You Riggged Election 2012, Mr. Mahama!

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

Speaking to the BBC's Farayi Mungazi from the French capital of Paris, Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama was reported to be saying that he has "a lot of trust" in the Supreme Court of Ghana (See "I Never Rigged The 2012 Elections - Mahama" Radioxyzonline.com/ Ghanaweb.com 5/30/13).

Now isn't it weird for someone whose party's key operatives caused the brutal abduction and summary execution of Ghanaian Supreme Court judges (some say High Court judges) on June 30, 1982 to be claiming to "have a lot of trust" and confidence in the Supreme Court? Indeed, they may even cynically claim that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not exist at the time of the brutal assassination, Mafia-style, of Justices Koranteng-Addow, Sarkodie and Agyepong; and, truly, on the surface of things, they may be right.

The fact of the matter, however, is that it was the very Monsieur Jerry John Rawlings and his Abongo Boys who suavely and mischievouly morphed from the so-called Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) half-junta into the present National Democratic Congress (NDC), with a pristinely bushy hedge of prosecutorial indemnity clauses inserted into the Fourth Republican Ghanaian Constitution to guarantee that moral reprobates like Messrs. Rawlings and Mahama will continue to comfortably live and carry on with their political shenanigans, almost as if June 30, 1982 never happened. And in the case of Mr. Mahama, we are also recalling the recent "mysterious" expiration of President John Evans Atta-Mills.

Anyway, Mr. Mahama actually makes me a little anxious and suspicious when he so jauntily asserts that he "has a lot of trust in the Supreme Court." You see, not too long ago, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, threatened the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and her associates, after a decision delivered by the latter did not go in favor of the then-government of Messrs. John Evans Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama.

Back then, Dr. Kwabena Adjei was widely reported to have said that "There are many ways of killing a cat." His serendipitous self-discovery of "a lot of trust" for the Atuguba-presided panel of Supreme Court jurists hearing the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party petition, can only point to one likely fact. And that fact could unmistakably be the secret passing on of favorable information by Justice William Atuguba to his relative and Executive Chief of Staff of Mr. Mahama's - and here, of course, the unmistakable reference is to Dr. Raymond Atuguba.

Mr. Mahama clearly knows that publicly instructing the Electoral Commissioner to allow biometrically unverifiable registered voters to, nevertheless, ignore laid-down rules governing Election 2012 by massively voting could facilitate no other sinister objective than a flagrant rigging of last year's presidential election in favor of the Bole-Bamboi "Northern Hope," or is he the proverbial lone "North-Star"?

BBC's Farayi Mungazi is also reported to have asked the President whether, indeed, the ongoing Supreme Court petition hearings have taken any distractive toll on the performance of his government, to which he reportedly replied, "None whatsoever!" Now, we know Mr. Mahama is neither levelling up with his himself nor with the Ghanaian people who are supposed to have elected him with a decisive mandate, because in the wake of the African Union's recent jubilee anniversary celebration in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Mr. Rawlings' former Communication Minister was widely reported to have lamented the fact that whereas political parties elsewhere routinely enjoy a honeymoon for at least several months in the wake of an electoral victory, his own equivalent of a post-electoral honeymoon has been to fiercely fight off a vigorous legal attempt to unseat him and his National Democratic Congress government.

Now, you bet the guy has been sweating profusely under his Armani suit. But what does it matter? After all, hasn't it been observed for ages now that "The baby that wouldn't let his/her mother sleep would neither get him-/herself a wink of sleep?

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
May 30, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]
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