A cousin of the 2012 Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), according to the Africawatch Magazine, has allegedly drafted a
plan to incite “thousands” of his party’s supporters to pour out onto
the streets as part of a grand scheme to stir what he describes as
“anger and international attention” on the election fraud case which is
currently before Ghana’s Supreme Court.
Africawatch quotes Nana Akufo Addo’s cousin, whom it did not name, as proposing in a leaked e-mail to some party stalwarts and prominent members that: “…I will suggest that as hearing [in the Ghana Supreme Court] begins, we must activate the back-burner strategy of getting the outside world to hear us too”.
He went on to bemoan that: “The truth is that the country is not showing enough anger”, saying tht: “…Apart from [the] cash-strapped ‘Let My Vote Count’ mobilisation efforts, which [are] receiving luke-warm endorsement and support from the party, what have we done?”
“Isn’t it a serious indictment that we have not been able to mobilise thousands of people onto the streets?” he asked.
“Are we not going to feed on the current anger precipitated by fuel price increases, water and energy crises to express mass anger and mass support for our case?”
Nana Akufo Addo’s cousin is again quoted by the magazine as saying: “We are sleeping…and we shall once again have our tilapia stolen right from our noses in this judicial pond if we don’t wake the heck up with the kind of cacophony that can disturb the tranquillity of the international community.
“Let us get them to pay attention to us even before we mount the witness box to lay out our evidence otherwise this whole thing, I fear will be academic."
He further noted that: “If the reaction of our MPs to my presentation on Wednesday is anything to go by, then I’m afraid we have not yet made our case even to our diehard supporters in Ghana. Many got convinced for the first time. It’s difficult to get people out on the streets if they don’t know or believe in your case."
Nana Akufo Addo, together with his running mate Dr Mahmoud Bawumia and the Party’s National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the election results of 2012.
They claim the results were manipulated in favour of the incumbent John Mahama.
The Africawatch publication follows a recent lecture delivered by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Chairman of the Databank Group, who charged Ghanaians, including the youth, teachers, NGOs, journalists and clerics to stop being quiet and neutral in the search for justice and shun “cowardice and hypocrisy” but rather show some “courage” and “outrage” in the face of what he called “attacks on the integrity of Ghana’s democracy” and the way the nation’s finances are being mishandled.
Ken Ofori Atta made the call when he delivered the second of the William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) Institute for Integrity Lectures at the British Council Hall on Tuesday March 12, 2013.
Speaking on ‘Ghana's future: Integrity, Rights, and Responsibilities of Citizens’, Mr Ofori-Atta used the seemingly neutral reaction of important bodies to the election dispute at the Supreme Court and what he referred to as the mishandling of the economy which in his view, has led to a record GHC8.7 billion fiscal deficit to illustrate his point about the worsening integrity deficit in Ghana.
He accused clerics, civil society groups, journalists, Ghana’s middle-class and other important organisations, such as the National Peace Council and the Ghana Bar Association of “cowardice and hypocrisy” and reminded the nation that it was this kind of culture of silence in the face of impunity that forced a young Jerry John Rawlings and his colleagues to stage their revolution of June 4, 1979.
“For me we can cause a revolution with our lack of outrage, with what Rawlings did in 1979, you will realise that this is not merely hyperbolic,” Mr Ofori-Atta cautioned.
He said our democracy risked being destroyed if citizens do not actively ensure that it is built on a foundation of integrity and strengthened by pillars of integrity, predicting that if we continue to build our democracy on lies, deceit and fraud, all the talk of peace, stability and status quo would be meaningless. He also called on the justices of the Supreme Court to be alert to their responsibilities.
“Peace,” he warned, “cannot be attained without due consideration to justice; the two are Siamese twins. Those who hunger and thirst after peace must love justice and pursue it with all their strength and with all their might. Thus, we must overcome not only apathy but also one-sidedness in the peace-justice equation!”
Africawatch quotes Nana Akufo Addo’s cousin, whom it did not name, as proposing in a leaked e-mail to some party stalwarts and prominent members that: “…I will suggest that as hearing [in the Ghana Supreme Court] begins, we must activate the back-burner strategy of getting the outside world to hear us too”.
He went on to bemoan that: “The truth is that the country is not showing enough anger”, saying tht: “…Apart from [the] cash-strapped ‘Let My Vote Count’ mobilisation efforts, which [are] receiving luke-warm endorsement and support from the party, what have we done?”
“Isn’t it a serious indictment that we have not been able to mobilise thousands of people onto the streets?” he asked.
“Are we not going to feed on the current anger precipitated by fuel price increases, water and energy crises to express mass anger and mass support for our case?”
Nana Akufo Addo’s cousin is again quoted by the magazine as saying: “We are sleeping…and we shall once again have our tilapia stolen right from our noses in this judicial pond if we don’t wake the heck up with the kind of cacophony that can disturb the tranquillity of the international community.
“Let us get them to pay attention to us even before we mount the witness box to lay out our evidence otherwise this whole thing, I fear will be academic."
He further noted that: “If the reaction of our MPs to my presentation on Wednesday is anything to go by, then I’m afraid we have not yet made our case even to our diehard supporters in Ghana. Many got convinced for the first time. It’s difficult to get people out on the streets if they don’t know or believe in your case."
Nana Akufo Addo, together with his running mate Dr Mahmoud Bawumia and the Party’s National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the election results of 2012.
They claim the results were manipulated in favour of the incumbent John Mahama.
The Africawatch publication follows a recent lecture delivered by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Chairman of the Databank Group, who charged Ghanaians, including the youth, teachers, NGOs, journalists and clerics to stop being quiet and neutral in the search for justice and shun “cowardice and hypocrisy” but rather show some “courage” and “outrage” in the face of what he called “attacks on the integrity of Ghana’s democracy” and the way the nation’s finances are being mishandled.
Ken Ofori Atta made the call when he delivered the second of the William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) Institute for Integrity Lectures at the British Council Hall on Tuesday March 12, 2013.
Speaking on ‘Ghana's future: Integrity, Rights, and Responsibilities of Citizens’, Mr Ofori-Atta used the seemingly neutral reaction of important bodies to the election dispute at the Supreme Court and what he referred to as the mishandling of the economy which in his view, has led to a record GHC8.7 billion fiscal deficit to illustrate his point about the worsening integrity deficit in Ghana.
He accused clerics, civil society groups, journalists, Ghana’s middle-class and other important organisations, such as the National Peace Council and the Ghana Bar Association of “cowardice and hypocrisy” and reminded the nation that it was this kind of culture of silence in the face of impunity that forced a young Jerry John Rawlings and his colleagues to stage their revolution of June 4, 1979.
“For me we can cause a revolution with our lack of outrage, with what Rawlings did in 1979, you will realise that this is not merely hyperbolic,” Mr Ofori-Atta cautioned.
He said our democracy risked being destroyed if citizens do not actively ensure that it is built on a foundation of integrity and strengthened by pillars of integrity, predicting that if we continue to build our democracy on lies, deceit and fraud, all the talk of peace, stability and status quo would be meaningless. He also called on the justices of the Supreme Court to be alert to their responsibilities.
“Peace,” he warned, “cannot be attained without due consideration to justice; the two are Siamese twins. Those who hunger and thirst after peace must love justice and pursue it with all their strength and with all their might. Thus, we must overcome not only apathy but also one-sidedness in the peace-justice equation!”
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