MUSINGS ON AN ELECTION

Caroline Boateng It does not take an awfully lot for an impassioned supporter of a cause to destroy property and, sometimes even lives, in protest against those not of the same passion. But it takes an awfully enormous amount of resources, human will and the grace of God, to sometimes redress or reverse the destructive effects of untamed political passions. I voted for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and unlike most Ghanaians, have no qualms about making my vote known. I did that because I believed in what they planned to do. I surmised that with the limited resources, it was about time that politicians focused on one sector that could, with all the capital injection and attention, have a cascading effect on the development of other sectors. And for me, education was that sector. Getting all our children, at that impressionable stage in life, senior high, to be in school, was for me a good start. These sympathies were previously with the NDC, when in 2008, I gave my vote to the NDC to kick out the NPP, who by the end of their eight year tenure, had become complacent and were offering a ‘one-size-fit-all,’ solution, that is, capitation grant, school feeding programme, etc., for all other economic challenges that Ghanaians were pointing out to them. I tend to sympathise with parties based on their offerings for the particular electioneering year. I also have a political philosophy, calcified in eight years of journalism and interaction with politicians of all shades that the African political elite cannot be entrusted with power for long periods of time. When they stay in power for long, they become despots, complacent, corrupt and disdainful of the people who lined up in the heat and with much inconvenience to vote for them. Somehow in 2008, I happened to have backed the winning team, unfortunately, this year that has not been so, despite my strong conviction that the NPP was going to win. Since the declaration of the results at 9: 45p.m on Sunday, I have repeated to myself the scripture, “Whatever the Lord does is good,” (I know it’s is from scripture but have forgotten where). I have bolstered up my spirits with that in the face of the rumblings-on of the NPP. Primarily, I believe it was a faux pas by the executives of the NPP to hold a rally at the Obra Spot, the same venue at which NDC held their celebration over their victory in the polls. Holding the rally there to tell supporters that there were misgivings over the results after their executive meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2012, could have sounded like a plausible excuse for dealing with the mass of supporters impatiently waiting for some information from the leadership. But the result was the show of defiance by supporters who refused to leave the spot until Nana Akuffo Addo had been declared winner. Subsequently, that defiance was transferred to other areas with reports of the harassment of some supporters of the NDC. Some make the excuse that the NPP executives did not tell supporters to harass their opponents, or act in defiance at the Obra Spot. But as I began in my musings, no one needs to tell an impassioned political supporter to act in a certain manner. He or she acts with passion. But when those passions are ignited and burning, it will take more than “telling,” to douse the flames. It was comforting to hear the leadership of the leading political parties speaking out against violence, but I hope that will not be the end. Supporters are not lawyers, or people with the wherewithal to solve the electoral challenges of the NPP. Leadership of the part should keep calm and work diligently, better than the work they did with the monitoring of the election, and proceed to the courts. We must all remember our actions have far reaching consequences. I do not believe that at the international level, anyone can shake of liability when the country is in a conflagration, merely by the excuse that he or she did not tell anyone to act atrociously. The NPP leadership must show themselves as the statesmen and women I thought them to be. (PUBLISHED, DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2012, pg 7)

KUMASI AFTERMATH

Story: Caroline Boateng The Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey is challenging the Ghana Police Service to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of sporadic violence in the aftermath of the declaration of the 2012 election results on Sunday, December 9, 2012. He said that would be in keeping with the ideals of the Kumasi Declaration, the pledge to peace and the abhorrence of impunity, signed by all the leaders of all political parties on November 27, 2012, before the elections. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Akwetey, who was one of the facilitators of the Declaration, was of the view that the police administration, who were also represented by their chief, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye, at the signing, had been emboldened by the presence of their chief and also the Chief Justice of Ghana, Mrs Justice Theodora Wood, at the public show of commitment to peace by the all flag bearers in Kumasi, where the declaration was signed. Thus, the police also did not have to condone impunity because it was being perpetrated by a particular political party supporter. Dr Akwetey in an assessment of the security situation in the country, said Ghana was stable and had gone through the rough patch because despite intermitent violence perpetrated by some, reprisals had been limitted, while some political leaders, like the chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Jake obetsebi Lamptey hadspoken out to point out that a supporter would be criminally liable for violence. He attributed the stability in part to the moral pledge taken by political leadership in the Kumasi Declaration. On the demonstration held in Kumasi by NPP supporters to protest the results of the election, Dr Akwetey was of the view that it lay within the rights of supporters to demonstrate so long as they did that within the confines of the law. He was happy that the demonstration was not characterised by acts of violence. He admonished Ghanaians to believe in themselves and trust in their abilities to do the right thing, and described the future as an interesting phase as the NPP headed for the courts to challenge the election results. He added that all eyes would be on the judiciary then, and how they managed the process would further add to the reputation of the country as a place of democrac and the rule of law.

