Yamin Is Out Of His League And Wits

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Short of merely wanting to hear his own voice in the media, it is not clear when the Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports asserts that the petitioners in the 2012 presidential election have absolutely "no moral justification to seek a review after the final verdict by the Supreme Court on August 29" (See "NPP Has No Justification to Seek Review after SC Ruling - Joseph Yamin" JoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 8/22/13).

The question that any levelheaded Ghanaian ought to be asking is: Why did the Mahama posse use Bernard Mornah to undercut the judicial finality of a Supreme Court verdict in the infamous CI-75 episode? Indeed, what is puzzling is the decision of the Supreme Court itself to allow the Raymond Atuguba-sponsored CI-75 petitioner to so effectively undermine the authority of the highest court of the land. In sum, it was the ruling National Democratic Congress itself that opened this proverbial can of worms. And so NDC operatives like Mr. Yamin have absolutely no choice but to live with the judicial monster that they themselves have created.

The fact that they palpably seem to be rattled by their own creation points to the dire dilemma in which the Mahama camp finds itself. It would also be interesting to learn whether the Mornah Tar-Baby was, indeed, constructed with the tacit approbation of Justice William Atuguba, who is widely known to be related to the president's executive chief-of-staff. Needless to say, there is great confusion in Hell; and it is as good as it can get.

Likewise, blaming the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) for not successfully dissuading Nana Akufo-Addo and his associates of the New Patriotic Party from challenging the political legitimacy of his paymaster, is about the most unintelligent argument for Mr. Yamin to make. But it is also quite understandable because this is where the Deputy Youth and Sports Minister's bread is buttered, as it were. It also tragically demonstrates the sort of veritable cartoon characters largely occupying many a cardinal executive portfolio in the Mahama cabinet; and also the reason why our beloved country is likely to be at a socioeconomic, cultural and political standstill for sometime to come, unless the Atuguba panel makes the constructive and watershed decision of giving Mr. Mahama a well-deserved heave-ho.

Yamin also typifies the lawless mindset of the key operatives of the so-called National Democratic Congress. Which is why he is able to so cynically observe that: "Since the NPP has decided to test the law, anyone who will be [sic] aggrieved after the final verdict [sic] is also at liberty to seek review." How can I be proud of my citizenship of a nation that can put cogntive basket cases like Mr. Yamin in such influential positions of trust? In other words, what this Fulani waif - and I mean it both literally and figuratively - is saying is that the democratic right of judicial appeal is the worst aspect of Ghanaian democracy.

Well, I don't blame this toddler one bit; the only government he clearly appears to have known and experienced is the Rawlings-led Provisional National Democratic Congress (P/NDC).

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
August 22, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]
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