• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• October 8, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

BMW breaking the 8, JM ditching the 8, and the GH politics of ‘ways and means’

When we were kids playing football, we saw our coaches and team managers do some juju or voodoo gimmicks before and after ‘colts or under 18 and 20 football matches.

At Primary and Elementary school levels, however, we saw a few teachers do that. But, again, it wasn’t a practice like we had in community football up to organised football in the Greater Accra Region and for an endowed football club like Future Internationals, which played teams outside Accra, into the Eastern and Central regions, including the Swedru All Blacks Park.

At SHS, you hardly saw that, because the PE Master didn’t or wouldn’t do it – educated as he was. Again, you didn’t find that in netball or volley or hockey and athletics.

In the case of boxing, we would hear that Sulley Shitu, an aspiring world title holder, would be complaining that he never saw blows coming. All he saw was that it had hit him hard. He was a Muslim. He ended up quitting, despite his potential.

As for the national league, juju or voodoo was a healthy practice, and that was why Kofi Bruce in a match with Eleven Wise would target Sanni Abdulai and snatch his leather necklace that was suspected to be voodoo and a charm against the ball entering Sanni Abdulai’s net.

PNDC

We heard about Nkrumah and the Kankan Nyame. We cannot tell whether that was fact or fiction. And, we heard about Kotoka and Ankrah as well as Major Adekunle who when you thought you had killed him during the civil war in Nigeria appeared at another battle.

As for the PNDC, ‘ways and means’ was ten amulets a cedi. That was why the regime had a prayer leader and Prophet who was traditional and another a Roman Catholic dissident who loved pouring libation. Intriguingly, when both men died, the NDC and the PNDC were nowhere to be seen during the funeral.

In the case of Osofo Komfo Damuah, it was because his spiritual activities were something else, away from the regular. He ended up using his trade to hijack space at the former Association International before court litigation recovered the space for original owners.

Samuel K. Obeng, retired police detective and Prophet, would continue his ministry faithfully, advising JA Kufuor, Otumfuo and a few notable and eminent citizens pro bono. He resigned not a rich person, living in a modest Madina Estate with tight living rooms and surroundings.

He also advised Prof JEA Mills, though JEA would later begin dodging Tugya, who became my friend when I was at The Chronicle. But, by and large, politicians seeking divine support and direction is African and European, including almighty Nigeria. What is wrong or has been wrong in the case of Africa is that most of such prophets have been controversial.

Hero and villain

As far as I know, Ghana’s current credible prophets, after Tugya and Enoch Agbozo – don’t know where Enoch is – are Duncan Williams, Adom Kyei Dua, Yaw Annor and this indigenous Ga and Ukraine-trained Economist Dr Lawrence Tetteh.

There must certainly be others, but these have been around for quite long.

Unfortunately, being a prophet is not only a thankless job from biblical times; it is also a controversial and, sometimes, intriguing trade. Today, you are hallowed and hailed; the next moment you are vilified, like the PNDC and NDC did to my old pal Tugya.

That, I suspect, is the case of Prophet Owusu Bempah. And I am not surprised that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, has put him down, and downplayed recent prophecies made by Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, head pastor of the Glorious Word Power Ministries International, regarding the upcoming December 7 elections.

According to Atta Akyea, these predictions should be viewed as mere human projections, rather than divine certainty.

On October 1, Rev. Owusu Bempah prophesied that John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), would emerge victorious in the 2024 elections.

During a prayer session in Accra for Mr Mahama, the pastor claimed that God had elected to give Mahama another opportunity to lead the nation, praising him as a man with a good heart. Despite these claims, Atta Akyea, in an interview with AsaasePa FM on October 2, cautioned against placing too much importance on such prophecies.

He stated that while many people may hold different religious or spiritual beliefs, elections are ultimately decided by the will of the people through the ballot box, not supernatural predictions.

The MP stressed the importance of focusing on the issues at hand, and allowing voters to make informed decisions based on policies and leadership qualities rather than relying on prophecies.

Owusu Bempah made history when, alone in Rome, he openly fought the NDC from 2016 till 2020.

He was viewed as a sympathiser of the NPP after he made similar prophecies in the past, and even prayed for Nana Akufo-Addo prior to him becoming the President. Only God knows what may hurt Owusu Bempah in covering the NPP and its presidential fortunes – when not quite long ago, he openly prayed Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in as God’s anointed President for 2024. Something may have changed in Mahama’s stars as well as that of Dr Bawumia, one, for good and the other for ill…

According to the defection story, when the group laid hands on the former President, the prayers were sealed by Rev. Owusu-Bempah.

