THE MINORITY BOYCOTTED THE VETTING PROCESS IN PARLIAMENT,WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THEIR ACTION ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF PARLIAMENT AND GHANA’S DEMOCRACY IN GENERAL.

       Following the declaration of the 2012 Presidential election results in the favor of incumbent government the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ,of which President John Dramani Mahama was leader and flag bearer by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission ,the New Patriotic Party(NPP) in accordance with Article 64 clause one of the 1992 constitution of Ghana ,decided to challenge the validity and legitimacy of the President-elect for what they describe as Electoral Fraud in favor of the National Democratic Congress by the Electoral Commission.

       The NPP leadership has since filed a petition to the Supreme Court against the EC and the NDC, and is awaiting the ruling and verdict of the court on the matter. They currently have a little over a hundred and twenty seats in parliament which automatically makes them the largest minority group as opposed to a little over a hundred and forty for the NDC, making them the majority in the sixth parliament of the Fourth Republic.

       Consequently, the New Patriotic Party and its leadership have been engaging in sporadic and selective boycotts of Parliamentary activities related directly with the President-elect and his government ,despite filing their petitions in the court .Notable among such ill-informed boycotts ,as I would want to call them include ;Their conspicuous absence at the swearing-in ceremony of the president-elect as declared by the Electoral Commission, Their failure to represent on the vetting committee to properly scrutinize the president’s nominations and ministerial appointees and most recently their walkout on the president and parliament during his delivery of the State of the Nation address on 21^st February , 2013.

     For the purposes of this academic exercise I would be focusing on the minority’s boycott of the vetting process. Usually in Ghana, after elections are held and results declared, the president elect makes nominations and appointments to various ministerial offices prior to parliamentary approval in accordance with Article 78 clause one of the constitution, and it was same when president-elect in the eyes of everyone except the NPP, made nominations and appointments of people to occupy ministerial portfolios in his government .Vetting of these persons were to have been done by the appointments committee made up of members of parliament from both the divides ;NPP  and NDC ,but the members of the minority as they hinted ,boycotted the vetting sessions on the basis that, they would be legitimizing the same president whose election they are challenging in court if they participated in it .This allowed the appointees and nominees have a field day at the overly one-sided vetting sessions to the worry of many Ghanaians.

      Apparently, the NPP MP’s who should have represented on the committee for the vetting exercise had been directed by the National Executives of the NPP outside of parliament to boycott the vetting against the wills of some NPP  members on the committee which was alluded to and vehemently condemned by one of their own Mr. Kennedy Agyapong .He said though some members of the party were against the decision ,they were forced to do so and that he would not have yielded to such caprices ,but would have been at the vetting to “strip” naked some of the appointees ,he therefore lambasted his colleagues for acting according to the  dictates of the National Executives of the party outside of parliament which did not allow them properly scrutinize the appointees ,and rather allowed them have a free ride to minister ship ,he again added that but for his trip to Sierra Leone ,he would have been there to pose the real questions to the appointees-source:4^th February 2013’s edition of the Daily Graphic.

    Instead of scrutinizing the nominees, the one-sided vetting committee members wasted literally all the allotted time for the vetting of each nominee and appointee for acknowledging the presence of friends, family, chiefs and other supporters of the appointees. Uninspiring and unconvincing as they may have been, they were always going to be approved by the committee anyway and so whether or not the minority had represented and asked all the tough and hard hitting questions would just have been a formality as has been the case for quite some time in Ghana .But come to think of it, the presence of the minority would have shaken the appointees and the real questions would have been put to them, which in turn would have triggered the proper responses. For instance the harmless question to the Attorney General Nominee, Madam Marietta Brew about how she was going to ensure that dubious judgment debts are not paid by the state under her stewardship which was overruled by the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Ebo Barton Oduro, for some reason would not have stood had the minority been present (my opinion).

       They (NPP) would be cursing their stars and regretting in the event the court ruling goes against them, because in the long run, these appointees and ministers who had a free ride during the overly one-sided vetting, would be the ones making decisions and implementing policies on their behalf and on the behalf of all Ghanaians.

IMPLICATIONS THIS BIZZARE POSTURE BY THE NPP HAS ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY OF THE COUNTRY.

       The NPP’s decision to engage in selective boycotting and effectively boycotting the vetting process betrays the very independent nature of Parliament. Though parliament is thought to be independent in its functions and dealings, this act by the minority smacks of external manipulation and control because the boycott was informed and directed by the National Executives of the NPP, who do not form a part of parliament. This was not in the interest of the public and the people (constituents) who voted these members of parliament into office. The fact that the minority members on the committee were coerced to carry out the boycott they ideally would not have indulged in, smacks of indecisiveness on the part of the MP’s which Mr. Kennedy Agyapong clearly laments. Had the minority members on the committee represented at the vetting, it would have further strengthened the case for the independence of parliament in Ghana. This is a bad precedent that has been set, and others who find themselves in similar situations in future, might just follow suit which is very worrying.

       Already, the NPP must be commended for taking the right approach to seek redress to their electoral grievances which is visiting the Supreme Court instead of resorting to violent means of mass destruction. Other African countries that have gotten to such brinks have resorted to the latter and we all know what the result has been. This act (using the courts to seek redress) by the NPP gives a plus to our Democratic credentials, to mean that we are matured as a country; another precedent has been set, albeit a good one. However inconsistent they (NPP) may have been in all of these, I believe actions have been taken, decisions have been made and useful lessons have been learnt.

POSITIVES

Good precedents for the future, people who might find themselves in such situations would just use this as reference and follow.

The minority boycott of the vetting spared us any possible verbal attacks that could have erupted during the vetting as a result of their political bitterness towards the majority.

Further enhanced the general democratic credentials of the country our maturity and adherence to the rule of law.

NEGATIVES

The boycott smacks of disregard for the people (constituents) who voted these MP’s into parliament, because their primary function is to represent the people and make good laws on their behalf and not to because of some partisan and parochial interests, act against their wishes and not in consultation with them, after all not all the members of their various constituencies are NPP members.

NPP’s boycott allowed the ministerial appointees and nominees dodge proper double-sided scrutiny and have a free ride into ministership, covering up the frailties they may have had.

A dent on the independent existence of parliament (external influence and manipulation from the NPP, outside of parliament)

Did not allow for nominees to give detailed explanations to issues they should have really delved deep into for us to know their capabilities and visions so we could hold them accountable when they fail to deliver.

Summed up the inconsistent posture of the Minority in all of parliamentary activities, in one breath, they boycott the swearing in of the president elect, in another breath, they boycott vetting of ministerial appointees, and in another breath sit in parliament and approve the MP’s rent allowance act from the Executive because they were directly benefitting from it in that, they were as well going to take home some 50,000 or so Ghana cedis ,and then in another breath, they walkout on the president and parliament during the delivery of the state of the nation address, summing up their inconsistent and contradictory posture over the period.

Did not really define democracy in its strictest sense, because the views, wishes and ideas of the people (constituents) were not taken into consideration in order to inform their boycott. Not all the constituents of these MP’s agree to this kind of posture, after all not all of them are NPP members .

REFERENCES-Daily Graphic, 4th February 2013 edition, The 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

BARCELONA NEEDS A PLAN B AND A BETTER DEFENSIVE SET-UP

It was all rosy for FC Barcelona under the able stewardship of the then first team coach, Pep Guardiola, who himself just got promoted to the first team from the youth set-up [Barcelona B] in 2008 after Frank Rijkaard had departed the Camp Nou. He was a product of the Barcelona first team during his playing days and was a member of Johan Cruyff’s dream team that won the club’s first European cup, and so was almost the perfect man for the job, considering he had in-depth knowledge of the club: its philosophy and ideology.

Barcelona’s excellent crisp and appealing tiki taka-style football won the admiration of many neutrals across the footballing fraternity and had gained prominence the more after Pep took over the reigns as coach. They dominated games, possession-wise and in all attacking departments as they used their potent attack as their defense weapon. This Guardiola era saw the team built around the likes of Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Carles Puyol and Victor Valdes, and the team swept aside other teams for fun, even Real Madrid who once dominated world football could not match them.

In Guardiola’s first four years at the helm, the team won a whooping fourteen trophies including a treble in his first season in charge. Despite all their dominance, they always struggled against ultra-defensive opponents, though they bossed possession from start to finish. See teams like Chelsea Inter Milan and AC Milan for instance. Barcelona always struggled against these teams and a few other defensive opponents in the Spanish League. Under Pep, Barcelona was eliminated from the champions’ league 3-2 on aggregate by an overly defensive Inter Milan who would go on to win the trophy against Bayern Munich in the final in 2010.

Despite all their successes, Barcelona had problems at the back and their inability to resort to a plan B against ultra-defensive opponents, cost them. Chelsea also dumped them out of the champions’ league by putting up a very good defensive shift in both legs of the game, which kept Barcelona at bay for extended periods of the games. A rare Fernando Torres wonder goal helped Chelsea salvage a 2-2 draw in a pulsating encounter which had Chelsea play close to forty five minutes with ten men after Captain John Terry was sent off for kneeing Alexis Sanchez.

Pep announced earlier in 2012 that he would take a year’s sabbatical off the game in order to regain and replenish lost energies, at the time, the team had lost their stranglehold of the Spanish League trophy to Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid and so won just the UEFA supercup,Copa Del Rey and Club World Cup. Assistant Tito Vilanova would take over the first team, and not much was expected to change according to some pundits since Tito was an active assistant to Pep all the years. He took over the team for pre-season preparations for the 2012/2013 season, where they defeated Hamburg in Hamburg’s anniversary match, followed it by mauling Raja Casablanca 8-0,then a 2-2 draw against cash-rich Paris St Germain in Paris, then a goalless stalemate with Manchester United and finally a 2-0 win over Dynamo Bucharest. An impressive pre-season which raised the hopes of the team after they lost the Spanish super cup to Madrid over two legs, which ended 3-2 on aggregate.

Real Sociedad was the first to fall victim to Barcelona’s massacre, they were walloped by five goals to one but there was no denying this Barcelona team were suspect in defense and conceded a goal, they concede another against Osasuna in a game in which they trailed for long periods, but only had their Argentine wizard to thank for turning the scores around. A clean sheet followed against Valencia, then conceded another in the match against Getafe, and then a further two goals conceded in their champions league match against Spartak Moscow. Another rare clean sheet followed against Granada, then conceded two more goals versus Seville and kept a clean sheet versus Benfica in the champions League then a 2-2 draw to Madrid, followed by game they won 5-4 but conceded as many as four goals. All of this while defenders Carles Puyol was in and out of action for one injury problem or another and Pique had lost form. A 2-1 win over Celtic was next in the Champions League, then rare clean sheets followed against Rayo Vallecano and Alaves.They resumed business as usual by conceding a goal more in the match against Celta Vigo, lost 2-1 to Celtic in the return leg of the champions league, conceded two goals against Mallorca, and a goal against Real Zaragoza, then two clean sheets followed against Spartak Moscow and Levante, a goal conceded against Alaves, another against Athletic Bilbao. Barcelona kept one more against Benfica in the champions’ league, conceded again versus Real Betis, and another against Atletico Madrid, between which they kept clean against Cordoba in the Copa Del Rey.

