Meet Charlotte Osei, the Juggler

Fellow Ghanaians, make I salute to you all.

For me, I no sabi book as Charlotte Osei. I no get god father who go give me juicy appointment with ropes and peps attached like a peacock or a decorated monkey. But I get one small tin wey Charlotte no get, even sef if she remains as big Oga Madam for a long time. And the thing wey I get be very precious.

The thing be “integrity. I be very meticulous in efiri tin I do. I do my research and homework so well with a fine tooth comb that no hyper critic go find anything wrong with it.

Once more, make I emphasize the fact that I be “small man” for this country, but Charlotte Osei be big “Oga Madam”. Make no small person like you and I toy with am koraa. If you dare her, she fit set Kudalor’s anti people’s Squad make dem come after you. And the wicked police men and women go panel beat your head so tay your mama and papa no fit recognize you again.

Can Charlotte Osei cope with all the problems and tensions associated with Election 2016? Does she have the Midas touch to nip the bud should there be any potential threat to the peace and stability of the country as they pertain to this year’s General Election? Is she the expected antidote to rigging machinery and all forms of electoral mal-practices?

In a nut shell, is she the “Daniel Come to Judgment”?

These and many probing questions that come into mind as I write this piece.

But my avid reader should not let green grass fool him/her for a decorated monkey is still a monkey. Mrs Charlotte Osei has a dangerous and frightening mindset, similar to the one possessed by John Kudalor, Capo of Ghana Police “Force”.

What do you think will happen if iron meets iron? One of them will “cave in”. In other words, if these two dangerous enemies of the people superintend over the affairs of the Anti-People’s Police Force and the Electoral Commission, the country will revert to “the State of Nature”

Let me take readers back to our ‘Big Oga Madam’, the one with big ropes on her shoulders. It surprises me that with all the personnel at her beck and call, she doesn’t seem to get her act together. With all the sophisticated devices at her disposal, she appears to be deficient in simple Arithmetic, not to talk of Geometry or Algebra. I wonder what His Excellency Mr. President saw in her to make her head the E C.

Earlier on, “Almighty” Charlotte Osei had stated that the number of suspected multiple registration in the Ashanti Region was 200,000. Mr Peter Mac Manu, Head of NPP Campaign Team 2016 then challenged the EC Chairperson to state how she arrived at the that figure. According to Mac Manu, “She (Charlotte Osei) made the bold statement that the EC has identified in Ashanti Region alone, 200,000 names which are on the multiple registration lists.

This disclosure is very strange. The EC in its response to the NPP claimed on Page 23 that 150, names had been identified as multiples nationwide. How is it for the EC to identify as many as 200,000 names in the Ashanti Region alone?” he queried.

“Almighty” Charlotte Osei was forced to eat humble pie when she stated she had made a mistake with the figures “and I think it’s really important that we clarify it and we put it on record. With regard to the suspected multiple registrations which are on the exception list, Ashanti Region, 200,559 registrations, not multiples and 14,651 multiples. It’s still the highest but not 200,000”.

Next, she went on to give figures of suspected multiple registration Region by Region.

Northern Region 8,169
Upper West Region 2,279
Volta Region 4,000
Western Region 7,000
Central Region 5,968
Greater Accra Region 11,555
Upper East Region 2,977
Eastern Region 5,490
Ashanti Region 14,651
Brong Ahafo Region 6,964
Total 69,053

The above figures sum up to 69,053 which is far less than half of the total (150,000) figure announced by Almighty Charlotte Osei. You see, we want peace in the country. “But at what price?” And it is a worldwide acclaim axiom that there cannot be peace without justice.

If it is nothing at all, that was the mantra of the NDC when it was in opposition. Why shift the posts now?

Where did Charlotte Osei, the Capo of the Electoral Commission who must be obeyed at all time get her figure of 150 from?

And this issue brings me to Peter Mac Manu’s assertion that the NPP could call out the results if something untoward happens. There is nothing wrong with that that statement and there is no law in the country which precludes one from calling out results. Who is in charge of a polling station? The Presiding Officer! Who announces the results or signs or authenticates the pink (or whatever colour) sheet after the all the party agents have signed it? The Presiding Officer! And it is these sheets which are sent to the various wards for collation and to the constituencies and the Regions and finally to the Head Quarters of the EC for final Collation before results of the Presidential Election are announced.

So, once the Presiding Officer has announced the results at a polling Station, it becomes public and official and can be used anywhere, unless somebody challenges it. The same process goes on at the Ward and the Regional Levels and finally at the National EC’s head quarters. Any attempt by anybody/power to prevent anybody or radio station from calling out the results after it has been authenticated and announced by Presiding Officers at the various levels will be regarded as intimidation and must be seen as an infringement on individual rights.

If Almighty Charlotte Osei, the juggler could not add up simple figures from 10 Regions correctly, how are we sure in the Presidential Election, where the figures run into millions, she could get her aces right?

I sincerely think that the position of Chairperson of the E C is too big for her to handle or “manage”. I make bold to state that she is “lazy” and incompetent! I have given a good example of her incompetence and inefficiency in the illustration above.

Are Charlotte Osei’s apologists saying we should allow their “idol” who has shown by all intent and purposes that she is not capable of adding up simple figures to remain at post as head of the Electoral Commission of Ghana? If she is deficient in simple Arithmetic what happens when she is confronted with Algebra and Geometry?

Are they suggesting that if she and the EC make a gargantuan mistake we should keep quiet and allow the status quo to remain? No, if any such a thing happens, we need to set the records straight by announcing the correct figures and I do not think any law prevents us from doing that.

We should not allow our emotions to becloud our sense of reasoning. What is bad is bad. If we see danger ahead, we do not plunge our heads straight into it. The chosen path of Charlotte Osei is a good recipe for violence. It will surely lead us to Golgotha.

By now, Ghanaians have seen the type of President Mr John Dramani Mahama is. He promised to give us “Heaven” in this country, but he has given us hell instead. But the greatest atrocity he has committed against Mother Ghana is the appointment of Mrs Charlotte Osei as Chair person of the EC. I shudder to think what would happen to the country if in the course of declaration of the Presidential Results, she makes another unprecedented gargantuan mistake. I have no other country to go to but Ghana. And that is why I am shouting myself hoarse about the antecedents and antics of Charlotte Osei.

Mrs Charlotte Osei is the “magician” who could conjure figures from nowhere and make you believe against your better judgment that the figures are indeed sacrosanct. And this is the person Mr President has deemed fit to appoint as head of the Electoral Commission in Ghana? Does Mr President mean good for the country?

When late President Mills was terminally sick, I shouted unto the highest heavens about the state of his health but all that I got were insults and abuses particularly from the one who erroneously calls himself “Odikro Nana Akyea Mensah”. I would refer readers to the last two of such articles titled “The President is Sick” and “Where is the President”? The second one was published a few days before his untimely death.

Once more, I am alerting the entire nation about the impending doom that awaits the country if Mrs. Charlotte Osei remains in office to conduct the 2016 General Elections. I have illustrated why her continuous stay in office is detrimental to the peace and stability of Ghana, and if our President is a listening person, he should do the right thing by removing her from that “exalted position”.

If Mr. President does the right thing, Ghanaians will have in their hearts the will to forgive him for causing financial loss to the state by appointing an incompetent and inefficient person to a position where a great deal of sharpened skills and honesty are needed.

The Past cannot be changed; but we must work through the Present to mould the Future. I have spoken.

Daniel Danquah Damptey ([email protected]) 0243715297

(Self Appointed Special Aide to Nan Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo)