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I don?t know what kind of Political Science Dr. Kwesi Jonah teaches at the University of Ghana. What I know for certain is that if I were a student of political science at Legon, I would think at least thrice before deciding to enroll into any of his classes. I am making the foregoing rather morally loaded observation because as privileged intellectuals, academics and scholars, wherever we may find ourselves, it is incumbent upon us, as the brain trust of civilized society, to healthily advocate and promote accountable, responsible and legitimate governance, particularly in a democratic polity like Ghana (See ?NPP?s Boycott Will Create an Imbalance ? Kwesi Jonah? Citifmonline.com 1/23/13).
Well, the subject of this contribution to the ongoing national discourse/conversation on the legitimacy of the presidency of Mr. Mahama is in reference to Dr. Jonah?s rather scandalous impugnation of the morally and politically salutary decision of parliamentarians of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) not to flagrantly legitimize the illegitimate presidency of Mr. Mahama, by participating in the vetting of cabinet appointees nominated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader, while Mr. Mahama?s political legitimacy has yet to be definitively ruled upon by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
It is not clear whether, indeed, Dr. Jonah understands both the legal and political implications of having parliamentarians on the ticket of the NPP unwisely collaborate with their NDC counterparts in order to summarily and prejudicially endorse or legitimize the very personality whose authority they are vehemently contesting before the Supreme Court of Ghana. One also cannot take Dr. Jonah seriously when he rather cavalierly asserts that ?The [NPP-MPs] decision [to boycott the parliamentary vetting committee] should be considered carefully, [because] it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you have complaints against the 2012 elections.?
On the preceding score, one thing must be made emphatically clear; and it is the fact that the overriding grievance of the New Patriotic Party is not about Election 2012, per se, but rather, it is about the patent collaboration between Messrs. Mahama and Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, to criminally call the election in favor of Mr. Mahama. And the fact that the latter was sworn in as substantive President of Ghana on January 7, 2013, does not, in of itself, invalidate the forensically provable fact that Mr. Mahama is literally wearing borrowed presidential robes and/or paraphernalia.
Dr. Jonah also scandalously appears to grossly misunderstand the obvious fact that the NPP?s legal contestation of the Mahama presidency is fully backed by the inviolable mandate of the voters and citizens of Ghana who went to the polls last December and duly elected the NPP parliamentarians. It is therefore grossly inaccurate for Dr. Jonah to rather imperiously assert that the NPP-MPs, in wisely boycotting the parliamentary vetting committee, are guilty of dereliction of the duties for which they were elected. And on the latter count, also, it bears quickly pointing out that the electoral backers of the NPP-MPs voted carefully and consciously along party lines and primarily on the basis of ideological suasion and the widely publicized manifesto of the New Patriotic Party, just as they had conscientiously done in previous elections.
And so, really, it amazes me that a Legon political scientist like Dr. Jonah would so cheaply and egregiously attempt to use sophistry to shamelessly advance the ungodly political cause of the National Democratic Congress. Indeed, Dr. Jonah unpardonably insults the intelligence of Ghanaians by deliberately conflating the inescapably partisan interests of the National Democratic Congress ? as clearly and impudently articulated by Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia?s joinder petition ? with those of the country at large.
Maybe Dr. Jonah needs to see a clinical psychologist, for the ratiocinative thrust, or the logic, of his argument woefully lacks the kind of breadth and depth that one routinely associates with the cognitive acumen of a University of Ghana lecturer or professor. The glaring fact that Dr. Jonah does not seem to even tangentially appreciate the fact that none of the NPP-MPs stood as Independent Candidates in their constituencies poignantly renders his argument as nothing short of the abjectly spurious. In essence, the proverbial jig is up for the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress, so-called; and absolutely no amount of deftly concocted sophistry can extricate these corporate political scumbags and scam-artists from the culpable electoral rut in which the NDC Abongo Boys and their predatory Trokosi nationalists find themselves. And, oh, need I throw in the Machiavellian Fante Confederate equation for good measure?
It is also not clear precisely what he means when Dr. Jonah invokes the democratic principle of checks and balances, scandalously ignoring the fact that the first principle of any constitutional democratic culture is a fair and forensically accountable electoral process. I would rather have Dr. Jonah publicly explain why he has not positioned himself among the vanguard ranks of those seeking condign justice from the Supreme Court, and instead has rather pathetically chosen to ignobly indulge himself in such a morally bankrupt, noetic, vacuous and nitpicky sideshow. If this is the typical caliber of many a Legon political scientist these days, then our beloved country, Ghana, is in very deep trouble, indeed!
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 26, 2013