3-1 the game ended between Barcelona and Valladolid, after which followed two clean sheets against Espanyol and Cordoba.3-1 against Malaga and a surprise 3-2 loss to Real Sociedad, in a game they failed to use a plan B aside tiki taka and shipped in three, two more they conceded in the game against Malaga in the Copa and one conceded against each of Osasuna, Real Madrid, Valencia and Getafe continuously. Shipped in two more goals in a champion’s league game versus Milan which they lost, and then another against Sevilla.A run of twelve or so games in all competitions without a clean sheet for the team, and this turned worse when Madrid inflicted back to back defeats on them with Barcelona conceding four goals over the two games. Two clean sheets would follow with one against Deportivo and the other an astonishing comeback against AC Milan in the champions’ league where they overturned a 2-0 deficit to win 4-0 in the return leg. Following from the brief spell of keeping clean sheets, the team returned to what has been the story all season by conceding a goal to Rayo Vallecano, a total of some 43 goals and counting, the Barcelona team has shipped in all season across all competitions and a meager 13 clean sheets kept.

Clearly this shows how defensively fragile this Barcelona team can be, they have been near shambolic all season and this does not look like ending any time soon, considering they do not have the men for the job.Puyol has outlived his usefulness in playing the game and has only become an injury bug, Piqué on the other hand has been inconsistent all season and so has Alves  and Adriano.Puyol in two big games against Milan and Madrid was left for dead by Niang and Di Maria respectively which in both cases resulted in a goal, Piqué was as well roasted by Cristiano Ronaldo in the first of the two league classicos versus Madrid this season.

Barcelona have been all over the place defensively all season and as expected, they have struggled in games against Osasuna, Seville, Deportivo and Sociedad,Milan and all the Classicos this season. Especially against Milan, this Barcelona team looked clueless in attack and defense, yet stuck to tiki taka without using a plan B because they do not have one. Defending set-plays has also been one of the problems of the team.

Many people believe the league is long won by Barcelona, but I totally disagree, with this defensive set-up and a few more plucky and tricky encounters on the cards, I believe they could still drop points. On the evidence of this leaky backline, teams such as Atletico Madrid, Levante, Real Betis and Malaga could prove tough customers for the league leaders. Barcelona desperately needs a plan B, so that in the event opponents park the bus they could still scrap through and get the wins. Perhaps getting an arrow head[target] in the opposition box and use of the wings to devastating effect, so wingers could float all the balls in for the target to feed off and get the goals and not always attempt walking the ball into the net of opponents could help. Most importantly, the club must recruit two or three natural defenders[not midfielders] to boost their personnel in the defensive areas during the summer, else I do not see this Barcelona team dominating world football anytime soon after this season, especially after Madrid have got the psychological edge  over them in recent games. OK,so Barcelona did not sign a defender during the summer window, instead added Brazilian wonderboy,Neymar to their ranks. Maybe he could help reduce the burden off the shoulders of the world’s best player. Let’s see how they fare,especially as Madrid themselves employed the services of Spanish young star, Isco and Gareth Bale,who is momentarily the world’s most expensive player after sealing his 86m pounds move to the bernabeu club.The die is cast,the battle of the spanish powerhouses,bring it on!meanwhile Atletico Madrid have thus far made a strong case for title contention winning 15 out of a possible 15 points in the new league season.

Story by Kingsley Komla Adom

Ghana Institute of Journalism,

E-mail-kingsleykomla@gmail.com.20th September, 2013

FIRE OUTBREAKS, THE LATEST DISEASE TO HAVE HIT US HARD, ENOUGH TO GET THE NATION “DEAD”.

Latest of the ills to have hit the nation, Ghana in the past months aside power and water crises, unrests in some parts of the country as a result of robbery attacks and killings, influx of illegal expatriates who have been terrorizing the locals in mining communities et al, is the rampant fire outbreaks being recorded almost every other day in houses, offices and market centers .Statistics provided by the Ghana National Fire Service for the first three weeks in the year 2013,indicates that, a little over 240 fire disasters were recorded, fast forward and five months on, the number we are told has sky-rocketed to an alarming 1000 and over. Many of the citizens have been subsequently unsettled by these fire cases and are at a loss as to what the causes of these fires are. Quite a number of these fires have been recorded in major markets in the country, notable mentions are fires in each of Madina, Makola number one, Kantamanto, Agblogbloshie,Dome ,and very freshly the Makola number two markets.

After every fire outbreak, we hear government functionaries and the security services with the rhetoric and same cliché “investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of the fire”. I am not too sure whether or not the reports and recommendations that are given after the investigations are acted upon, but then if they were then certainly some of these fire cases being recorded almost on daily bases would not be the order of the day. A number of factors have been attributed to these infernos, key among which are illegal electrical wirings and connections, persistent power fluctuations [what we call [DUMSOR DUMSOR]], unstable power supplies and then open fires left exposed by miscreants after smoking, “chop bar” operators and market women .Amazingly, earlier this week we were made to believe that even mice and rats can be agents of these fire cases, sounds funny, does it not? In attempting to get to the root of fire outbreaks of magnitude as the recent ones, I am sure the experts would not be ruling anything out in conducting their investigations, and so might not overlook the mice-rats school of thought. In another dimension, we are again told by ruling party apparatchiks that these recurring and sequential market fires can be the works of possible arsonists and saboteurs, a position shared by H.E the president. The menace has eaten the nation up so much that the nation has literally gone bed-ridden and if very fundamental and necessary steps are not taken and effected, we might just “die” as a country, you can imagine the thousands of; people who have been rendered livelihoodless, shops and stalls that have gone ashy and the inflated number of homeless victims, clearly a matter of great concern to the nation.

