‘Blessing of homosexuals’: The Catholic Church refused to recognise the power of the media

CNN, BBC, Reuters and all other international media except the Vatican media reported on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, that Pope Francis had approved that Catholic Priests all over the world can now bless same-sex couples.

This news spread like wildfire. 
 
The Catholic Church, with all her scholarly Cardinals, (Arch)Bishops, Priest and other organised lay professionals failed to debunk the misleading news reportage for what seemed like forever. 
 
Later, the Church’s own website managed from the Vatican issued a story which confirmed the contents of the Holy Father's "Fiducia" document.
 
The Fiducia document asks priests to bless same-sex couples. 
 
In ordinary lay terms, Catholics talk about "blessing" their marriages, an expression used at least in Ghana to give the impression that marriage ceremonies, properly called the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, do not have to be expensive like a wedding. During the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, nuptial blessings are given by a priest to the couple, hence the term blessing of marriage. 
 
However, there are clear ethical dilemmas when a same-sex couple may visit a priest and ask for blessings. The Holy Father says do not turn them away. 
 
How can the Church with all its powerful media and media professionals wait for this bad image to befall the church and now spend time to clear the air? 
 
Has the so-called denial of the reportage been given the same milage as the earlier stories that the international media reported?
 
Has the so-called denial by the Church changed the perception of those who read the earlier stories from the international news wires?
 
When I was discussed these matters with some men in cassocks, we had vehement disagreements about how to quench the fires. 
 
Other people of catholic social media platforms have had their moments of strong disagreements. 
 
The Church leadership, together with some of its Priests, has failed the faithful. 
 
The majority of the faithful are the youth who need clear directions and instructions. 
 
This is because most of the youth in the church do not even know the current position of the Church on this LGBTQ+ issue that has taken the world by storm. 
 
Perhaps, that men in cassock do not even know but the current storm has presented the church with a very good opportunity for her to explain things clearly to the youth. 
 
The youth are very fragile. Many of them are easily convinced to move out of the church to other denominations.
 
Logic is logic because when a Catholic Youth today meet his or her friends at work, in trotro or even in school, he or she needs to explain this directive to them using logic and not faith.
 
Now to discuss a blessing which is given every day at Mass, at hospitals, schools, everywhere should have caused so much upheaval, should it?
 
The question that this document/directive from Pope Francis failed to address is to tell us whether homosexuals have hitherto been denied a ‘blessing’ from some Catholic Priests. 
 
If this has been the case, then it is wrong because the Holy Book tells us that Christ Jesus our saviour did not come for the righteous but for the sinner. 
 
This is why I fault the Catholic media for collaborating with their allies in the secular media for a proper release and interpretation of the Fiducia document. 
 
Now, why this directive at this present time where the topic of homosexuality has become very topical?
 
Is it because some gay lobbyists have infiltrated the ranks of the men in cassock and need apostolic validation?
 
There are reports from some African Catholic clergy who have called the bluff of the Pope and his men at the Vatican.
 
The Priest’s union of the UK have stated that they will not bless same-sex unions. 
 
In Ghana, the Archbishop of Kumasi has instructed his Priests not to bless any gay or homosexual couples until a proper understanding has been given to this latest directive. 
 
This singular directive from the archbishop of Kumasi flies in the face of the press release from the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) whose interpretation cannot stand up to the test of truth and logic. 
 
The GCBC stated categorically in their first paragraph that the pope had never said bless same-sex couples, an inaccuracy which underscores the point about the failure of the Catholic media professionals in helping the church communicate clearly. 
 
I believe strongly that the church hierarchy actually goofed big time and has also failed to realise that the media is very powerful. 
 
Therefore, they the hierarchy, should be extra careful and plan media activities carefully before engaging the media.  
 

Writer: Ekow Arthur-Aidoo

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

 

  

Akufo-Addo scraps ministries, reduces ministerial appointments by a third – A political cul de sac

President Nana Akufo-Addo has done away with eight of the new ministries he created in his first term.