“This is whom you ELOHIM have elected to lead Ghana at a time like this. No power can stop it. It is through you that this country will see development,” the preacher prayed.

The founder and leader of Royal House Chapel International, Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev. Dr. Stephen Yenusom Wengam, Rev Kwaku Agyei Antwi, popularly known as Rev. Obofour, among others were present.

That marked the first major meeting of this kind by the NDC flagbearer with members of the clergy ahead of the December 7 polls.

Break the 8; Ditch the 8

Eight is a number that theologians refer to Abrahamic. It means trailblazing as sign. That covenant, the theologians insist, was consummated on the eight day. That deal – sealed by a blood sacrifice – would birth Isaac and Israel’s ultimate blessings jibe that strongman Bibi keep throwing at Hezbollah, Houthi, Hamas and the goons in Iran.

So, analysing the “8” that Mahama claims he has already ditched, will he be able to trail blaze – after slipping in 2012 to be saved by the bell; falling KO in 2016 and falling TKO in 2020.

If that is Prophet Owusu’s Bempah’s reading, let us see how it goes with the last cast of the votes and last count and declaration by the EC or another annoying Election Petition with a calculator thrown at the Mischief Mosquito.

I have been listening to propagandists and their street reading of the flagbearer perming by the EC. Some argue that since we have a history of excessive wastes in ballots, the victim might be JM, probably to the benefit of the vociferous BMW.

Looking through the tall bunch of faces with JM not quite as baby face as he was, the propaganda is that he looks victim as voters sweat to look for his face and image among the pile that may have included Red Beret Bernard Monah, but for cousin Adukwei’s ‘mischief.’

As for the BMW, he must be glad for a Numero Uno slot on the list. The propaganda is as massive as has been the anti-government propaganda in galamsey, though the UN advises a common front by stakeholders in effectively fighting galamsey.

That is why I have a gripe with the TUC for making it look like the NDC didn’t benefit from the galamsey fight. The persistence on the strike also makes it look like the TUC has an agenda to do something that ultimately benefits the NDC,  when its flagbearer in 2016 and 2020 was openly egging on illegal miners to perpetuate the illegality, though he JM lost a military officer nephew in the fight against galamsey.

PS

This is December 9 afternoon at 3pm…Party chiefs using their Excel software have tallied up their numbers from Zanlerigu up North to Zongos down South, and from Chuchuriga and Chiana to Chorkor…An eerie quiet has clouded the nation.

The EC and her team of vilified ‘villains’ are seated to announce the figures and declare the verdict…And the winner by 30,000 votes is No…Come see the Zongos…Walahi…Am I a Prophet? No, I only know the Prophets…

By Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• October 2, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

The 2024 conversation is still pink sheet and arithmetic, not ‘IT’

We should be relieved if former Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has been recently part of the conversation about EC’s processes and elections management into December 2024.

As an important player, deep into the controversial 2012 Election Petition, he must have a relevant contribution to make. Also as a matter of institutional memory and experience, he equally has a contribution that should inform decisions that feed into our elections management space into the future.

In a recent statement, the former EC Chair said, “Persons who commit serious election offences, particularly if they are professional election officials or electronic experts, must be severely punished for attempting to undermine the will of the people…”

“And I am singling out professional election administrators and electronic experts because they know what they are doing,” he stressed.

I don’t, however, believe that is the conversation now because crime is crime.

Infractions are always criminal

“A voter may commit some infraction. An election official, by their training, they know what is the right thing to do. The electronic expert who is tampering with the figures, knows exactly what he is doing and these people, I am suggesting, they should be seriously punished,” Dr Afari Gyan added.

That is fair and square. And the law is plain on that, except that we haven’t seen too many of such infractions reported and concomitant punishment effected – at least from the early days of Afari-Gyan into his own last days and from Charlotte’s till now. Again, according to Dr Afari Gyan, punishing offenders severely will help serve as a deterrence to others who plan to engage in election malpractices. This, too, has been the law.

Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, who was speaking at the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) annual conference in Kumasi, stressed that in a democratic election, the voter is pre-eminent, and a valid vote is invaluable for purposes of determining the choices of the people.

For this reason, the seasoned election administrator said any act intended to manipulate or undermine the will of the people, particularly by those employed to oversee the exercise, should be considered as an act of “treason”. This, too, is the law. Indeed, again, any infraction of an electoral law is criminal, and must be investigated as a criminality.

NDC gripe, EC’s finished processes  

The raging conversation, if I am not myself misled or confused, is that the opposition National Democratic Congress is mooting another conversation ostensibly from Mars, without detailing their gripes and what they think are the options for what they consider credibility. And, they are picketing soon about what only they know.