Developing  and establishing a new business is extremely difficult,funds-wise,but it is even more difficult resurrecting and rejuvenating an already flourishing business completely brought down to ashes by fire. A large chunk of these market women and men do not have their stalls and goods insured, some also contracted huge loans from varied sources to open these now fallen businesses, and so with virtually everything burnt; it’s going to be mountain-height difficult to get back in business. We are told the nation is cash-strapped, and so assisting theses victims we know is not child’s play, but government and every other authority must make the effort. As we await the reports on the findings and recommendations, we need to as a country, rethink our safety precautions and immediately put in a number of restructuring procedures to mitigate this ill. Major electrical overhaul in markets must be undertaken and proper restructuring effected-security beef-ups in market centers to purposely ward off miscreants who use city markets at night as havens for perpetrating crimes as smoking and rape.

For those who believe these fires are power-fluctuation-motivated, it is about time regular power supply was restored so we move on. In attempting to reduce drastically the spate of outbreaks, it is important that each household acquires 3-5 fire extinguishers in-house for precautionary reasons so the nation could get out of its sick state. Regular fumigation exercises must be introduced in markets if they do not already exist, to flatten the numbers of rats and mice there-in so those that are agents of fire outbreaks can be eradicated[hahahahahah].It is scary how everything appears to be happening in some sequence, I mean the infernos.

It is about time authorities stepped up their game, stopped all  the lip service ,actually walked the talk, and effected their market-fire-disaster-victims-rehabilitation plans and quite swiftly if they can .I sincerely sympathize with all those who have been directly and indirectly affected by this disease[fires],my hope is that as and when the compensation and consolation packages are made available[by government ,NGO’s, benevolent institutions and individuals],they would get to the very people for which they have been earmarked without the politicization that has characterized every national debate and social issue in recent times and deliberate hoarding by officials in charge….for the ordinary Ghanaian needs a sense and reason to live.

Story by Kingsley Komla Adom

Ghana Institute of Journalism

E-mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com 7th June, 2013

ABANDONED COURTESIES

            For much of the talk about the need for obedience, courtesy and respect for the elderly in our society, nothing seems to have changed among the youths of today. Virtues have been corrupted, good manners have run ill, and everyone seems to have abandoned their basic courtesies. Gone are the days when young people extended a hand of assistance to the elderly under the circumstances. Growing up in the past, I could remember our mothers and grandmothers especially advising us to make sure we help the elderly with the loads off their heads, allow them take our seats when they are standing and then run errands for them, no matter who they may be. This used to be the guided principles we had been living by, until a certain time they call the “21^st century”.

       On our way to school, one could not help but lend a helping hand to the tired, aged and frail-looking woman returning from the market with a heavy load on head, neither could one afford to get past an elderly man, pushing a yam-loaded wheelbarrow all by himself from his farm, as slow and tiring as it may be en route to his home. Kwame’s grandmother returning from the stream with a bucket of water on head does not get past us in her obvious struggles in containing the bucketful. Similarly, Akuna’s widowered father, in his late seventies is able to get his clothes washed, his compound swept and water to bath and drink, not by wishful-thinking or by the touch from the magic wand of a fairy, but by the courtesies afforded him by a few young men and women in the neighborhood.

       Even in the cities, in public places or in commercial vehicles, sitting young people naturally vacate their seats to allow for stranded elderly persons’ occupation at their expense. Additionally, young people in queues to purchase a commodity or anything-say “Hausa koko or waakye or beans”, allowed the elderly ‘jump’ the queues and get served because of their age and plight and it took nothing whatsoever away from them who extended these acts of courtesies to these elderly persons.

        Greetings and exchange of pleasantries which existed between those who were young and then the elderly in our society has taken a very minimal tilt or worse of it all are non-existent almost like a taboo. I see many of my mates glide past these elderly people in recent times on a very consistent bases as if they were not present. Then again I make reference to what it looked like in the past, the complete opposite.

       Unlike in those days, a lot has changed momentarily. Disappointing as it appears, one cannot help but sit and think deeply about how all these good times seem to have simply eluded us.

I am unable to tell if this seemingly “unhealthy way of living” has anything to do with the consequences of our “modern age”. There has been rapid increase in youthful indiscipline-as I would want to call it, during this our supposed modern age. Everything has almost over-turned. A myriad of such undisciplined acts I have witnessed, points absolutely to this assertion of the fallen virtues in our society today.

In the queue the other day to get aboard a “trotro” at the Madina bus terminal on my way home, I witnessed the worst incident yet, in this regard. It was sunny and the queue was long and winding, then an old man appeared, I suspect he could be in his late seventies and wanted to get aboard the “trotro”.He did not join the queue, he simply walked to the head end of the queue and appealed to the two young men leading the queue, to allow him “jump” it and get into the “trotro”, which otherwise back in the day would have been easily done even without the old man uttering a word. From where I stood around the tail-end of the queue, I realized there erupted a near-brawl up top.Apparently,the two young men would not allow the frail-looking old man “jump” the queue and board the bus unless he joined the queue at the end of it.The distraught old man was as well determined by whichever means possible to get aboard the bus, so words were exchanged, the two young men spilt some very terrible invectives at the man, some of which included-“opanin borne-to mean bad elderly man”,”opanin toto-to mean irresponsible elderly man, describing him as a no-body, just because he sought some preferential favors from them and insisted he be granted this wish because of age, state of health and all. Amidst all of the brouhaha, a “trotro” arrived and those in the queues began jumping in, and no sooner had the elderly man attempted jumping into the bus than he fell onto the ground, via a push by these young men. I felt very terrible from where I stood and thought to myself, why this should happen in our modern day. The man could easily pass for my grandfather and theirs too. It is unacceptable and irresponsible to say the least. And so I ask the questions: where and why have we as young men and women abandoned our manners, virtues and courtesies? Who cares in Ghana today if the old woman has a heavy load on head? Who cares if the elderly are upstanding while we are comfortably seated in the same bus these days? Who cares about the little good mornings, good afternoons and good evenings these elderly people deserve? I believe we have not done much in this regard; hopefully something would change after my fellow young friends read this piece.