UG, NEW YEAR SCHOOL

Story: Caroline Boateng The relevance of the annual New Year School of the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE) of the University of Ghana, Legon, has been recognised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The NDPC last, year during the 63rd School on the theme, "One year of oil and gas production: emerging issues,", was represented by its Chairman, Mr P. V. Obeng, who highly recommended the school and charged his officials to forge meaningful ways of collaboration for better policy alternatives for Ghanaians. The 64th School, which begins on January 14 and ends on January 18, 2013, has already had the NDPC contributing to the selection of the theme, which is, "the key to the future health of our nation: improved water, sanitation and hygiene, organisers of the 64th School told journalists at a breakfast meeting in Accra today. The theme for the next school, seeks to target the behaviour and attitudes of the Ghanaian as cadinal in any development effort. In the interaction with journalists, the Director of the ICDE, Prof Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, highlighted the opportunities offered by the school, that is the dispassionate discussion on the issues of sanitation, hygiene and the attitudes of all in getting round the challenge bedevilling the country. He said while people might want to measure the immediate impact of the Schools, the value in education was imeasurable. But he added however, that submissions in the school had fed into the creation of the GETFund for the educational sector and the local content policy for the oil and gas sector. Prof Oheneba-Sakyi added that the keynote address would be given by the chief executive officer of ZOOMlion, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, while the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing was expected to open the school. The Director of the 64th Annaul New Year School, Dr Micheal Tagoe, said the greatest impact of the school was the creation of a platform for the dispassionate discussion of issues. As an educational institution, he added, the annual new year schools offered the platform for the deliberation on issues by any Ghanaian. After the discussions and submissions, it then behoved on particular public institutions to pick up the relevant submissions and work with those. Dr Tagoe however promised that the school was going to track its impact soon, following up on participants and how institutions used information generated at the school. (Submitted: December 20, 2012. Unpublished. Daily Graphic)

CHRAJ REPORT ON ELECTION 2012

Daily Graphic Story: Caroline Boateng The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has rated the December 7, 2012 Election as "free, fair and reflecting the will of the electorate." It said although there were some irregularities and challenges during the polls, they were not significant enough to affect the outcome of the results. The verdict of CHRAJ, captured in it's preliminary report on its observation and monitoring of the elections, is in tandem with other observation reports from the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and the ECOWAS observer group, since the release of the results on Sunday, December 9, 2012. The eight page preliminary report of CHRAJ, signed by the Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, gives a brief on the the monitoring activities of the National Human Rights Commission, prior to and during the two day polling period. Principally, the Commission, set out to monitor the right of Ghanaians to vote. Significantly, the CHRAJ noted challenges in the enjoyment of the right as a result of the failure of verification machines in many parts of the country. "The situation was more serious in Greater Accra, Northern and Upper East regions, where the Commission's observers directly encountered eleven of such polling stations," the report stared. It said the challenges with the verification equipment, leading to the suspension of voting at certain polling station, created anxiety and frustration among voters. Additionally, it resulted in the devising of unscientific methods, like the buying of coca cola to wash the hands, to enable the verification equipment capture the fingerprints, observed by CHRAJ at the Inti-Suariya Primary School polling station. The report added that "at the Kanvilli R/C Polling Centre in Tamale, a hot coal pot was provided for voters to dry their hands after washing with soap and water before their fingers could be captured. Most of those affected by the problems of verification were elderly women, some young women who had dyed their hands and fingers with a local herb called 'lenle' were also affected." CHRAJ also pointed out other challenges that tended to undermine the right to vote. The late arrival of polling materials at some stations, partisan broadcasts by some media houses, incumbency abuse and influences by some opposition parties, the flouting by chiefs of the constitutional injunction not to engage in active partisan political activity, and the flouting of the Code of Conduct of Public Servants by public servants who were seen openly campaigning for votes, as well as the use of children in political campaigning, were some of the observations that CHRAJ said impinged on Ghanaians right to vote. The commission, deployed 335 monitors and observers and monitored about 2000 polling stations, including stations in some prisons. caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh Submitted: December 13, 2012