So, when Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan drops another conversation as if the raging one is exhausted, I cannot comprehend the issues he makes about technology and experts taking advantage of technology to steal the verdict.

He says, “I am singling out here professional election administrators and electronic experts because they know exactly what they are doing. A voter may commit some infraction.” And, he advises political parties and various contenders in general elections to obtain the requisite data before going to court to challenge the election results.

But that is exactly where the controversy is, except the reporter misquoted his line of argument and thought.

Elections management is arithmetic. Period!

According to the reporter, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan urged all who intended to challenge the results of any national elections to ensure they possessed well executed and authentic “pink sheets.” Fact. Indeed, what he said was the fact, except that he was cagey pointing that out to the NDC because technology, in my opinion, and I believe in the opinion of even the experts, doesn’t feature to a point of intrigue and mischief as far as a court is concerned.

As the report outlines, pink sheets are the EC’s official documents used to collate results of elections at polling stations, constituency and regional levels, and are the source documents which the Commission relies on to declare Members of Parliament (MPs) and the President as elected.

“Pink sheets are the most important source documents for reconstructing election results. Please, take it from me that the pink sheets are the most important source documents for the reconstruction of election results,” the former EC Chair said.

“That is what we mean when we say elections are won or lost at the polling station. That is what it means. Those pink sheets, duly executed, authentic and duly executed. So, my friendly advice to you is that if you don’t [have] authentic, duly executed pink sheets, as we say in Ghana, think twice before you go to court,” he added.

NDC demonstration against EC

As I do this piece, the NDC is putting in organizing youth across the country to go on a demonstration. That demonstration is not about election petition or official complaint that Parliament or the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) cannot deal with. But the NDC has deliberately ignored the imperative of processes, including IPAC and Parliament and, for that matter, the courts which have final jurisdictions.

What the NDC appears to be doing is to implicate the EC and the whole fabric of elections management of which they had been a veritable part. In that, I believe, they are implicating the Legislature which consists of their own Minority as well as IPAC of which they are also part.

It is cry-baby tantrum that the NDC must explain to the civil society stakeholders. They cite vote transfers to other constituencies, though every party has privileges under the law in transferring votes. But they make wild claims about the EC skewing the processes for the benefit of a political party, which is the incumbent NPP.

Intriguingly, the NDC hasn’t established and submitted names that they can prove in December 2024 will be voting NPP or came to make the transfers in NPP colours so would be voting NPP at some other constituency.

So, when they ask for audit by an independent body, I ask what basis the independent audit firm or parameters they would be applying to filter the information and draw conclusions.

Polling station mechanism 

As Afari-Gyan has stated, and rightly so, the ultimate decision involving declaration will be made on pink sheet ruling by the vetted work collectively of EC staff, polling agents, collation official doing simple arithmetic and not technology such as Excel because that is for the political parties to do at their levels in monitoring and what input the media, election observers and other stakeholders would be detailing on the space.

At the last layer that Dr Afari-Gyan appears to be referring to, party chiefs, with the data they have assembled, share notes with the EC, and make declarations. If votes don’t tally, it is arithmetic that is employed – not technology.

This is because technology may befuddle the facts as garbage inputted will output garbage. I believe that was why Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and Johnson Asiedu Nketia were given calculators, and not an Excel system spread over the figures, to determine a ruling affirming the declaration by the EC that the NPP, indeed, had won the 2020 presidential elections by some 500,000 votes.

What next, NDC? 

As things stand now, we cannot tell what next the NDC would do as a frontal jibe at the EC, though the avenues for redress and engagement aren’t closed, by any stretch of the imagination.

Barely three months into the general elections, the mischief that the NDC believe it can do to stir acceptability is agitate, stampede and throw tantrums. That was the tactic for 2008 and 16 years later, for today 2024. Only God knows where this cycle would take them. Particularly when they know they know deep inside that they haven’t, under JM, a history and catalogue of achievements that match those of the NPP, we may understand them, if they do what they are best at…

In all of that, they should be reminded of Dr Afar-Gyan’s eternal pink sheet rule he now refers to here – the famous requirement that stunted the deep-seated NDC stealing machine within the corridors of the EC. Thank God for the subsequent 2012 Election Petition reforms that continue to expose the NDC as experts in evading pink sheet arguments.

PS

These notwithstanding, we may have the demonstrations. Only let’s be cool about them, even if the next 90 or so days will be picketing. As for the elections, Insha Allahu, it will come and go as if nothing has happened – with one winner and one loser.  

By Abena Baawuah