BY KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM

E;mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com

CHARLATANS, CROOKS OR MEN OF GOD?

“For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect”-Matthew 24:24(King James Version).  Have you ever been duped or confidently tricked by some supposed men of God? Perhaps many of us have and do not know we have been tricked or anything. It appears the time the Good Old Book describes as the end time is fast approaching and nigh as evidenced by the happenings in the world in recent times.

Call them crooks and you are sure to have made an understatement, for some of these supposed men of God deserve very harsh descriptions. Tune in to any radio station or Television network to get abreast of the day’s news and you would inadvertently be greeted with prayer and healing sessions or demon-casting and de-witching encounters, being moderated by men of God.

Wolves in sheep’s  clothing, most of these preachers are, I get confused sometimes when I see the kind of things they do as well as what they wear. Funky haircuts, finger rings and neck chains as huge as hand cuffs and dog chains, one would wonder if all of these play a role in driving away demons, perhaps the evil spirits fear these things so wearing them aid cast the evils out. I have heard people say that some of these pastors consult and engage the services of some ritual powers and so they have those chains and rings as powerful talismans which help them perform miracles and the like.

On television and Radio, all the messages from the men of God are either [prosperity riches] or [healing +cleansing], and one would wonder if these are all it takes to make Heaven. But HEY! Wake up dreamers! All it takes to make the Kingdom we are told are salvation and redemption. It is increasingly worrying that, many of us are so gullible and as a result fall prey to the whims and caprices of these charlatans in the view of getting some spiritual services or other.

Cleverly ,they go about their extortive activities, and get huge sums of money from unsuspecting and innocent church members in the view of offering them spiritual needs and services.Scandals!Scandals!Scandals! have bathed many of these men of God in recent times. They get entangled in all sorts of scandals chief among them sex .There are also others who are caught using unchristian spirits in their work and some who are consistently making false prophecies especially after they have eaten heavily the night before. We recall the issues of the Bishop Daniel Obinim and all the brouhaha about his alleged sex exploits with some other woman supposedly wife of his junior pastor not to suggest in any way that he is a false prophet though.

Many of these individuals parading as men of God indulge in similar or even more terrible acts but are yet to be exposed. These coupled with a myriad of false prophecies from them has cast a huge slur on genuineness, integrity, and credibility of men of God these days. We as well vividly recall the Reverend Owusu Bempah and his prophesy about the President of the Republic, dying unless some measures only known to him are taken and followed nicodemously so it could be averted. The Rev.Bempah has since been on the receiving end of some tough tongue-lashing from his fellow clergy men and some concerned individuals ,others argued that ,he had heavily eaten some banku with goat meat the previous night before retiring to bed ,the reason he had mares and misconstrued them to be prophecies…….hahahahahahaha.

Imagine a pastor telling his congregation there would be a calamity that would befall some members and until some monetary and material sacrifices are made to appease God, this cannot be upended. Sounds like primary school drama lines right? I kid you not , these are real issues that have confronted our society and is prevalent in the capital.

The issue of false prophecies has been with us since only God knows when ,at least so I read from some historic literature .Given that in the early 1970’s,the late David Moses from the United States Of America ,formerly called David Berg and founder of the Religious Group “the children of God”, for example prophesied that ,a comet was going to hit the earth in the mid 1970’S,and would destroy all life in the United States. Some forty three or so years on ,this has not seen reality so we can understand that the issue of false prophecies did not arise just last night.

In localizing the discussion ,sometime before the 2012 general elections ,it was alleged that some men of God preached victory for either of the two leading political parties ,which in the long run spinned in another direction .Who these preacher men were and still are ,and whether or not these are truisms ,your guess is as good as mine .When confronted times when they have made[if you like ,controversial proclamations ,they quote heavy scriptures such as Joel 2:28-29,and Isaiah 38:1-7 as their defense,for want of a better word ,where it is on record in Isaiah 38 that Isaiah after prophesying that Hezekiah was going to die so he should keep his house in order,went back to Hezekiah and told him he was not going to die again citing,God has added fifteen more years to his life.This was after Hezekiah had turned to the Lord praying that he be saved from death.And so these supposed men of God argue that even Isaiah prophesied the death of someone and later went back to proclaim him alive for fifteen more years,hence how dare we judge them?

Running a church or worship centre in Ghana has become very attractive a venture and lucrative, so many people are branching into it.Walk through the nooks and cranny of the capital ,and every three turns you take, you are likely to locate a church,worship center or other .Even from where I live[Ashongman] to the community market Madina alone, I once cited about 20 churches over that stretch .Or wait a minute ,perhaps many more people have realized the need to make heaven ,since the coming of the Lord is nigh .How many of these scores of mushrooming churches are genuine and serve the purposes they are supposed to ,or they are just other ways of making money in the overly congested capital for the teaming unemployed?

I do not attempt to sound all “holier than thou” and faultless as Jesus Christ ,but then I seek to increase awareness on the inflated numbers of pastors and men of God in our communities ,so that we can pray for the divine fruit of the spirit ,to be able to determine which are genuine and which are not .For by their fruits ,ye shall know them ,as the Good Old Book teaches in Matthew 7:15-20.The discussion did not aim to bastardize the entire body, men of God ,because there obviously are a couple of great men of God who are genuine ,but instead to basically bring to the fore ,the extremely worrying phenomena of unsuspecting persons being deceived and duped almost on a daily basis by supposed men of God.BE CAREFUL,FRIENDS……..

By Kingsley Komla Adom

Ghana Institute of Journalism.

E-mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com

A BEFORE,DURING AND AFTER REPORT ON ELECTION 2012

PEACE MESSAGE TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY                                                                                                                                                 

    BY; KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM

DATE: 2ND DECEMBER 2012

    As the day of the voting approaches, I want to add my little voice to the loud and huge voices who collectively have been drumming the common peace beat for a while now. My brothers and sisters, friends, family and everyone eligible to exercise his/her franchise, please let us endeavor to do what is required of us, let us go to our various polling centers and cast our votes without any problems. Let us avoid those who might for one reason or another deliberately spark up exchanges while we are in queues waiting our turn. Let us not get ourselves involved in any altercations whatsoever with the security personnel on duty. Let us endeavor to return home immediately we are through with the process, if we have no other business to do at these polling centers.

     Avoid being provoked by what others would be saying and utterances they would be making while in the queues. We need peace, and it all depends on us all, I inclusive.

     As youths, let us not allow ourselves to be used as tools for destruction. Let us hold high our personalities and images, so that no politician walks to us and tell us to do the unthinkable.

    My name is Kingsley Komla Adom, I am for peace and I pledge to do what is expected of me on December 7.I promise not to do anything in any form or shape to mar the electoral process. Hope you all do same. Let us preserve the peace we are enjoying in our country momentarily……………Happy December 7 to us all in advance……….…LONG LIVE GHANA……….

BEFORE 7^TH DECEMBER [FEW DAYS TO THE D-DAY, ELECTION DAY]

    STORY BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM

DATE: 6TH DECEMBER 2012

Few days to the December 7 polls, the entire country was charged, literally. All the political parties, at least the major ones, were rounding up and wrapping up their campaigns and preparations. Everybody was seriously prepared to vote on the D-day.

       On 5^th December, the two leading political parties held their respective final rallies which they called [RALLY DE GRANDE FINALE].The New Patriotic Party (NPP) leadership held their rally at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) held their own rally at the Accra International Trade Fair Centre. They needed to apply final and finishing touches to their messages and re-echo their commitments towards making our nation a great place, with their policies.

      Both rally grounds were charged and packed to the maximum with party faithful and supporters blowing their vuvuzelas and whistles. In the end, the two parties dispatched their messages to their followers and solicited for votes.

    The National Communication Authority (NCA) in collaboration with the National Media Commission (NMC), instructed all media houses to cease broadcasting and showing political campaign adverts by 5^th December, which was strictly adhered to.

     On 6^th December, as early as 8p.m, scores of enthusiastic eligible voters thronged their various polling centers to begin queuing in anticipation for the next day’s event (the voting process).Some of the electorates slept at these polling centers, others used pieces of stones, tables, benches, chairs, mineral crates among other things to indicate their presence and place in the queues while they slept at the sides ahead of the morning. This was a widespread activity which was present across almost every polling station across the country. These electorates in their own words explained “we want to cast our votes very early so we can go home to do other things, we do not want to waste the whole day here” as reasons they came out in their relatively huge numbers to queue as early as they did, the day before the election. This phenomenon was not characteristic of men, females including nursing mothers and other elderly ones queued at dawn as well. They were more than determined to exercise their franchises. Some brought along with them their children, food, water and insecticide treated bed nets under which they slept at the polling stations.

     I could imagine the number of people in the various homes at these times when almost all the elderly had left and headed towards the polling stations. All in all, it was a great sign, it only went on to affirm the commitments Ghanaians have made to our electoral process. They were by and large very determined to exercise their electoral or civil right on the Election Day. It was an incredible sight to behold. The time for vote-casting was 7:00 a.m. on December 7.

ON DECEMBER 7^TH, THE ELECTION DAY(D-DAY)

STORY BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM

        Day finally broke on the Election Day, and everyone was eagerly anticipating how the process would go. The process was to begin at 7:00 a.m. and close at 5:00 p.m. In some polling centers across the country, the process did not start at 7:00 a.m. because some electoral materials had not arrived at the polling centers. Some centers reported that ballot papers had been destroyed by the rains that poured earlier and needed to be replaced, other centers reported malfunctioning and total breakdown of verification machines. Some polling centers began the voting a little after 7:00 a.m. since they did not have any major hiccups. It was very disappointing to know that some centers as late as 12:00 noon, had not begun the the voting process because they had not got their problems resolved.

        There were relatively calm atmospheres across all polling centers except for a few isolated cases, where electorates grew a little frustrated and impatient with the Electoral Commission Officials for what they described as ineffectiveness on their part. The security apparatus were on top of their game; they were up to the task and ensured that no confusion erupted. At around 3:00 p.m. some polling stations had as much as 600-900 people still in queues to have their turn, and there was no way all these people could have voted before 5:00 p.m., so the Electoral Commission issued a statement to that effect, that all polling centers which suffered equipment breakdown could go back to continue the voting process the next day, so that no eligible and willing voter was disenfranchised.

       Those who were in the queues before 5:00p.m were allowed to vote provided they were in there before the 5:00 p.m. Timeline deadline struck, till the last man voted, even at 11:00 p.m. It was only in a few constituencies in the Tema and Ablekuma metros and a few other constituencies that recorded a few skirmishes here and there, but by and large the military and the police were always in control.

       In centers where voting had ended, counting and collation began, and the results [provisional and then certified] were being reported to the various media houses via their correspondents and reporters. Everyone was calm, monitoring and following the results as they trickled in on television and radio. Wake-keeping was on, this time not for a funeral or anything, but just monitoring the results as they trickled in.

       For the first time in the history of elections in this country, voting lasted for two days because the electoral commission made room for people who were likely to have missed out on exercising their franchises had the original election procedures been followed. The collation of results from all 275 constituencies was done, and a fair picture of the trends was being noticed by the public.

       During the two days of voting, no very major incidents were recorded or reported, the process was relatively peaceful.

      KUDOS to all the electorates for the manner in which they conducted themselves and Ghanaians as a whole for the very high levels of tolerance and patriotism they exhibited over the period, KUDOS to all the security personnel who kept wake to maintain law and order everywhere, especially the police, military, immigration, fire service among many others……..CONGRATULATIONS TO US ALL FOR A PEACEFUL ELECTION…………………..

DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION (AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS)

        STORY BY: KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM

DATE: 13TH DECEMBER 2012

       Voting had officially ended, and results were being collated. Political party leaderships were doing their own collation at their party offices as well. The media were reporting and bringing the results to their respective audiences. Results were trickling in very thick and fast, and almost all 275 constituencies had their results certified.

     As per the Electoral laws of the country, the only mandated body that could call or declare election results was the Electoral Commission. They were locked up in their strong room still doing the collation, and until they had finished all of the 275 constituencies, they would not declare the results. There was a considerable level of tension at party offices, ahead of the Electoral Commission’s declarations.

     It was about 3p.m and on the streets were scores of party supporters jubilating and making merry already even before the election results were declared. Those whose party was in the lead as per the results that had come in so far on radio and television, were jubilant, those who were trailing also refused to see and accept it as it were, but rather insist also that they were in the lead and as such were celebrating too. It was 5p.m, the time the Electoral Commission had announced they were going to call the elections after they were through with the collation of the results from all the constituencies, yet nothing doing. The conference room at the E.C head office was set and arranged for the declaration.

      It turned out that some leading members of the NPP, sensing and noticing that they were trailing, began raising issues over the authenticity of the election results being churned out by the various media houses. They claimed there had been some sorts of election rigging in favor of the government.

     The Peace Council, chaired by Rev.K.B. Asante met with the leaderships of the various parties and the E.C in a closed-door meeting, to resolve the wrangling in the ranks of the NPP.The E.C requested for the evidences the NPP claimed to have had, so it could be looked into. Time was fast running out, the people of Ghana were so eager to know who had won; they had been waiting for so long.

     After the hour and half’s closed door meeting, it appeared that(and according to what we were told),the  evidences the NPP presented to the E.C were “inadequate”, they then requested more time, and that the E.C  delayed the result declaration until they had checked and presented the full complement of the evidences they had, which the E.C declined.Dr.Kwadwo Afari Gyan,the Chairman of the E.C,told them that he had no much time to wait and that once the results collation was done, he was going to call the results, so that if the NPP or any other party or individual had qualms about it, they could go to the supreme Court to seek redress, as stated in the Electoral laws of the country.

     All this while, large numbers of NPP sympathizers and party supporters massed up around the E.C’s head office protesting against what they called “rigged elections”. They were in their party T-shirts as well as other party paraphernalia and were halted in their tracks by the heavy security personnel around the E.C’s office, who had cordoned off the whole area to prevent any disruptions by the large number of [if you like] disgruntled NPP supporters.

     The time all Ghanaians were waiting for, finally arrived. The conference room had been filled to capacity by many local and international journalists, local and international election observers, and political party leaderships.E.C officials took their seats and the Chairman of the Commission declared the results as follows:

·         NDC(JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA)-5,574,761 votes representing 50.70%

·         NPP(NANA ADDO DANQUAH AKUFFU ADDO)-5,248,898 votes representing 47.74%

·         PPP(PAPA KWESI NDOUM)-64,362 votes representing 0.59%

·         GCPP(HENRY HERBERT LARTEY)-38,223 votes representing 0.35%

·         PNC(HASSAN AYARIGAH)-24,617 votes representing 0.22%

·         CPP(MICHAEL ABU SAKARA FOSTER)-20,323 votes representing 0.18%

·         INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE(JACOB OWUSU YEBOAH)-15,201 votes representing 0.14%

·         UFP(KWASI ADDAI ODIKE)-8,877 votes representing 0.08%

            TOTAL NUMBER OF REGISTERED VOTERS-14,158,890

            TOTAL NUMBER OF VALID VOTES CAST-11,246,982

            TURN OUT PERCENTAGE-79.43%

            REJECTED BALLOTS-251,720

And by these, the NDC’s candidate had won the elections in a straight forward one-time style, since our Electoral law states that “for a candidate to win an election in the first round, he or she must win with a margin of 50% plus 1 vote”. And the NDC’s candidate had won by 50.70%, so he was declared the president elect. The E.C chairman Dr. Afari Gyan said, “Based on the following results, I hereby declare H.E President John Dramani Mahama of the NDC the winner of the 2012 presidential elections and as president elect”.

         By this declaration the supporters of the NDC burst into celebrations all over the lengths and breadths of the country, singing and dancing as well as blowing whistles and tooting their car horns and the other main opposition party supporters were aggrieved. At the Parliamentary level, the Ruling party, which happened to be the winners of the presidential elections, won the majority of the 275 parliamentary seats. The CPP lost its only seat in the Jomoro constituency rendering it seat less in parliament, the PNC managed to win just a seat in parliament, while the PPP,GCPP,UFP as well won no seat in parliament.

      Aggrieved and agitated supporters of the main opposition party massed up in the large numbers at their flag bearer’s residence impressing upon him to reject the election results and not to concede defeat. The NPP leadership have since made it clear that they would not accept the results and would be visiting the supreme court to seek the overturn of the results and to seek redress for what they called deliberate vote rigging in the government’s favor by the officials of the E.C.Followers and sympathizers of the NPP have since been demonstrating and registering  their displeasure at the Obra spot near Circle for the last three days.Leadership of the party have since told their followers to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands, and that they would use legitimate procedures through the supreme court to seek redress after the are done with assembling the full complement of their evidences.

