I did not cross the River Niger to enter Onitsha in Eastern Nigeria for nothing. I returned with a few wise sayings of the Igbo; One that l like most is “Si kele onye nti chiri; enu anughi, ala anu,” which literally means, “Salute the deaf; if the heavens don’t hear, the earth will hear.” In other words, we need to do the right thing because there are those who will understand if others don’t.
We can only talk to the Electoral Commissioners and the political players about the need to maintain peace during the election. If some do refuse to listen, others would listen and help keep the peace.
Though the Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, has been bashed by some people, l will not blame her if anything goes wrong with the December 7 election.
This is because she is just the chairperson of the Commission which has six other people serving in various capacities. They are, Georgina Opoku Amankwa, Deputy Chairperson in charge of Administration; Alhaji Sulley Amadu, Deputy Chairperson, Operations and Paulina Adobea Dadzawa, Member.
The rest are; Rebecca Kabukie Adjalo, Member; Hajia Sa-Adatu Maida; Member and Ebenezer Aggrey Fynn, Member. All these people are men and women of honour and would not want to do anything that would soil their names. Together these seven people are expected to take decisions to make the commission work well to hold a credible and fair election.
So far, none of the other six members have come out to say the Chairperson is running an arbitrary leadership, so we can all assume that everything that has come out of the commission is a collective decision.
It cannot also be assumed that all the seven people have taken a collective decision to do the bidding of the ruling party or some other person. This is because all the seven individuals, like all of us, have their individual (political) loyalties and would not be pushed to do what they do not want to do.
The work of the commission, from what l see, is such that if everything goes as it should, no one should have any reason to complain about the election results. The polling stations will count the ballots and announce the results; these will then go to the constituency collation centres for the final results to be announced. All these, will not be done in darkness and so, it should not be possible that some results could be inflated.
However, we have heard of padding of the ballot boxes in the past. We have also heard of trickery performed on the figures at some points between the polling stations and the Electoral Commission to get some results ‘transformed’ from what they should be into what they should not. We have heard of rigging and only God knows how this is done.
It is these irregularities that create problems and give cause for some political activists to start small agitations that lead to larger political riots. We do not want to see any of these problems in the country. And for this reason, the Electoral Commissioners, all the seven individuals, must be alive to their responsibilities.
Talking about the commissioners also brings to mind the general behaviour of all the players in the political game. From the small activist to the big politicians, there is the need for everyone to avoid anything that could lead to a political crisis. The Electoral Commission may do all there is to keep the election clean but some misguided individuals could create a situation that would lead to trouble. For this reason, it is expected of every Ghanaian who has the country at heart to do all there is to keep the country peaceful during and after the election. After all, it is just a process to pick those whom we believe would lead us to develop the country.
Therefore, we must all be reminded that Ghana is the only country that we have. On the East of us is Togo, a small country, where the people speak French. If the election is not conducted properly and there is any problem, Togo cannot accommodate those who would want to flee to that country because it is a small state and they have their own problems.
Those who may want to go towards the western borders will also find out that Cote d’Ivoire is a French speaking country and cannot accommodate them. The experiences of those Ivorians who came to Ghana following the political crisis in their country must guide us. For those who did not have the opportunity, let it be known to them that people who had their own houses had to sleep in tents with no beds. They had no food and families were cramped up in these small tents. Their lives were destroyed and it has not been possible for many of them to build back their lives.
It is the same story for those who may want to flee to the north, Burkina Faso. This is another French speaking country with economic problems and so, they are not ready to welcome a large group of people who have fled their homes. It is not a glorious life to be a refugee in another’s country. Just imagine travelling to another town in a country with no one to host you and you are sure to know exactly what happens to people who flee their countries to other lands. To the south is the Atlantic Ocean where we can only drown if we decide to rush into it.
A clear picture of what it means to be a refugee is the lives of the Nigeriens we have on our streets with their children. These are people who perhaps, had their own homes but have had to flee from political and economic crisis and now have nowhere to call home. They have been forced to sleep in the streets and beg for food. This is what happens when war is created on your land and you have to flee to be able to live.
Majority of Ghanaians do not want to flee from this country. This is our land, it is where we were born and would want to live in peace. That is why the Electoral Commission must get it right. That is why those of us who may want to be misguided on the day of the election must think properly. And it is also for the peace that would elude us if we do not do the right thing that we need to plead with our politicians and their side-kicks to know that Ghana should not be disturbed.
One can only hope that the Electoral Commissioners would not give us cause to worry on the day of the election and we shall accordingly not have trouble makers who would use their lapses to create trouble in this peaceful land!
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