GHANA: What Is Good for the Lawra Paramount Chief Is Also Good for Dr. Bawumia – Argues Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
The original caption of this article was “Revoke Dismissal of EC Officials,” but I decided not to go with it because I found the old maxim which the present caption echoes to be catchier and more reflective of the theme of this article. The news article on which this column is based is titled “Sacked EC Officials ‘Excitedly’ Came to Bawumia’s House – Karbo” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/30/16). It has to do with the decision of some two Electoral Commission (EC) employees who voluntarily decided to take a copy of the voters’ register to the 2016 vice-presidential candidate of Ghana’s main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at his home in a village called Kperiga, in the Walewale district of the Northern Region, to have the three-time NPP presidential candidate verify his name and particulars during the ongoing voters’ register exhibition exercise launched by the Electoral Commission.

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As of this writing, the precise details of why the two EC workers were dismissed was not clear. It appears, however, that Messrs. Jobey Ambrose and Mumuni Latiffa had been fired for allegedly accepting a bribe of GH₵ 10,000 or GH₵ 5,000 apiece as an inducement for taking both the voters’ register and the Biometric Voting Machine (BVM) to the home of the former Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ghana to have Alhaji Bawumia verify his particulars in the lead-up to Election 2016. We must also promptly note that a Deputy NPP Communications Director, Mr. Anthony Abayefa Karbo, has vehemently denied that any payola had changed hands prior to the decision by the two EC employees to have Dr. Bawumia verify his voting particulars at his home. Rather, Mr. Karbo notes that it is quite a routine practice to have the voters’ register and the Biometric Voting Machine taken to the homes of prominent and distinguished members of many local communities around the country.

The NPP’s Deputy Communications Director cited the example of the Paramount Chief of Lawra, who routinely has the voters’ register and the BVM carried to his palace to enable him verify his voting particulars. If the preceding observation has validity, then it well appears that Messrs. Ambrose and Latiffa are being punished fundamentally not because they did anything wrong, but precisely because in the opinion of the passionately pro-NDC operatives of the EC, the dismissed employees took the voters’ register and the BVM to the wrong house. If the foregoing observation is equally valid, then the two dismissed EC employees have a legitimate right to seek redress in court. The EC Chair and/or her assigns would have to explain to the court why the Lawra Paramount Chief, among a host of others around the country, would be made an exception to the rule but not the equally prominent and distinguished Oxbridge-educated Dr. Bawumia.

I also heartily and unreservedly agree with the local executives of the National Democratic Congress that this case ought to be further probed in order to get at the full details of the same, especially where the issue of the alleged GH₵ 10,000 bribe is concerned. If at the end of exhaustive investigations no element of culpability or criminality is unearthed, then, of course, Messrs. Ambrose and Latiffa would have to be offered unqualified apologies by the EC leadership and promptly reinstated to their posts, with full retroactive benefits. The EC may also need to promptly review this policy of having some local dignitaries verify their voting particulars at home while other equally prominent and distinguished citizens are denied the same privilege.

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