OSAM'S INUAGURAL

The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof E. Kweku Osam, says Ghanaians must decide whether it is more prudent to satisfy their basic needs or follow some “high flowing development agenda,” most often set by influential economic structures of the North.
“The one laptop per child is good, but what if the child is hungry?” was his rhetoric question in his inaugural lecture titled “Of cocoa, cassava and chocolate: the dilemma of an African Linguist.”
While not condemning the “one laptop per child policy,” Prof Osam wanted to know how useful that laptop would be to a hungry, deprived and destitute child. He recounted how as a child, some boiled cassava, sprinkled only with salt, could satisfy a famished person and put a soul at ease for some time.
He was of the view that the policy would be better served in an environment where the fundamentals were right, that is, where the child had his or her basic needs satisfied.
The lecture was a first by all standards and that was attested to by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Ernest Aryeetey in his remarks.
It was the first interactive inaugural lecture that witnessed, Prof Kweku Osam, using interesting slide presentations and involving the audience in an exposition of the linguistic structure of the Akan language.
What was more intriguing was his ingenious inferences from the study of a local language to show policy weaknesses in the country’s development policies.
He mentioned that from the early 1960s to date for instance, the standard set in the study of language and the dominant linguistic theory was that of Chomsky.
In those days, he said, it was fashionable to base research work on local languages on these dominant frames.
The result of that was that the study of local languages suffered.
They were not amenable to the dominant frames proposed by Chomsky, and research work in local languages criticised as being too descriptive and not backed by the dominant theories.
Breaking from the mold, Prof Osam shared some of his research work which showed the use of an alternative paradigm, the Functional-Typological Syntax (FTS), which is a more utilitarian and practical approach to explain meaningfully some phenomenon of the Akan language.
In an example, he mentioned how work done had resulted in a systematic way of adjective sequencing in the language.
Prof Osam was of the view that the utilitarian approach to the study of language brought direct benefits to people.
It was contrary to modes of language study that served the needs of global empires, which made no impact on students studying their own language.
He proposed the learning and studying of Ghana’s local language in practical ways to bring benefit directly to the users.
He asked parents not to think it chic to speak English with their children, as children would pick up the wrong language in the streets if parents did not start with them in the use of the right language.
Such a situation, he added, would lead to what he called, linguistically engendered generation, that is children who neither spoke English right nor their local language.
He also asked the government to “keep the Bureau of Ghana Languages alive.”
The inaugural lecture was also a first in that it was used by Prof Osam to institute a scholarship in the name of his mother, Rachael Aggrey, who was murdered 20 years ago by assailants who inflicted cutlass wounds on her. The assailants were never found.
In an emotive tone, Prof Osam pledged, GH¢5000 for the Rachael Aggrey Memorial Prize for the best female student graduating in the Bachelor of Arts programme.
He expressed the intention to increase the seed money to GH¢30,000 in the next three years.
Prof Aryeetey in his remarks commended highly the lecture.
He said as an economist he was inclined to the utilitarian value in things, and endorsed the call for the practical study of language to benefit people.
He also endorsed the view of using language as a country to build peace and develop.
He appealed to all to be tolerant of each other’s language and also endeavour to learn each other’s for a peaceful future.