It is trite knowledge that the space he had to create an inordinately large number of ministries and appoint 127 ministers against all advice has now been checkmated by Ghana’s hung parliament status. 

In the end, there were 59 ministers with various designations; 16 regional ministers; and 48 deputy ministers, bringing the net total to 123. 

One or two were sacked without replacement, otherwise, at the peak, there were as many as 127 ministers, according to some tabulations.  

Ghana’s constitution requires that at least half of the ministers must be MPs. For his second term, the President’s NPP party has 137 seats, the same number as the NDC. 

For about two weeks now, some social media sources have had it that there shall be 52 ministers. And then another source later gave the total number of new ministers as 80. 

All those were attempts to test the waters. 

On Sunday, a news report by Asaaseradio.com, a quasi-government mouthpiece, sighted by GhanaWeb indicated that for the President’s second term, some seven specialised ministries that were created when he assumed office on January 7, 2017, will not function in his second term, giving two reasons.

This is because they “have accomplished the purpose for which they were set up, which was the work of establishing those priority projects and programmes. Also, the ministries are being collapsed in response to public criticism of the record size of the President’s first term government,” read the report by Asaase.com. 

In his first term, President Akufo-Addo appointed 127 ministers and deputies, defending his horrible decision with the quip “I am in a hurry” to deliver on my promises. 

It took three months from January to March 2017 for the President to complete his main list of appointments. 

He defended that one too by saying he needed to to investigate the backgrounds of minister nominees and thus appoint quality material. It turned out it was all fluff and bluster as the performance of the ministers earned the NPP a public disgrace with their mantra “we have the men” being trolled on social media. For example, the Sanitation minister could not deliver the President’s promise of making “Accra the cleanest city in Africa'' by the end of his first term. The railway minister promised skytrains in Accra which are nowhere to be found. 

The water resources, works and housing minister watched Ghanaians continuously drink sachet water for another four years, and never ever mentioned that the 20 odd years old practice must end. 

Then there was a promise to fight Galamsey, but Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Ghana’s best-known heart surgeon and one-time presidential candidate of the NPP rather ended up misappropriating unto themselves and their cronies, excavators together with the Inter-Ministerial Committee against Illegal Mining (IMCIM).   

In the end, President Akufo-Addo appointed 59 ministers. 

These comprised 36 ministers to man various ministries. Indeed some ministers had no ministries. 

For example, Osafo-Maafo the Senior Minister, and Boniface Abubakar Siddique, who was assigned to the Office of the Vice President. 

The 59 included seven (7) ministers of state, which means some ministries had two ministers with one of them being designated the substantive minister. 

There were also 16 regional ministers whom the constitution recognises as ministers of state. The 16 regional ministers comprised six new ministers for six new regions. 

Indeed, due to the public outcry, the President could not appoint deputy ministers for the six regional ministers. 

Some pundits have observed that had the President had the luxury of numbers in Parliament, he would have appointed deputies for those six new regional ministers, increasing the number of ministers from 123 to 129. 

Of the 123 ministers, only a maximum of 19 are allowed at cabinet meetings according to the constitution. Once only 19 of the 59 ministers - only about a third - could have a voice in cabinet decision making, fancy what the 48 deputy ministers were doing. 

They had very little to no influence, and certainly no clout. 

No wonder many of them lost their seats. 

For example, both deputy ministers of roads lost their seats because they could not lobby for road projects for their own constituencies. 

Ditto for the ministers of state including Professor Kwesi Yankah, a minister of state at the Ministry of Education who contested for the Agona East seat and lost, and Boniface Siddique who lost the Madina-Abokobi seat. 

Both will not be appointed if the same social media sources through which the waters are being tested are to be believed.  

The pro-NPP news portal reports that the President will cut down the number of ministers by at least 30%. It will mostly affect deputy ministers of state.

Affected ministries

So far eight ministries have been pencilled to be made redundant, with their functions being given back to the so-called traditional ministries. 

