptly and urgently speak to the need for the immediate abatement of rising tensions in the country. This is unarguably one of the most painful legacies of Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Ghana’s “longest-reigning” Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. Well, at long last, the most celebrated and distinguished Ghanaian citizen and diplomat has solemnly let his voice be heard vis-à-vis the general conduct and outcome of Election 2016; and one expects that this will go a long way to help stabilize post-election fever in the country.

I am here, of course, talking about Mr. Kofi Annan, the first indigenous African to be elected Secretary-General of the United Nations and for whose sterling latter stewardship garnered both the global peacemaking organization and its staff the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Annan, who is also the Chancellor of the country’s flagship academy, the University of Ghana, has commended the five minor participants in the 2016 presidential election for having promptly conceded defeat to the apparent winner, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, based objectively and scientifically on the official release of the “preliminary results and clear trends” of the same (See “Losers Must Quickly Concede Defeat – Kofi Annan” Starrfmonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 12/9/16).

The foregoing observation, according to Ghanaweb.com, was posted to the Facebook Wall of the globally celebrated diplomat. So far, the predictable holdout has been the presidential incumbent, namely, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, although as of this writing, the outgoing Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House was reported to have announced his willingness to concede defeat in the wake of the official declaration of the victor of Election 2016 by Electoral Commissioner Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei.

This may come as some form of comfort to those who have been fervidly wary from the beginning about the possibility of a megalomaniacal President Mahama applying some wiles and other unorthodox means to illegally hang on to power. His conditional concession may be worth whatever premium any individual interpreter may decide to put on the same. But, clearly, what Mr. Annan meant was the need for all the major participants in this year’s presidential election to unconditionally concede defeat to the clear winner, as convincingly indicated by trending results. But, of course, it is also quite understandable that after all these years of insufferable arrogance and nose-thumbing at their arch-nemesis, to wit, Nana Akufo-Addo, in particular, but the leadership of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, in general, that the Mahama Posse would be desperately scheming for any possible means of hanging on to power.

At any rate, even as the popular saying goes: “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” In short, the voters of Ghana have spoken with their ballots, and some would say their inky thumbs; and the NDC Abongo Boys may only resist at their own great peril.

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
December 9, 2016
E-mail: [email protected]
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs