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| The Omni – Afari – Gyan |
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| Date: 13-Sep-2012 |
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“Under the Kufour era, when ROPAL came up, we appealed to the religious leaders to intervene, but they were unable to help because President Kufour refused to meet them. In 2004, when 30 constituencies were to be created, the Presby church were not heard, so why now? Have they got mouths to talk now?”Asiedu Nketia, Asempa FM.
“Any normal person cannot speak like that… I don’t know whether Aseidu Nketia was speaking under the influence of alcohol, because how can any normal person without taking in anything speak that way…? The President must call them to order because these insults have been going on for too long,” Emmanuel Osei Akyeampong, Public Relations Manager, Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
“The EC is fully prepared and will go ahead to conduct elections in the 45 newly created constituencies in the country,” Christian Owusu Parry, Head of Public Affairs, Electoral Commission of Ghana.
‘Omni’ is a Latin prefix meaning ‘all’ or ‘every’ used in the formation of compound words; omnipotent (infinite in power, almighty); omniscient (having infinite knowledge); omnifarious (dealing with all kinds of things); omnipresent (present at every place); omnivorous (feeding on plant and animal substances). Other examples include; omniarch; omnibus; omnigraph; omnisexual; omnishambles; omniscope; omnitonique
To say that Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC of Ghana), is omnipotent and omniscient will be to give him attributes that are normally reserved for God. The Constitution of Ghana, 1992, places him in a unique position, and this is to ensure that he gets the resilience, composure, the fortitude and the independence to run the affairs of the nation- as far as elections in the nation are concerned. Unlike the 1957 Constitution (104 constituencies); the 1960 Constitution (104 constituencies); the 1969 Constitution (140 and, specifically, not more than 150 constituencies), the 1992 Constitution gives wide or rather gargantuan powers to the Electoral Commission. Article 43(1) states: “There shall be an Electoral Commission which shall consist of (a) a Chairman (b) two Deputy Chairmen (c) four other members” and the totality of the members of the Commission is seven.
Article 44(1) stipulates that “A person is not qualified to be appointed a member of the Electoral Commission unless he is qualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament.
Article 44 (2) adds that “The Chairman of the Electoral Commission shall have the same terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Court of Appeal”; and these are provided in Article 145(2) for the age of retirement:
“A Justice of a Superior Court… shall vacate his office (a) in the case of a Justice of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal, on attaining the age of seventy”. One may care to note that Dr. Afari-Gyan was born on 18th June, 1945, and he will be seventy in 2015.
Article 44 (3) says: “The two Deputy Chairmen of the Commission shall have the same terms and conditions of service as are applicable to a Justice of the High Court” and such a Justice shall vacate his office on attaining the age of sixty-five years. Article 146(1) states: “A Justice of the Superior Court … shall not be removed from office except for stated misbehavior or incompetence or on ground of inability to perform the functions of his office arising from infirmity of body or mind.”
Article 47 clause 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana 1992 states: “The Electoral Commission shall review the division of Ghana into constituencies at intervals of not less than seven years, or within twelve months after the publication of the enumeration figures after the holding of a census of the population of Ghana, whichever is earlier and may as a result, alter the constituencies”.
Clause 6 of the same Article stipulates: “Where the boundaries of a constituency established under this article are altered as a result of a review, the alteration shall come into effect upon the next dissolution of Parliament”. Note this!
Dr. Afari-Gyan was appointed the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana in 1993, after serving as Deputy Chairman in charge of operation in the Interim National Electoral Commission. He has done electoral work for the Commonwealth, the United Nations, the international Foundation for Election Systems, the African Union, ECOWAS, Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
He has had a brilliant academic record; BA in Philosophy (1967), MA in African Politics (1969) University of Ghana and PhD (1974) Political Science at the University of California. Afari-Gyan has authored several publications on political and electoral issues: the Political Ideas of Kwame Nkrumah; Understanding Politics; The Making of the Fourth Republican Constitution; the Ghanaian Constitution – An introduction.
He is a very well-travelled man, attending many conferences either as a participant or as a resource person- England, United States of America, Canada, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Fiji, Senegal, Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique, Benin, Gambia, and Liberia
“Adamantine” means very hard, unbreakable, or unyielding; it also means resisting weight or pressure; impervious to pleas, persuasions requests or reason; having the hardness of an adamant or a diamond.
“Adamantine” is synonymous with stubborn (like Kow Nkensen Arkaah, the Stubborn Cat), tenacious, willful, intransigent, obstinate, resistant, rigid. These words have both positive and negative connotations. How does one react to suggestions from people when that person has been praised up to the heavens for previous acts done?
Afari-Gyan has shrugged off all suggestions to hold on with the establishment of the additional 45 constituencies- at least for now- just as he has kept ROPAL (which is to enfranchise Ghanaians resident abroad) hanging, even though the law has been passed. Does he recognise that the law was made for man, and not man for the law?
Any person or body that has criticized the creation of the 45 new constituencies has been slammed mercilessly, especially by the NDC apparatchiki. Aseidu Nketia has not spared anyone who had dared to suggest the suspension of the act- not even the affable ‘ gentle giant’ President J.A. Kufour, nor the respectable religious leaders including Professor Asante and Dr Mensah Otabil, nor the civil society groups including the TUC whose 9th Delegates’ Congress had resolved that while “the Constitution of Ghana is unequivocal on the power of the EC to create constituencies, the Constitution does not permit the EC to proceed with the creation… in a capricious and arbitrary manner”.
To the suggestion that the NDC is in league with the Electoral Commission, the NDC, led by Honourable Cletus Avoca, has organized a press conference to deny “coercing and manipulating the Electoral Commission to create 45 new constituencies”. With a stroke of the pen or with just a word, this nation could be spared all the frenzy about “seeking peace and stability”, especially as championed by the Ghana Conference on Religion and Peace (GCRP).
The NDC won the majority of seats in the 230-seat Parliament in 2008. To Afari-Gyan, the question is: “What is chasing you?” The success of the EC has not been the result of any unique attributes of Afari-Gyan nor the membership of the EC as a body. From 1992 when the Danish Government assisted us to change the opaque electoral boxes, to the counting of votes at the polling stations, to the use of the voter ID cards and to the biometric registration- it has been the steadfastness of Ghanaians (especially the strident voice of the political parties and civil society) that has shepherded us to this stage.
Does Afari-Gyan think that he carries Ghana just as Atlas the Titan in Greek mythology carried the universe on his shoulders? Or does he wish to turn his record into something like the faeces (the stool, the excrement, the poo, the shit) of the monitor lizard- black/ brown with a little white or gritty urates? |
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| Source: Daily Guide/Editorial |
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