They are: 

1) Ministry of Aviation; 

2) Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry which struggled to find a decent office space for at least two years; 

3) Business Development Ministry; 

4) Ministry of Mobilisation and Regional Reorganization which was created to implement the creation of new regions and districts and help the NPP win a second term by reducing the powerful Rawlings legacy on the erstwhile three northern regions; 

5) Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation; 

6) Ministry for Public Procurement; 

7) Ministry of Planning; and 8) Ministry of Special Development Initiatives.   

“The research department of the Office of the President at the Jubilee House is expected to be revamped to perform the function” of the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation and will be headed by Dr. Isaac Owusu Mensah, according to the Asaase report. 

Victor Newman, who was head of research at the Jubilee House died recently, shortly after his daughter had won the Okaikoi South seat for the NPP. 

It will be interesting to see if Darkoa Newman is among the new MPs appointed minister. 

Pundits expect her to be appointed at least, as compensation for the long years of loyalty her father showed to Akufo-Addo, even before the days of the Alliance for Change in 1995. 

All told, Akufo-Addo and the NPP are walking a tightrope and playing with fire, because once they fail to appoint ministers and appointees who lost their seats, apathy in their party grows further. And further, when incumbent MPs do not get appointments - ministerial or otherwise - there shall be more apathy towards government business in Parliament. 

The race for the 2024 elections can be foretold in the current reshuffle, which many expected, but hardly saw one. 

Yes, there was virtually no reshuffle of ministers for four years- a first in Ghanaian politics. 

This reduction of ministers has thus been thrust on the President on account of the huge loss of the NPP’s 63 seat Majority - 169 seats versus 106 seats for the NDC in the previous Parliament. 

Commentators such as Kwesi Pratt have hit hard at the suggestion that the NPP and NDC were elected to collaborate in Parliament, thereby dispelling the nascent idea that President Akufo-Addo should appoint some NDC MPs as ministers or that there should be consensus on the passage of bills. 

In the event of the 80 ministers being appointed, at least 40 must be MPs and the incumbent party will lose a lot of votes in Parliament. 

The President’s hands are indeed tied. 

Gabby Otchere-Darko, the President’s nephew and strategist has hinted of “bye-elections” to untie the President’s hands.      

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @earthur_aidoo

Theophilus Edwin Coleman's story of being rejected at GSL to graduating with an LLD

Theophilus Edwin Coleman graduated from University of Cape Coast (UCC) with a first-class degree in Law but failed to pass the entrance examination to the Ghana School of Law (GSL), Makola to pursue a Professional Law programme. 

Yes, that famous - but dreaded - Makola law programme, the sine qua non for any mortal within Ghanaian legal jurisdiction to be called to the Ghana Bar Association as a Lawyer, or if you prefer, Attorney, or perhaps Counsel, whichever you think is more prestigious.

Theophilus Edwin Coleman was very shocked and disappointed when a few years ago, an assessment exam indicated that he could not qualify for the prestigious Ghana School of Law. 

Coleman decided to seek a higher qualification, by travelling to South Africa for a master of laws aka LLM and a doctor of laws aka LLD.

“I completed UCC Law School in 2016 with a CGPA [Cumulative Grade Point Average] of 3.83. It came as a surprise that I failed the exam – and many of my classmates were also surprised! I don’t think I underestimated the exam, so I really don’t know what happened,” Coleman recounted in a recent Joy News report. “I even got a very rare opportunity to prep most of my classmates that made it to Makola. So, it came as a surprise to me…... I felt a bit disappointed in the system, especially knowing I couldn’t challenge the outcome.”

Coleman enrolled at the University of Johannesburg where he graduated top of his class in International Commercial Law under that university’s LLM programme.

He further pursued studies for the award of an LLD on the theoretical foundations and practical perspectives of the concept of contractual freedom and autonomy in Commonwealth Africa.

Coleman was invited to serve as a Research Fellow at the Institute of European Law in Germany. In 2018, he received an award from the Ghana National Students’ Awards Scheme as one of the Six Most Influential Student Personality in Ghana [home and abroad].

He is now an alumnus of The Hague Academy of International Law, The Netherlands. He underwent an internship programme at the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).

