In The Land Of Obiricracy; Everything Deserve An Obituary

Ever since this administration assumed the helm of affairs, things started happening the Obiri’s way and not the UDS Navrongo campus way. I have been holding back comments on issues about this administration but being tight-lipped reached a point of irresistibility as breaking silence became a must. It beats my imagination beyond apprehension for such wrongdoings to have rear their ugly heads in the administration under the care of an intellectual with whom I stood on the floor of student parliament with. Yes! nothing is alive.

Nothing is working except incompetence. Everything is dead and as such meritoriously deserved an obituary. I will start tackling the areas one after the other but there is one area that prompted this whole write-up, the electoral commission!

1. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The general assembly is now the epitome of lawlessness and a place of open display of incompetence. Why should the general assembly speaker swear in his deputy? When it is clearly stated in schedule 2(e) of the SRC constitution that the chair of the judicial board is responsible for the administration of this oath. It saddens my heart when intellectuals act this way without iota of recourse to the constitution.

I learnt the deputy speaker, whatchamacallit, subsequently recuse himself from the lawless leadership. Probity and accountability is a tenet of democracy, Imagine the brouhaha in parliament if after reading of budget statements, every member of parliament is asked not to send a copy out. It is unfortunate that in the land of ‘obiricracy’, denial of accessibility to public documents is pervasive.

Why should members approve a budget without knowing the nitty-gritties of same? It would not make sense if the finance minister enters parliament with a paper in a suite case with only sum total of what is intended to be expended without a breakdown. On the EC budget which has brought about the infamous E-voting, I am blaming both the leadership and the representatives but with chunk of the blame on the latter because they were quite aware that the speaker was consistently inconsistent in the competent presiding over issues.

You ought to have reason and speak up. You ought to have raise red flags. You ought to have factored into the equation the interest of those you were representing and fight fiercely against the Obiri’s way of doing things with the speaker as the surrogate. Dear honorable members, you supposed not to approved the budget without knowing the components of expenditure but you chose to swallow it hook, line and sinker. In fact, your unprofessional conduct on that day was cheerless and dejecting!

2. THE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER.

The public relations officer is the worst I have witnessed, read and listened to ever since I step foot on this campus. He is a perfect example of a worse-case scenario! Birds of the same feathers flock together. A worst administration and so every administrator is terribly worse. I have sat with him only once in a meeting but I didn’t need a second meeting to convince me that he lacks the diplomacy to be an occupant of such sensitive position. I hastened and concluded that he was suffering from ‘politeness cancer’.

He speaks like student serial caller on Radio FAS whose palm has been greased to defend the incompetence of Mr. Obiri. Mr. President, that even reminds me, is Radio FAS in a surgical theater at the hospital that was renovated by your immediate predecessor? Keep looking for response for my confusion as I continue taking on your Public Relations Officer. As an official mouthpiece of the president, learning all the polite words in the dictionary should have been an elective course for you in every trimester.

The public relationship officer is also too partisan. We are aware that “every human being is a political animal” but not to the extent of exhibiting political animalism at where neutrality was a necessity. You speak on behalf of a president who is not representing only TESCON or TEIN, CPP, PNC, PPP, GFP et cetera students but different students with different political beliefs and ideologies. On the day of the opening forum that couldn’t achieve its target, I entered the venue and sat at the back for relaxation hoping to be part of those who will listen to grammar of no results from Obiri but to my utter shock, I saw the PRO in a TESCON T-shirt as if he was in a G.A meeting of TESCON, so I left. Can you carry the weight of insults to be heaped on Eugene Arhin if he wears an NPP branded souvenir to a national function? Oh sorry someone just whispered into my ears, Obiri’s way of doing things and not the UDS way!

3. THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION.

The electoral commission is a body of interest to me and as such deserved this scathing attack. I learnt the commission through its chair has designed a logo for itself. Perhaps, as a smaller body under Madam Charlotte Osei’, what she invents at the top must be replicated here. It is an unrefutable fact that you all conduct elections and declare results as returning officers but the difference between you isn’t nuance. I will tell you why.

The electoral commission of Ghana used the new logo in almost every facet of the entire commission – from embellishment on voting booths to ballot papers and voter’s register. You have wasted resources because you can’t conduct elections on your own without an involvement of the electoral commission of Ghana.

The new logo was needless! Also, Your actions of absolute contraventions of the constitution of the SRC is mindboggling if not thunderstriking. Why should a partisan office holder be asked to resign before contesting an SRC/NUGS elections when in actual fact, the SRC constitution completely debars such people from contesting elections in article 24 clause 1(d)? Obiri’s way and not the legal way I guess! I am also aware that those who are already holding offices at the various departments in different capacities are asked to resign before they can pass through vetting.

Sir, I combed the whole SRC constitution but it was an exercise in futility as I couldn’t find an explicit article to that effect. Why wrote on the nomination forms demanding the resignation of the aforesaid people before they can be qualified as candidates without quoting the relevant article of the SRC constitution to let them know that you are not a joke but an intellectual who is always in bed with the right things? Ernest Sarfo’s and not the legal way I guess! I will not argue with you at the national level where those in public service are required to abdicate their offices before contesting any parliamentary elections in fulfillment of article 94 clause 3(b)(c) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana which reads; “A person shall not be eligible to be a member of parliament if he-is a member of the police service, the armed forces, the judicial service, the legal service, the civil service, the parliamentary service, the statistical service, the fire service, the customs, Exercise and Preventive service, the immigration service or the internal revenue service; or a chief.”. I hope you are not comparing these services to the various departments on campus? Because it is the case of apple and oranges! Don’t tell me it has been happening every year! What is unconstitutional is unconstitutional.

Didn’t you cancel the selling of forms to vice presidential candidates of amalgamated clubs? I was beaming with smiles on that day in court because it was a bright day for rule of law. Please, Mr. Commissioner, the laws in the SRC constitution must be applied indiscriminately regardless of whose ox is gored!

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