There is always one institution that comes into sharp focus at this time of our four-year voting cycle. From the advent of the Fourth Republican Constitution in 1992, the election management body in Ghana, that is the Electoral Commission (EC) has never been spared criticisms in the conduct or if you like “misconduct” of the elections depending on ones political persuasions.
For the past few years, the NDC always sees the shadow of defeat in the corridors and indeed the “strongroom” of the EC. And like a bad workman who is always quarrelling with his or her tools or the head porter who blames the support under her load for her inability to carry the load, the NDC since it exited power in 2017 has never acknowledged the capacity of the EC to be an independent and impartial umpire.
So in every step of the process towards elections, the NDC must be in arms against the EC, especially Jean Mensa, the Chairperson and Bossman Asare, one of her deputies.
Everyday on this journey, John Mahama and his NDC daydream about the long hand of Jean Mensa in their failure to return to power. And long after Charlotte Osei, the Electoral Commissioner appointed in 2015 by John Mahama, the NDC has refused to properly engage the people but thinks victory is a done deal but for Jean Mensa.
Long after Charlotte Osei, noted for her famous statement that “we saw it and we liked it” in her defence of a new logo had been sacked, John Mahama makes her darling girl, the example of exemplary leadership and performance at the EC.
And because John Mahama appointed Charlotte Osei, he and his NDC never complained about the Electoral Commissioner’s manipulative hands in his disastrous performance in the 2016 elections, described as the most emphatic win by any presidential candidate in the Fourth Republic. Has the NDC been involved in manipulating figures at the EC, hence its persistent attack on Jean Mensa because the party and John Mahama cannot get her to play ball?
In 2024, the NDC and John Mahama sees another electoral nemesis in the office of Jean Mensa, and at all cost the NDC must discredit the Electoral Commissioner. Like Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, any trace of failure must not be tolerated. Thus Okonkwo dreaded any characteristics of his father’s failure to the extent that he had to take the life of Ikemefuna his adopted son, to demonstrate to his peers that he was tough.
Many years later, John Mahama and his NDC would not tolerate the shadow of Jean Mensa anywhere near the electoral process. The NDC, in the words of John Mahama, is ready to use a “bulldozer” to clear Jean Mensa off the way to assure them electoral victory as a sledgehammer cannot be effective.
John Mahama’s short memories symptoms would not allow him to appreciate the fact that if his darling girl, Charlotte Osei could not secure him victory in 2016, no Chairperson can manipulate figures for him.
John Mahama must secure victory at the polling stations and stop blaming others for his lack of vision and articulation of policies to win the heart of the people. The NDC in 2020 boasted that despite its perceived belief that Jean Mensa was aligned to the NPP, she would declare John Mahama president in that election. When the NDC failed to achieve that objective, it then accused the EC of colluding with the NPP to rig the elections. The NDC proceeded to court but the rest is history.
Fellow Ghanaians, we urge you to cast your minds back to 2016 after the elections after John Mahama refused to concede defeat in an election conducted by his darling girl. Again, we remind Ghanaians to never exhibit the tendency of short memories but remember Charlotte Osei’s posture about the declaration of the election outcome.
We do not know what kind of protocol Charlotte Osei was relying on when she told Ghanaians that unless John Mahama concedes defeat, she cannot declare the results, putting the entire country under siege. That certainly must explain the manner in which John Mahama appeared before the media looking very disorganised to accept defeat.