For his LLD, Coleman explored how commonwealth African countries ascribe respect to the notion of contractual liberty by taking into account the politico-economic orientations of governments, pronouncements by courts, constitutional underpinnings, and the impact of traditional African values [such as Ubuntu] on contract and commercial law jurisprudence. 

For his thesis, Coleman developed a matrix for assessing the degree of respect and commitment to contractual freedom and autonomy in Commonwealth Africa.

Coleman is our typical once-bitten-twice-shy Ghanaian; he has no more interest in that Makola “419”, “Azar”, “Shenanigans” or whatever ignoble nomenclature Professor Kwaku Asare aka Kwaku Azar, and the rest of the upset members of the general public have for that otherwise respected institution.  

Life in academia, where his excellence is truly appreciated, currently keeps him going as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Labour and Social Security Law at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Coleman has charged at the Ghana Law School’s professional programme as “a repetitive system…...in a book chapter I and a colleague worked on”.  

To put in Ghanaian parlance, speaking for myself - not putting words in Coleman’s mouth - Makola is a waste of time. 

We should all take the liberty and own our constitutional right to freedom of speech and of expression within the law. 

People, let’s not get this twisted like Ato in Ama Ata Aidoo’s “Dilemma of a Ghost”; no prevarication on this “Makola kwakwe” that is troubling Ghana’s youth. 

Tinny’s lyrics in his hit song “Makola Kwakwe” foretold this Ghana School of Law shenanigans. 

Thank you Kwaku Azar, for as you have rightly observed “128/1820 is a bona fide scam and sham”.  

What a life we are wasting here in Ghana?!

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo

Akufo-Addo says Mahama is desperate and will mismanage the economy - Issues or Personalities?

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says John Dramani Mahama, his main opponent, “is desperate to return to power [and] continue the agenda of mismanaging the economy to the suffering and despair of businesses, households and families”.

The president added that John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by that will be jeopardising the future of the children of Ghana who are enjoying free education from nursery through to the secondary school level.

Akufo-Addo, in a series of posts on his Facebook Timeline propagating the achievements of his administration as the country heads to the polls on December 7 indicated that, “we cannot afford to let that happen”.

“We cannot, therefore, be complacent. We have to work hard for victory, regardless of the fact that one good term deserves another,” the post read on.

Ghanaians on election day will be choosing mainly between former President John Dramani Mahama and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The incumbent NPP launched their manifesto dubbed “Leadership of service: protecting our progress, transforming Ghana for all” at the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, while the NDC launched their manifesto dubbed “Jobs, prosperity and more; the people’s manifesto” at the University for Professional Studies, Accra.

The NPP’s manifesto, the President in his post noted, is based on a belief in “the programmes that we have drawn up in our Manifesto, because they will continue the nation on the path of social and economic transformation, on which we have embarked. Indeed, they will lead to the transformation of Ghana to the benefit of all Ghanaians.”

Since the two manifestos were launched, both parties have tried to focus on issues to some success, though largely they have chosen to focus on personalities.

Whilst Gabby Otchere-Darko, and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, key NPP advisers have said that the elections are about the two personalities, Samira Bawumia, the Vice President's wife, said in Kumasi over the weekend to NPP women's organisers that the elections are "not about personalities", and urged a focus on achievements as a strategy to bring out voters.

The President's social media messages did not show how the NPP has done better, and frankly borders on the personality game, to wit, John Dramani Mahama "is desperate".

Meanwhile trending on social media, John Dramani Mahama has been saying that the government’s own record says that from 2012 to 2016, he, Mahama, grew the economy by 13 billion cedis, whilst from 2017 to the end of 2020, the economy it is projected by this same incumbent NPP that the economy will have grown under them by "11 billion cedis".

We await credible responses from both candidates based on issues.

Meanwhile, we agree with Samira Bawumia that the elections are not about personalities, otherwise none of the two leaders will qualify, for they have both mismanaged the economy.

Mahama and the NDC took over the Ghanaian economy which had recently come out of the IMF's from Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) with external debts/total debts at about four billion dollars, and raised them astronomically justified by Seth Terkper, the then finance minister's concept of "smart borrowing".

