Omane Boamah
The future looks bleak for Ghana, especially in Election 2024, when some political actors have decided to beat the war drums.
We do not think we are at the point of gloom and doom yet, but we are on the verge of the precipice which requires that we are wary of the looming disaster. Suddenly, there appears to be a wave of opposition to government actions and the plans of the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a free and fair as well as transparent election.
Some days ago, the largest opposition political party, the NDC, mobilised its rank and file nationwide to protest against what its leadership considers to be a flawed provisional voters’ register, and added that it was unfit for the purpose of the conduct of the December 7, 2024 elections.
One cardinal reason for the party’s agitation was the refusal of the Jean Mensa-led EC to permit an independent forensic audit and that the said audit be carried live on national television. Consequently, the NDC took to the streets in all the 16 regional capitals, resulting in casualties in Kumasi.
However, when the EC invited Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) members, including the NDC led by Omane Boamah for a meeting last Tuesday on live television, the NDC delegation lost its otherwise vociferous voice on the issue of flawed provisional voters’ register.
And at the end of the engagement, the NDC dropped all its demands, including the forensic audit in its statement, issued and signed by its garrulous General Secretary, Franklin Fifi Fiavi Kwetey after the IPAC meeting.
Although the NDC raised some concerns again in its statement, it sounded more conciliatory, dropping its demand for a forensic audit. What is worrying about this melee about a provisional voters’ register is the lack of understanding of what is a provisional voters’ register.
We must not be surprised about the NDC’s double standards and the attempt to create tension in the country because the political system that birthed the Umbrella Family, was called Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), although said to be provisional, it stayed in office for more than a decade, until it was forced to call for a civilian government, unable to stand the global onslaught for democratic reforms.
About two months to the polls in December, some groups buoyed on by the NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, have called on the Akufo-Addo administration to declare a state of emergency in areas where illegal mining is currently ongoing.
We know some members of these groups are lawyers and they appreciate the implications of the declaration of a state of emergency on individual freedoms and liberties.
Strangely, some of the groups making those demands on the government include political parties that are campaigning for the mandate of the people to rule, but we wonder whether they are conversant with the impact of a state of emergency on their campaign efforts.
Eager to gain some political advantage of the agitation against the widespread devastation caused by illegal mining, John Mahama has stated his position on the challenge, adding his voice to the call for the declaration of a state of emergency, but as characteristics of his persona, he started asking the people to be ready to bear the consequences for a ban on illegal mining because of its effects on revenue generation and job creation.
Fellow Ghanaians, be reminded of the agenda of the NDC to make the country ungovernable when they lost the election in 2017, by consistently saying that the country was ripe for a military take over.
A few months ago, one of the NDC apologists, Okudzeto Ablakwa even suggested that Ghana was ready for the Kenyan riots. Again, just last week, John Mahama was on record to have said that if what was happening under the Akufo-Addo government happened under his watch, the military would have removed his administration. John Mahama has the appetite for the unconstitutional change of government instead of through the will of the people.