WHY THE EXPENSIVE FLOP, FERNANDO TORRES MUST GO

WHY THE EXPENSIVE FLOP, FERNANDO TORRES MUST GO

Just when the transfer window was nearing a close on January 31 2011, there was the biggest and ground-breaking transfer news. Fernando Torres had signed a five-and-half year contract with Chelsea football club from Liverpool, in a whooping fifty million pounds deal. At the time, he had lost form and was struggling to regain full fitness after recovering from a major knee injury. At first thought, it seemed a good deal as he was undoubtedly a few years before then, one of the best strikers in the game. He had even made it to the top three of the FIFA world player of the year shortlist in 2008 after he joined Liverpool from boyhood club, Atletico Madrid for a record transfer fee in 2007.He scored lots of goals in his first season and exceeded the 20 league goals mark, a record held by Robbie Fowler in 1995-1996, in his debut season and as well became the fastest player in Liverpool to reach 50 goals. The stats were there for all to examine. Everyone at Stamford Bridge was optimistic, a new breeze of fresh life was coming after the very successful career of club talisman and goal scorer, Didier Drogba, was drawing to an end because of advanced age.

Sales of jerseys soared around the world and excitement levels of Chelsea fans escalated as it was the biggest transfer news in and around England at the time. The then coach, Carlo Ancelotti would go on to field him against his former club, Liverpool on his Chelsea debut. A very torrid afternoon he had in the hands of Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger,who would not even allow the striker a yard of breathing space, culminating in a 1-0 defeat for Chelsea and a debut to forget for the Spanish chap.Worse games were on the cards for Torres in his Chelsea career, as he went some 903 footballing minutes without a goal for the club, only to score his first goal against west ham united after four months on 23^rd April,2011.This barren run continued and his course was not helped either as Didier was for the most parts selected for the big games instead so ended the season with just a goal in five months.

The next season began, and his goal duck continued, Torres scored only his second goal on 18^th September 2011 against Manchester United in a game he missed an open goal and scored his third against Swansea city. Fast forward, on 19^th October, 2011, he scored his first Chelsea brace against Racing Genk in the champions league and scored another Chelsea brace in an F.A cup game against Leicester city .Ridiculously, Fernando Torres went an amazing 24 games without a goal .Life was not favorable for the Spaniard in Chelsea as the striker often found confidence difficult to garner. Anytime Didier warmed up on the sidelines to replace him, the fans went gaga, chanting Drogba’s name loud in the stadium.

Chelsea’s most expensive player [flop] would go on to score his first league goal since 24^th September, 2011 on March 31, 2012 in a game against Aston Villa. The striker’s uncomfortable Chelsea career for a few days was spared some tongue-lashing by pundits, critics and fans alike, when he replaced Didier Drogba in the Semifinal Champions league game against Barcelona to score a last gasp wonder goal, many have since described as his best Chelsea moment, to salvage a 2-2 draw in a pulsating encounter in which the team played close to 50 minutes with 10 men. Captain John Terry was sent off for kneeing Alexis Sanchez in that game. The team went ahead to win the ultimate in the final against Bayern Munich in Munich on penalties.

2012/2013 season commenced in Ernest. Torres and his Spanish compatriot Juan Mata were given some rest for their EURO 2012 exertions after winning the trophy .He scored in the community shield game against Manchester City which the team lost 3-2 on August 19,2012 and scored his first league goal of the season against reading ,another against Newcastle ,Arsenal and then Norwich ,as Chelsea made the summit of the table in the first few weeks of the season and scored his first champions league goal against Shaktar on November 7,2012.The striker’s overly inconsistent form continued and got Chelsea fans worried.

Benitez was appointed as an unpopular successor to Roberto Di Matteo and it was rumored that Benitez held the key to unlock the disappointing striker’s career. Before Benitez’s appointment, Torres had gone an outrageous 11 hours of football without a goal……………many fans began calling for his head but for some reason, this would not happen. He finally managed to break that extended goal drought with 2 goals in Chelsea’s mauling of FC Norsdjaelland in the champions league in December 2012.Three days on, he scored another 2 goals in the premier league ending an eight match run without a goal, scored against Monterrey in the FIFA club world cup, and then against Leeds united in the league cup, followed by another in the match with Aston Villa, his most positive run of 7 goals in 6 games in December for the club. Whispers of the striker being back to his best were heard in and around the bridge, though the neutrals believed otherwise.

Throughout his tumultuous Chelsea career, he has been in and out of the Spanish national team for inconsistency and loss of form .Chelsea fans still had some false hopes that someday their expensive out-of-sorts striker would hit top form .Torres has had all the opportunities in the world to hit top form, successive managers since Carlo Ancelotti have all given the striker enough playing time to salvage his career, yet consistently he has failed to deliver. Creative trident of Mata, Oscar and Hazard create so many chances for the striker but the chap just would not deliver as if he has been cursed. Torres has scored a meager two goals all year since January, a dampening return for a player who was once the best striker in the game. He has already this season, endured a 19 game non-scoring run after which he scored a goal and missed a penalty versus Steaue Bucharest in the team’s Europa league game.

Any player with this negative record in any team would very likely be released, but due to some if you like managerial biases, Torres someway, somehow still finds himself in the team playing games after games after games.

The stats stand at a miserly 28 goals in 142 appearances for the flop in all competitions, a poor return by all standards for the Spanish striker. Chelsea would do themselves a lot of good by letting this chap leave, so as to recruit a better replacement that can feed off the creative talents of Chelsea’s attacking trident-Mata, Hazard and Oscar, and deliver for the team. Retaining Torres in this Chelsea team would be like pouring water on rocks, already their season has been defined by gross inconsistencies and trophylessness looks very very likely on the cards this season and might as well continue the seasons after if the team does not act fast to throw the flop through the window, and get efficient replacements, for Torres has proven beyond all doubts that Chelsea is not his home, perhaps a return to his boyhood club might help redefine his ailing career. This has not happened, perhaps the dude is being given another chance, but I doubt if anything would change.

Story by-Kingsley Adom

Ghana Institute of Journalism

E-mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com