Dr Afari Gyan – EC Boss
“There is no power in the tongue of man to alter me. I stay here on my bond” –Shylock in ‘The Merchant of Venice’.
Clause 5 is very critical and it states: “The Electoral Commission SHALL REVIEW (emphasis mine) the division of Ghana into constituencies at intervals of not less than seven years, or within twelve months after the publication of the enumeration figures after holding of a census of the population of Ghana, whichever is earlier, and MAY, (emphasis mine) as a result, ALTER (emphasis mine) the constituencies”.
What this clause is saying is that, even though it is obligatory for the Electoral Commission under normal circumstances to carry out an exercise to evaluate the division of the country into constituencies, this exercise does not necessary have to lead to increase in constituencies. A review could lead to a decrease or the maintenance of the status quo as the decision to alter is not obligatory (the use of the word “may”). Why is it that Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan always interprets “alter” to mean increase and “may” as obligatory (shall) and “review” as a license to create new constituencies? In creating 30 new parliamentary constituencies years back, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan used his own faulty interpretation of the Constitution by deciding that parliamentary constituencies should not cross district boundaries (for which I grant him the wisdom even though it has no constitutional basis), and that every district should have at least one parliamentary seat (which has no constitutional basis and I refuse to grant him that wisdom).
Thus he ensured that every district had at least one parliamentary constituency, while others had even two, Dr. Afari-Gyan is committing the same mistake in his undue haste to create additional 45 constituencies and thus ignoring the clear constitutional provision that as much as possible each parliamentary constituency should have the same number of inhabitants. If he had allowed this constitutional provision to guide him, then instead of creating the additional 45 constituencies, wisdom, common sense and financial prudence would have dictated that constituency boundaries should have been readjusted to accommodate the existing 230 constituencies. Based on the figures of the 2010 population census, if Dr. Afari-Gyan wanted to be sincere to himself, instead of creating new constituencies, he should have rather altered the boundaries of existing constituencies to add to those in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, maintain the number in Western while reducing those in Volta, Eastern, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West, purely based on population quota while maintaining the present 230 constituencies.
His argument that failure to create new constituencies will disenfranchise some citizens is a palpable falsehood since every citizen is already represented by one of the already existing 230 parliamentarians. His bulldog instinct to place land over human beings proves that he has lost touch with reality. His source for legal advice must have mentioned to him the issue of equity and the supremacy of human beings over land. It is therefore illogical and illegal and unconstitutional and not intellectual for Dr. Afari-Gyan to carry out a wholesale increase in constituencies in all the regions of this country. The exercise stinks of political manipulation and arm twisting inferior communist guerilla tactics which place illogical legality over prudence economic and financial sense.
New constituencies mean the state should find $50,000 or so for each of all our 275 parliamentarians as car loans. The money involved for the additional 45 Members of Parliament could have been used to buy ambulance to serve our depleted healthcare delivery service. The state must find more money to break up the chamber of parliament and engage in some magical architectural seating re-arrangements to make it possible to accommodate the new members. That money could have gone a long way to provide needed drugs for our health institutions. The state must find money to pay the additional salaries of the members for the next four years. The money involved could have been used to expand our teaching hospitals to enable them to increase admission of qualified students who are rotting in their parents’ homes because of lack of opportunities.
The state must find more money to rent office accommodation for the members. That money could have been used to improve facilities at the parliament house for the existing members. After four years, the state must find money to pay off the 28-month salary for each of the 275 members as ex-gratia. That money could be used to pay the overdue allowances to our overworked striking health professionals to keep them quiet, busy and close to the consulting rooms where they rightly belong. The state must find more money to pay the air fares, hotel accommodation and overnight allowances for the extra 45 members for the numerous trips our parliamentarians make the year round; trips which bring no added value to the course of the ordinary man. That money could have been used to build residential accommodation for health professionals in some deprived electoral constituencies waiting to be created.
By using a spurious formula in creating new constituencies, Dr. Afari-Gyan is encouraging presidents with narrow parochial interests only in the welfare of their parties and disregarding the broader national interest to create new districts in the stronghold of their respective parties, leading to additional parliamentary seats in their party strongholds. President Atta Mills’s NDC administration mischievously and displaying scant patriotic sentiments jumped the gun and created new electoral constituencies and districts where his party has strongholds. That is the economic folly and financial loss to the nation in the creation of more districts by President Kufuor, only for President Mills, guided by blind and narrow perceived political advantage, to follow suit in creating additional 42 districts.
The almighty unfettered powers of the President and the Electoral Commission to create districts and parliamentary constituencies on their own, without thinking of the national interests and without any apparent coordination and consultation, are very dangerous and bound to be misused to the detriment of the whole nation by persons with poor sense of judgment, myopic love for power and exaggerated importance of themselves who find themselves occupying the glorious and exalted positions of President and Chairman of the Electoral Commission. Our experience during the “Fourth Republic” clearly sends signals to us the danger of giving enormous powers to people with poor sense of judgment with parochial partisan political considerations and unduly headstrong attitude towards national issues. It must be made clear that it is a completely fraudulent and false argument that the creation of new districts and constituencies brings development closer to the people as has been argued by both President Kufuor’s NPP administration and President Atta Mills-Mahama’s NDC administration.
It is a politically dishonest argument which both President Kufuor’s NPP administration and President Atta Mills-Mahama’s NDC administration have used to bring greater misery to the people. Such creation rather acts as vampire bats that suck the precious blood of the rural people, denying them the needed funds which could have provided needed social amenities like borehole and health posts. Corrupt district chief executives (DCEs) controversially imposed on the people have been encouraged by The Castle to use their uncouth native intelligence to fleece the citizens they are supposed to serve, of the resources which could have been used to ameliorate their poverty.
These DCEs, who are illegally amassing massive personal wealth like immovable properties, are the main development beneficiaries when President Kufuor’s NPP administration and President Mills-Mahama’s NDC administration used illogical and untenable arguments of bringing development closer to the people to create new district assemblies while denying the same people their right to elect their own DCEs. I hope the people of this country will learn lessons from the past and subject the 1992 Republican Constitution, with the view to ridding it of any excessive impudent baggage. We must see, understand and appreciate and give more credence to the economic and financial aspects of our constitution rather than the excessive importance we have given to the legal aspects.
Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, so far you have shown gross disrespect to all the voices of reason and pieces of cogent sensible Solomonic advices and words of wisdom offered in bounteous forms from persons of goodwill and from the various religious pulpits. You have rather chosen to behave like an NDC party card bearer, ready and willing to make yourself and the entire country a cannon fodder for the evil machinations of the NDC. By your actions and the unexplained and untimely sudden death of President Mills, the time has come for persons to be either elected or appointed into key constitutional positions to be subjected not only to extensive medical examination but also be made to undergo clinical psychological examination before their appointments are confirmed.
Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, please look into the mirror in your bedroom, examine yourself very carefully, compare the image you see today with the image of you when you were first appointed as the Chairman of the Electoral Commission. Pause and reflect on the words of Shylock quoted above and note what happened to him when he bullishly and foolishly and heartlessly insisted on his pound of fresh; note that you yourself have any declared insurable pound of flesh known to the people of this country in this avoidable situation you have created. The politicians we have had have a wonderful and artful ways of getting spineless technocrats to do their biddings only to throw them away like some old dirty, torn disused handkerchief. A fool has said in his heart: There is no God. Willingness to consult is a mark of fortitude and intellectualism and not a mark of weakness. A word to the wise is enough. Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, I rest my case.
E-mail: makgyasi@ug.edu.gh
By Kwame Gyasi
