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Hoodoo: A book on PINK SHEETS to the NPP’s
rescue!!
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Friday, July 4, 2013
News reports have it that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaders
will launch a 200-page book on “pink sheets” on Tuesday, July 9,
2013, at the British Council in Accra. Come one, come all to see
“book politics” in full gear!!
This piece of news does not surprise me at all. I have known all
along—and expected too—that they would carry their desperation
to a whole new level of public ridicule and earn nothing but
concentrated contempt. At a time that the Supreme Court’s
hearing of their petition (which is based on nothing but pink
sheet exhibits), what can be more unconscionable and imprudent
than launching a book on the very substance of the petition
before the Supreme Court? Truly, their “Concert Party” shows
cannot end in midstream; not so?
Thus, this book launch is that next level of political and legal
miscalculation. I expect more to follow, especially when their
sad electoral fate is reaffirmed by the Supreme Court very soon.
No contempt of court intended here, please!!
We are told that the book was written by Ken Ofori-Atta, William
Oppong Bio, Boakye Agyarko, and Kwasi Busia. Kudos to these
“revisionist historians” of the NPP political culture. After
all, the late accomplished historian, Professor Albert Adu
Boahen, has blazed the trail for them with his “Stolen Verdict”
that didn’t take long to gather dust even at the premises of the
very printing press that published it in 1992. Nobody stole any
verdict; the NPP lost the 1992 elections because it wasn’t
well-cut-out to rule Ghana.
Such is the story repeated at Election 2012. Thus, all this
hot-headed approach to politics casts the NPP in stone as
nothing but a party versed “book politics.” Ghanaians deserves
better than this anachronism.
Nothing amuses me more than the title of the book: “The Election
Petition: Restoring Justice and Democracy for Peace.” Who took
away the “justice” “democracy” and “peace” from Ghana, which
these “book politicians” want to restore through stories on pink
sheets?
According to the authors, the book seeks to inform the Ghanaian
public, the international community and all stakeholders of the
allegations of constitutional and statutory violations,
irregularities and malpractices that affected the conduct and
outcome of the 2012 elections. Hoodoo!!!
We are told that the book consists of 11 chapters and “provides
profiles of the petitioners, the nine empanelled justices of the
Supreme Court, and profiles of the legal teams of the
petitioners and the respondents.”
Really? What is particularly gripping about the background
information concerning the “profiles” of all these people whom
we already know for what and who they are; and what they mean to
us?
Coming at this time when the heat released by the Supreme Court
on those with loose tongues or making pronouncements considered
as contemptuous to the court or prejudicial to the petition
being heard, this book launch portends many intriguing
developments. I hope and pray that no one will be summonsed to
appear before the Supreme Court in consequence.
All said and done, though, this activity is nothing but a
demonstration of desperation. I consider it as misplaced and
unwarranted. It portrays the apprehension that has gripped the
NPP camp, especially at this time when the controversy
surrounding the pith of their petition (their so-called
“water-tight” evidence in the form of pink sheets) is still
damaging their interests. Credibility is the bulwark of
litigation; and they know how they feel after the KPMG’s work.
Coming out with this book containing “a comprehensive
compilation of documents, articles and pictures describing at
firsthand the issues leading to and surrounding the Presidential
Election Petition sanctioned by the National Executive Committee
of the New Patriotic Party” for Ghanaians to read “first hand”
suggests to me that something is seriously amiss.
Having followed the live telecast of the Supreme Court’s
proceedings and having been exposed to the intricacies of the
pink sheets and Dr. Bawumia’s over-emphasis on “analysis,”
Ghanaians already have a vast knowledge of the pink sheets. What
is new to tell them again in a book of “lamentations” of this
sort?
I am more than convinced that two and two are not adding up well
for the elephants. If, indeed, it were adding up well, would
there be any need to go this extra mile to turn to the bar of
public opinion on their petition? I don’t think so.
The anomalies, irregularities, terrible errors, mislabellings,
miscategorizations, duplications, triplications, and many others
constituting the controversy provoked by their pink sheet
exhibits have done enough harm to their credibility and
interests.
Let these NPP people re-categorize and RE-POPULATE their pink
sheet exhibits and publicize them to the whole world. It won't
change anything to favour them at the end of the Supreme Court’s
hearing of their shoddy petition, which is full or more errors
than what the petitioners have accused the Electoral Commission
of committing.
Errors on the pink sheets don’t invalidate the genuine votes
cast by Citizen Kwame Damanka or Patriot Amma Sempua who direly
needed to make the choice between good (“Better Ghana Agenda”)
and bad (monomaniacal one-way track politics emphasizing
fee-free education at the senior secondary school level as the
panacea to Ghana’s development problems).
Citizen Kwame Damanka and Patriot Amma Sempua cannot be denied
the value of their franchise because of administrative (transpositional)
errors on pink sheets by Presiding Officers who genuinely
ensured that their votes were recorded, counted, and tallied for
the winner of the Presidential elections to be declared by the
Electoral Commission. Neither should anybody attempt corrupting
people’s minds that the Electoral Commission failed in
performing its constitutionally mandated functions.
So also should it not be that the international and local
observers who monitored the elections throughout the country
were completely out of their minds by concluding that the
elections were free, fair, genuine, and transparent. Certainly,
what all the people are saying about a particular happening
cannot be dismissed as false. And they are saying so on the
basis of evidence in the quantum of ballot papers.
The emphasis is on the BALLOT PAPERS that were cast as VOTES and
counted to help us know how many people voted for whom and who
emerged as a winner of the Presidential elections (President
Mahama) and who lost (the NPP’s Akufo-Addo and all the others in
those mushroom parties or standing on their own two feet as
independent candidates). It has nothing to do with the
after-the-fact material such as PINK SHEETS.
The truth is that we can know the outcome of the elections on
the basis of the ballot papers, not the pink sheets. And that
was exactly what happened on December 8 when all the votes were
tallied and announced. Votes determine victory or loss; pink
sheets can’t take prominence over ballot papers.
Nobody anywhere in the world wins elections on the basis of PINK
SHEETS. It is only ballot papers that matter. Paradoxically, the
NPP petitioners turned their attention to the shadow, not the
real image standing large in front of their eyes. They have eyes
but cannot see. Verily verily, I say unto you that they will
continue to wail and gnash their teeth for failing to do their
homework prior to Election 2012. They can’t do it thereafter and
hope to gain the advantage. The horses are out in the
wilderness, putting their experiences in the stable behind them.
Funnily, their keepers are busily locking the stable doors after
them.
Why is it difficult for these NPP people to understand simple
issues about Election 2012? All these months, they've been
running around in circles, disturbing our peace of mind just
because they cannot see the difference between ballot papers and
pink sheets. I pity them.
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
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