THE TRANSITION BROUHAHA - PART 2 (PUT GHANA FIRST MR. OUTGOING PRESIDENT)

THE TRANSITION BROUHAHA - PART 2 (PUT GHANA FIRST MR. OUTGOING PRESIDENT)

Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes…

With less than two weeks to leave office after suffering an embarrassingly MISERABLE ELECTORAL DEFEAT in our history, this is the time President Mahama and his NDC government think that they have an UNBRIDLED CONSTITUTIONAL POWER to take all kinds of decision including ones that are absurd and impracticable. This is the time President Mahama finds it expedient to fill all vacancies in this World especially the appointment of substantive Heads of every State Institution including CHRAJ, Auditor-General, Government Statistician and NCCE when these bodies have existed for than one year without Heads.

This is the time they are offering jobs to the unemployed when throughout their tenure of office, they put a ban on public sector employment much to the chagrin of all. This is the time they are increasing allowances by more than 60% when the target beneficiaries themselves [Service Personnel] are demanding for a maximum of 20% increment and again, in their entire 8 years, the NDC never increased allowances or salaries beyond 10%. The most nauseating thing is the lack of candour and finesse with which these last minute killer decisions are taken without recourse to our national interest. How disturbing!

And when we complain, the NDC apparatchiks are quick to tell us to shut-up because the President has the legal right to do what he is doing. They tell us that the President has not violated any law and that, we should NOT talk about MORALITY and COMMONSENSE. Like seriously? I thought the only thing that differentiates human beings from animals is our ability to apply commonsense in taking decisions. So are we now being told to behave like goats, sheep, cows and donkeys because a ‘certain John Mahama’ is our President? I see…. I now understand why my grandmother in Kete-Krachi tells me that “not all mad men walk naked.”

I thought it is because our constitution cannot capture every possible scenario that is why it makes room for the application of commonsense. If we must capture everything in the constitution, then it would surely look more grandiose and bigger than the Atlantic Ocean. Even in interpreting what has been captured in the constitution, we are enjoined to apply COMMONSENSE. That is why the constitution talks about both Letter and Spirit; Form and Substance; Literal and Purposive perspectives. It is also not for nothing that the constitution makes it COMPULSORY for people contesting for the Presidency or MPs to be of SOUND MIND.  

With this in mind, our Presidents, MPs and other public officeholders are deemed to be reasonable, hence commonsense can’t be divorced from the art and science of governance. For instance, the constitution says the President is the only man that has the constitutional right to DECLARE WAR in this country and can also free prisoners. So, by the NDC’s logic, should President Mahama go ahead to exercise this right and also free all prisoners? Such poverty of a logic! If you think he can’t do that, why then should you JUSTIFY his latest unpopular decision that would tie the hands of the next government and make it virtually impossible for them to govern?

Why should the outgoing President and his Ministers go recruiting people anyhow, increasing allowances/salaries anyhow, signing contracts anyhow without recourse to our legal regime and whether or not this “collapsed economy” can afford such burdensome financial commitments? What at all is wrong with the Mahama government? We thought they love this country. If they are really interested in legalities, then why haven’t they respected the explicit provisions in the Transition Act/Law that makes it MANDATORY for them to present their handing over notes a month before the December 7 elections?

Why should they pick and choose which aspect of the law to respect? Why should they approbate and reprobate at the same time? Such hypocrisy and dishonesty! Well, let them continue deceiving themselves and thinking that they are setting some killer traps for the incoming Nana-Bawumia Addo government to fall into, but I tell them that, he who Jah has BLESSED, no man can curse. Ghana would surely work again. Nana b3y3 INSHA ALLAH.  

Assalamu alaikum