By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Folks,
it is not often that I react to utterances made by some elements in the NPP.
For what they are to me, they don't really turn my crank to warrant my wasting
my breath on them. One such
element is Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, the so-called Executive Director of the
Danquah Institute.
All
this while that he has been in the news, he hasn’t come across to me as a
politician of merit or a lawyer of any special designation. He is a noise-maker
who is basking in nothing but the faded glory of the Danquah-Busia tradition. I
don't really see anything worthwhile coming from him but what he has put out
today does turn my crank, and I want to react to it to confirm my poor opinion
of him and those behind the scene pushing him to display so much inanity in
national politics.
After
making a mockery of himself by describing the Supreme Court judgement against
his uncle (Akufo-Addo) as “corrupt” (or even after bad-mouthing the judges and
challenging them to deal with him if they could), he is out in the news with
something totally weird.
He
says that the Supreme ruled 5:4 in favour of Akufo-Addo and that Justice
Atuguba read the wrong judgement to confirm the legitimacy of President Mahama's
victory at Election 2012.
In
a six-page statement copied to Myjoyonline.com, Otchere-Darko suggested that
what the Supreme Court did was "as if the Court’s main duty was to uphold
the presidency of John Mahama rather than to uphold the Constitution of the
Republic".
"My
view, however, is that the decision, in both fact and law, is a 5:4 majority
that John Mahama was not validly elected. This is because five justices, Julius
Ansah, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, and Baffoe Bonnie, all held that
the irregularities found were enough to affect the results and that there
should be a second election but in the affected areas. Significantly, they were
willing to uphold the law but without totally disenfranchising the voters
affected."
Therefore,
the Danquah Institute will on Monday, September 16, 2013, in partnership with
other civil society groups hold a symposium at the British Council for jurists
and other legal and statistics experts to critique the decision of the Supreme
Court in the presidential election petition.
(See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=285138)
For
purposes of emphasis and reiteration, I reproduce salient parts of Otchere
Darko’s full statement, published by Myjoyonline and Ghanaweb.com:
the
court mistakenly read out a reversed judgment;
after
a careful study of the 588 page-long ruling on the 2012 presidential election
petition, five of the judges agreed with the petitioners' case as against four
for the first respondent, John Dramani Mahama.
MY
COMMENTS
If
this is not madness of a new kind in political thinking, then, I don't know
what else qualifies as such.
We
all heard the verdict read in an open court by Justice William Atuguba,
president of the nine panel Supreme Court judges, which was:
Duplicate
serial numbers of pink sheets: 9–0 [UNANIMOUSLY DISMISSED];
Duplicate
Polling Station Codes &Names: 9–0 [UNANIMOUSLY DISMISSED]’
Unknown
Polling Stations: 9–0 [UNANIMOUSLY DISMISSED];
Voting
without biometric verification: 5–4 [MAJORITY DISMISSED];
Over
voting: 5–4 [MAJORITY DISMISSED];
Non-signing
of Pink Sheets by POs 5–4 [MAJORITY DISMISSED]
Where,
in this ruling is any confirmation that the verdict was 5:4 in Akufo-Addo’s
favour for Otchere Darko to make this ugly noise about?
Only
a demented person will go this way. I hesitate to blame him because he is only
manifesting the morbid frustration that has gripped his political camp. But he
is carrying that frustration to dizzying heights and will soon come
face-to-face with the Fate that he has been tempting all this while.
And for him to suggest that the opinion of
those NPP judges on the panel that the elections be re-run in the areas that
they thought the so-called irregularities occurred is enough confirmation of
his claim is not only bizarre but is shoddy thinking.
Were
the judges given pink sheets from all the 26,002 polling stations for them to
see the big picture to be able to form any reliable opinion on what transpired
as a way of record-keeping?
Or,
how did the NPP judges determine that irregularities occurred at all and for
which the elections should be re-run in those areas? How did they know which of
the candidates the voters voted for or against to determine that a re-run be
done?
Again,
we have all read the judges' opinions and can tell outright why they
unanimously dismissed most of the petitioners' allegations and defeated the
rest by a majority decision. Thus, for Otchere Darko to cherry-pick areas that
the NPP judges settled on to paint this picture clearly explains why he couldn't
even pass his law qualifying exams but was pushed through by faceless
characters at the Ghana Law School.
Let
these NPP town-criers know that in their own petition, they didn't call for any
re-run of the elections. It couldn't, therefore, be tenable for them to go that
way as a stop-gap measure.
If
they were wise enough to know that elections are won or lost on the basis of
ballot basis, they would have asked for recounting of the ballots instead of
settling on pink sheets.
That
is why I find this part of Otchere Darko’s statement to be particularly
ridiculous: “the
Danquah Institute will on Monday, September 16, 2013, in partnership with other
civil society groups hold a symposium at the British Council for jurists and
other legal and statistics experts to critique the decision of the Supreme
Court in the presidential election petition.”
Why
should they waste time, energy, and resources to CRITIQUE the Supreme Court’s
judgement instead of choosing the obvious and reasonable course of action to
seek review? If they think that they stand on a strong legal foundation to
overturn the Court’s judgement, why won’t they go for a review instead of
seeking to critique it?
And
by critiquing the Court’s judgement, what do they hope to achieve? That the
critique will lead to a reversal of Akufo-Addo’s fate? How mentally and
intellectually lazy can’t Otchere Darko and those supporting him be?
Thanks
to Kwame Pianin’s wise crack, we know what mental and intellectual laziness can
lead to, especially when any fool bears a party’s flag to the elections!!
I
don't want to be overly harsh but suffice it for me to say that Otchere Darko
clearly demonstrates and confirms the lazy thinking going on in the NPP. And
this kind of lazy thinking won’t win political power.
Let
these idle hands assemble at the British Council Hall to waste their breath. If
they are bold enough to fight the Supreme Court, why don't they go for a
review? Do they know why Philip Addison, their lead counsel, has chosen silence
as his weapon for reacting to the Supreme Court’s judgement? He knows better
than they do!!
Of
course, no matter how long these NPP people sustain their Atuguba-loathing or
condemnation of the Supreme Court’s verdict, nothing will change. What is
written is written. All this noise-making is part of the grand exit strategy to
save Akufo-Addo’s skin. Eventually the dust will settle to reveal to these
noise makers how mindless they have been all along. Then, they will barely have
time to prepare for Election 2016. Consequently, filing another election
petition will be their lot!
I shall return…
E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
Join me on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
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