And now, look at the ballooning debts being heaped upon us, easily about four billion dollars a year.

"Did we go or did we come?"

Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister even praised God on Kwaku Sakyi-Addo's Sunday Night that he was able to raise three billion dollars in foreign bonds and soon thereafter "the markets closed" due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is Ghana, where Ghanaians were asked by President Kufuor to "bite the bullets" and "work hard" so that four billion dollars could be forgiven under HIPC.

What have the NPP and the NDC, led by invariably these same poliTRIKcians led us into, counting from 2007, only 13 years ago when we all came out of the choking national debt situation?

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo

Sammy Gyamfi ‘runs away’ from why NDC was voted out in 2016

Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC National Communications Officer, is running away from debate with less than 80 days to the December 7 elections.

On Good Evening Ghana on Thursday Paul Adom-Otchere pressed him on various issues but the NDC microphone happy spokesperson declined answers.

Political parties, despite the Coronavirus pandemic are combing the length and breadth of the country propagating their intentions to Ghanaians.

The two main political parties, that is, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been able to launch their manifestos to sell their intentions to Ghanaians through virtual rallies at the University of Cape Coast and University of Professional Studies, Accra respectively.

In a bid to highlight the policies of the NDC manifesto to the general public and for the people of Ghana to appreciate what the main opposition party has for Ghanaians if and when they are given the mandate to come back and correct their mistakes, the NDC National Communications Officer decided (or is it failed?), not to answer the question of why the NDC lost the 2016 general elections to the governing NPP.

Sammy Gyamfi was on Paul Adom-Otchere’s Good Evening Ghana speaking about the NDC’s promise of creating one million jobs from 2020 to 2024 when they win the December elections.

The host asked Gyamfi: “When I look at your record, do you sometimes ask why you were voted out?”

In response, Sammy Gyamfi said: “That is not the issue here; let’s talk about Edwumapa. Ghanaians know why we were voted out, I mean we can have a discussion on any day you choose. Today is a day for our manifesto so let’s restrict the discussion to that.”

This is clearly a legitimate question, a question that was on point, is current and relevant. But Sammy Gyamfi, a lawyer who addresses the media on a daily basis asking questions, dodged the issue without blinking. No respect for the electorate whatsoever when the heat was turned on him.

Before the 2016 elections, the opposition NPP emphasized Ghana's high unemployment levels and underperforming GDP growth rates to appeal to the electorate.

Mahama defended his record, hinging his campaign on plans to boost economic growth and continue modest gains in infrastructure development.

A change in government, Mahama explained, would reverse the progress made.
When the NDC lost the elections, however, their national leadership commissioned the Kwesi Botchway committee report which listed a litany of failures as elucidated by the party folk themselves.

Ghanaians need answers from Sammy Gyamfi.

He should not be allowed to prevaricate. Sammy, you cannot run away from this.

We do not need you in your own court setting your own agenda. We would have asked you to please answer the question, but now it is too late.

You cannot go and think of the answer and come back to rattle prattle later.

This is simply not the attitude to politics we want from our leaders. Below par.

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo

Kufuor confirms he became President so that he could 'see the whole world' while using state resources

The criticisms of former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s love for foreign travel will never go away: they are part of the low points of his presidency.

Kufuor who indicated in a radio interview stated that, his 82 years’ experience in life has only taught him to be very thankful to God, for, he has been privileged to visit “all the five continents” on Earth and “ending my chosen career at the top as the President of Ghana”.

“I look back and I am so thankful that it’s a fulfilled life. If you’re looking at the chosen career or if you’re looking at family, like meeting my wife for 58 years with five children and 13 grandchildren solid […], so I sit back and say God you’ve favoured me so much, I’m thankful…,” Kufuor said with a broad smile.

He added that when he looks at how the people of Ghana from the North to South, East to West, have been treating him with respect and dignity, he can only be thankful.

“I’m very grateful; I’m happy,” he stressed.

