OPEN LETTER TO MADAM
CHARLOTTE OSEI
Dear Beautiful Charlotte,
As a concerned Ghanaian, I am not
only deeply worried but also petrified seeing the fast rate at which our
Electoral Commission, under your leadership is increasingly losing credibility
in all departments. And instead of you focusing on how to win back public
confidence, you are rather indulging in acts that would only deepen public
mistrust in your enterprises as a commission and exacerbate your already
precarious woes. Need I have to remind you, beautiful Charlotte that the peace
and stability of this country, just like every other African country, is to a
large extent, hinged on the conduct of credible, free, fair and transparent
elections? And this, cannot be realized when the election governing body is
seen to be arrogantly stubborn and completely dismissive of the germane
concerns of key stakeholders like the political parties and even the ordinary
Ghanaian voter.
Beautiful Charlotte, are you unaware
that the debilitating ramifications of a disputed elections cannot be
exaggerated? Haven’t you seen the macabre examples of Kenya, Ivory Coast
and many others? Beautiful Charlotte, thousands of innocent lives got perished
in these examples if you care to know. I am still in my 20s, just graduated
from the University, yet to build a home and start a real life. I am therefore
too young to die. I am not like you, who has and is still enjoying all the
beautiful luxuries in life and virtually lack nothing.
I therefore won’t sit unconcerned
for you to cut short my dreams having toiled to come this far. My parents won’t
even forgive me. And please don’t get emotional when people question your work.
You are our servant; remember. Nobody forced you to accept the position of EC
Chair and it is not too late to advise yourself. Respectfully, beautiful
Charlotte, are you waiting for this country to burn like Kenya before you take
things seriously? Well, you won’t have your way as far as some of us are
concerned because we shall fight you for the love of God and country until we
succeed.
As we speak, I’m sure you know that we have only seven months to
the crucial General Elections in November. However, you haven’t still come out
clearly, to tell the nation how you are going to thoroughly audit and clean this
"dangerously over bloated register" (with over 600,000 invalid votes)
in the words of your own Panel of Eminent Five after they had concluded that
the current register is overly compromised and can’t be used for any general
elections. Remember they’ve also told you that these invalid names CANNOT be
deleted using your age-long “approach of exhibiting/displaying the register for
people to point out these invalid names with evidence of same as well as to
proceed to testify before a court of competent jurisdiction is NOT a viable
option”.
The Panel therefore recommended a special form of
validation. You initially claimed you have accepted the Panel’s recommendations
and would proceed to progressively implement same. So what are you still waiting
for? Don’t hide behind the courts. When are you building the necessary
consensus with the parties and other stakeholders on the way forward? Again, what is the state of your controversial
18-member steering committee so called?
Beautiful Charlotte, instead of you to focus on finding
answers to these nagging questions which essentially bother on the very core
mandate of the EC relative to delivering a credible, free and fair elections,
you are rather obsessed
about rebranding and matters of new logo so called. What at all are you
rebranding? Is the EC now a product which you wish to market? Does rebranding
form part of your mandate? Even if it does, is this the right time to talk
about rebranding when you still have serious issues of credible register to
contend with?
Mind you, this rebranding hogwash comes at a
huge expense to the taxpayer and not you as a person. Did you say you don’t
even know how much this useless thing is costing the taxpayer? Like seriously?
I am again scandalized when you said, "we like it, we pick it and it makes
us happy" in relation to the clearly plagiarized logo. Respectfully, do you
think the EC is your personal property? Is it about what makes you happy or
what the nation wants? I’m sure you are aware that if a judgement debt is
occasioned by this foolhardiness and nonchalance, it is my taxes that would be
used to pay that. Why should I allow you to create this mess and go
scot-free?
Did you also say you don’t represent the
authority of the State? What! If you don’t represent the authority of the
State, how then are you going to organize the general elections? On which
authority are you deriving your powers? Are you a private entity? Can you ever
be above the authority of the State? Is the EC now a Republic on its own? Then
why don’t you rebrand your name (since you are obsessed about rebranding) and
make it the Democratic Republic of the Electoral Commission so that you can
fully assert your so called totalitarian independence? Absolute power indeed
corrupts absolutely. As we speak, all the properties of the EC are owned by the
State, the State finances all your activities, the State approves your budget
and pays all your workers, yet you want us to believe that you live independent
of the State of Ghana. How ironic and laughable! Please Charlotte, come again
because your logic is very terminally inept and doesn’t add up at all.
You don’t want to be associated with any of our national
emblems? Not even our Coat of Arm which symbolizes our unique national
identity? No wonder you don’t even know the essence of the Coat of Arm. I am
not sure you monitored Justice Atuguba during the 2012 election petition when
he referred to the Coat as the embodiment of the State upon which the Judiciary
derives its powers. Is the EC, which is not even an organ of the State bigger
than the Judiciary? Go and ask Afari Gyan how he was shivering when he appeared
before the Judiciary. Surely, you could
have done better beautiful Charlotte.
On the involvement of STL in our electoral regime,
it is not enough to tell us that they are only responsible for the management
of the biometric registration and verification devices as well as the
management of the EC’s database. This argument is at best, unconvincing and you
need to provide further and better particulars. Remember, the Interior
Ministry, which is in charge of our national security and a senior Cabinet
designation for that matter has officially informed Ghanaians that STL’s
mandate goes beyond what you have told us to include electronic transmission of
results. I don’t want to believe that the State, through the Interior Minister,
was lying to us. That of course, would be unpardonable.
As a matter of fact, we all heard the Deputy
Interior Minister insisting that the Ministry did not err and in fact,
proceeded to dare you (the EC) to make public the contract document between SLT
and the EC which he claims would vindicate the Ministry. So what are you
waiting for Madam Charlotte? I don’t want to believe you have something to
hide. The contract can’t be a secret document because payment is done from the
consolidated fund (our taxes). So we the citizens have every right to know the
details of same. Of course, the EC can’t operate in secrecy and you know that. Do
I need to take a cue from CitizenGhana and procced to court to compel you to
produce the contract document? Remember there is an existing High Court ruling
on this, which mandates State institutions to provide the citizenry with the relevant
information/documents they request for. And why is the NPP and other political parties
quiet about this? Like seriously? I can’t believe it.
In conclusion, it is pretty obvious that you have a
lot to do to win back public confidence in the electoral commission, which is
very crucial for obvious reasons. Beautiful Charlotte, please enough of the media
engagements, enough of the beautiful grammar, enough of the self-aggrandizement
and narcissism, enough of the belligerent and arrogant posturing. Let your
award winning beauty and enviable communication skills reflect in your work
because the business of the Electoral Commission goes far beyond these
cosmetics and requires some significant assertiveness and meticulousness for
that matter. I wish you well mummy. Hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you.
Yours in the struggle for God and country
IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN
Youth Activist/Social Commentator
Former NUGS Secretary
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