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The whole nation of Ghana was thrown into utmost shock when the Supreme Court declared the 3rd March, 2015 scheduled District Assembly elections unconstitutional in the case of Benjamin Eyi vs. EC. This ruling was seen by Ghanaians in many ways. Whist others see it as a test of our democracy others also see it as a display of dishonesty and a self-seeking move by a lawyer who wants fame.

The story is that, one Benjamin Eyi Mensah after completing and submitting his nomination forms on Monday 22 December, 2014, he was told the filing of nomination was closed on 21, 2014 at 5pm. The aggrieved aspirant solicited the assistance of Lawyer Afenyo-Markin to make his way into the race.

After unsuccessfully trying to get his client’s nomination accepted, Lawyer Afenyo and his client proceeded to court and they had a favorable judgement. Their favorable judgement is that, all the preparations and investments made by the EC and aspirants respectively have been brought to zero. The whole process must start again.

The EC must open fresh nomination and aspirants should go and pick new set of nomination forms, fill, submit, find money to make fresh posters, find another time to go back and do house to house campaign and educate the electorates of their new ballot positions.

What a punishment for a crime not committed!? People travelled from all parts of Ghana to their home towns to take part in this year’s D/A elections. In fact, some of these people were sponsored by the aspirants to travel back home to vote. How do we strengthen our democracy when we frustrate the active players in the process?

My question is, would the lawyer and his client had proceeded to the court had his client’s nomination accepted? Did they see the wrongness of the situation based on his client’s exclusion from the race? Subjecting the lawyer’s move to the classical utilitarian theory of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mills, the lawyer is morally guilty for championing an individual’s right against the ten thousands aspirants who invested so much resources and energy into this venture. Perhaps Mr. Benjamin Eyi is the only constituency member of Lawyer Afenyo who supported him to parliament and therefore worth than the hundreds other aspirants in the Efutu constituency.

The move to go to court though I stand to be corrected was parochial in nature. My other question is that, as an MP, did the lawyer go to his constituency to advise the aspirants not to invest much in the election because the election had no constitutional backing and risks being annulled? Was it not his duty to do that? Did his people not choose him so that they can benefit from his rich legal brain? What is the crime of the ten thousand other aspirants? Where did they go wrong? Should they have decided not to pick the nomination forms? Why did his client also pick the form when he knew the wrong thing was being done? Not only Lawyer Afenyo but all the MPs in Ghana let down their people. They should have advised their constituents who wanted to aspire because the CI 85 was before them.

Very soon, most of these aggrieved aspirants who are delegates in both NDC and NPP will get you during your primaries. You all failed to seek their welfare. The SC ruling is another manifestation that our MPs are not interested in seeking our welfare. I hope Ghanaians now see the biggest culprits in this mess. The EC was just a stubborn harmless pussycat.

I therefore expect all the MPs in Ghana to go down and apologize to the aspirants in their various constituencies for failing to appropriately advise them about the prevailed circumstance that led to the annulment of the election.

The development of Ghana is a collective responsibility. It is the duty of every citizen to draw the attention of Ghanaians to acts that are being done wrongly. We should not seek compromise for personal gains and also not make fame out of other people’s distressful situation.
God bless our homeland Ghana.