John Agyekum Kufuor won the 2000 presidential election as the NPP candidate. In the first round, held on December 7, Kufuor led with 48.4%, while John Atta-Mills, then a Vice-President, came in second at 44.8%, thus forcing a run-off election.

In the second round, held on December 28, Kufuor was victorious, polling 56.9% of the valid votes cast.

When Kufuor was sworn in on January 7, 2001, it marked the first time in Ghana's history that an elected president had peacefully transferred power to the opposition.

Kufuor was re-elected on December 7, 2004, with 52.45% with his party also increasing its parliamentary majority.

As a President-elect of the Republic of Ghana, Kufuor told reporters in early 2001 that one of his visions was “to see the whole world”.

It is therefore not a surprise nor a secret that he stated that seeing five continents was a blessing to him.

During his tenure, his critics accused him of travelling too frequently and asked that he accounts for the tangible benefits from his foreign trips, a charge his appointees struggled to respond to.

For a politician of his stature, it is a shock that Kufuor could not finance his own trips to the five continents on Earth.

When Kufuor was president he traveled to Australia for a Commonwealth Heads of State and Heads of Government meeting in 2002, leaving then-Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama to preside over the celebrations at the Independence Square, in Accra.

Kufuor thus becomes the only Ghanaian President/Head of State in living memory to reduce the bar so low.

He was later seen on TV with Ghanaians in Australia waving miniature flags to mark the independence day.

Successive presidents have tried to travel less than Kufuor as a mark of modesty and good governance - indeed as an achievement.

There was raging debate during the Atta-Mills presidency when the NPP also started counting how many times Atta-Mills was travelling as compared to Kufuor.

Importantly Kufuor bought and traded in presidential jets while the people hungered and carried yellow jerry cans looking for water - a phenomenon which became known as Kufuor gallons.

It was during his eight-year tenure that already struggling Ghana Airways, which at its peak had had at least 30 planes, finally collapsed.

Kufuor created Ghana International Airlines but that airline could not survive.

During his presidency and still, his birthday is marked with declaration of election results which often become a mixed blessing for him.

Indeed Kufuor has a lot to be grateful for, including a forgiving Ghanaian electorate whose resources are dissipated wantonly on the personal wishes of presidents.

Today, President Akufo-Addo has told Ghanaians that building a national cathedral was a personal “promise” he made “to God”.

Let us be careful of the personal wishes of our presidents, and presidential and parliamentary nominees - they might just come true, while our resources are dissipated.

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo

Kufuor’s 'losing 2008 elections was a mystery' comment explains the incumbent NPP's date with destiny in December

 

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor (JAK) has said that he never thought that his incumbent NPP could lose the 2008 general elections until the last stages.

JAK said: "Things happened in ways that I could not comprehend", that especially when Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the then finance minister died, it hit him hard.

He forgot to mention among the "mystery" events that Peter Ala Adjetey, a party chairman and Speaker of Parliament also died.

JAK's list included the death of Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, his finance minister; the global food crises and global financial crisis of 2008; the then unprecedented crude oil price of USD147 at a time when Ghana was not an oil producer; too much democracy within the then incumbent NPP; the decision by some NPP folk to contest "some constituency results" that is, Volta Region votes even though he did not want to mention it by name; and his party's decision to boycott the Tain bye-election as some of the pointers to an impending defeat.

But of all the pointers, the outstanding Tain election, that was boycotted by the incumbent, but which was needed to decide the winner of the run off election, and the decision by some NPP lawyers led by Samuel Ata Akyea to head to court and stop that outstanding ballot which an Accra court rejected by allowing some NDC lawyers to join the "ex parte" motion via "amicus curia" were the worst for Kufuor.

JAK called the verdict of the people "crazy democracy" by giving a specific reason, to wit, "Tain" to Kwaku Sakyi-Addo who interviewed him on Sunday Night on Asaase Radio on Sunday 6 September.

Which animal is Tain?

Tain's "capital Nkawkaw" saw a "tarred road", that is bituminous surface for the first time since creation under JAK, his own words not mine. The NPP administration was building the Bui dam, according to JAK, "if you know the location of Bui" he reminded Kwaku Sakyi-Addo.

The people who were settled from the dam's affected area were given free housing and free electricity. Today the whole of Ghana is Tain thanks to free water and electricity on account of the Coronavirus stimulus package.

What was JAK alluding to by these "Tain" and "crazy democracy" mentions? Infrastructure projects do not necessarily win elections - simpliciter.

The NPP should admit that they have lost the infrastructure debate, and then focus on their strengths instead, period. After all, according to JAK's "crazy democracy" concept, human beings will always go for their "enlightened self interest", a term JAK used when he was president to explain his foreign policy.

In marketing this is alluded to as "what's in it for me?".

Anyone ever seen the Ashanti Region "serial callers" burning their mobile devices including tablets? Anyone heard the reasons they gave? They calculated the cost of buying credit at 10 cedis a day from the four years of Mahama's presidency to date, and added that if they got the promised jobs, things would have been different for them. They also mentioned that their regional leadership is impervious to advice.

But hey NPP might still win: JAK even mentioned "rigging" as part of the reasons NPP lost in 2008, as in NDC may have rigged better than the then incumbent NPP.

JAK again:

“The first round our candidate led with about 49% […]. Then there was a second round which again we believe if democracy was common sense, we should have taken but it didn’t happen. Then, there was a third round when we sent people ahead to talk to the chiefs and people of the area [Tain], so how our own party people said they were taking the Electoral Commission to court to retrain it from having the elections but the court didn’t rule for us but meanwhile the outstanding elections was taking place; we had boycotted it and so that’s how power slipped from our hands. It wasn’t a rejection from the people as such, but so many things came together in a very strange way to deprive us from power”.

Kufuor also explained that the party lost the parliamentary elections because some candidates that lost the parliamentary primary decided to run on an independent basis.

Today about 30 NPP MPs have lost their respective primary elections, and...well...

Back to Tain. For the first time ever Tain became a district, explained JAK, yet the people ignored that gift.

Now if we do not run "a crazy democracy" why will anybody ever think of creating six new regions if not for votes, when the real issues within those regions are heavier than the nomenclature that has been placed upon them. "What's in a name?" is Shakespeare's poignant reminder.

The average 99 per cent at a referenda in those regions does not mean similar margins of victory for NPP come December, for, it did, this election would have been a no contest.

Just a few days ago, the Minister for Roads announced some massive road projects to be undertaken within "three months" in the new regions including Oti. Will that be enough where free SHS has failed to count?

As Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has said: "Every election is a referendum on the incumbent's performance".

And here I add as a matter of JAK's "common sense" quip, that there shall be a referendum on corruption in December, if we care to read between the lines.

On corruption, JAK explained that he reshuffled even the best ministers often, and in some cases asked appointees to submit their resignation.

However, unlike JAK's "over democratic" NPP which prevented him from leading the party even as president, President Akufo-Addo has absolute control but has hardly done a reshuffle in the face of clear failure.

Hear JAK himself: “I attended the meeting [at the NPP headquarters] and the national executive were complaining that there is no money, so I said please let the president assume leadership of the party, they said no. You are the president of Ghana so you remain there and let the chairman of the party be the leader. So, I said look if the president goes out and pleads with the business community they are likely to support but I don’t know if the chairman can do that and they still said no,” Kufuor narrated.

Frankly, who in NPP today can say no to Nana Akufo-Addo, their presidential candidate and current President.

As the management concept goes: "Internal regulation is better than external regulation". This means where the internal party people do not have a voice, the electorate will speak in December.

Sadly however, in this "crazy democracy", a victory for NPP will be interpreted to mean 130 something ministers do not matter, corruption does not matter.

So goes the merry-go-round; the "mystery" of losing,or of winning, as JAK said, does not follow "Mathematics"; it does not follow "average common sense".

It's just a "crazy democracy" we practice here in Ghana.

The author is a journalist, communications and media analyst and a writer. The views expressed are solely his and do not represent the organisation he works for.

Email: paanyan7@gmail.com

Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo