Electoral motivations
Madam Dzifa Attivor had said in the Ketu South District of the Volta Region that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was a tribalistic party with a track record of jailing Ewes.
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The former Minister of Transport called in aid Victor Selormey and Dan Abodakpi as examples of persons from the Volta Region who have been victims of government witch hunting.
So she has called on all from the region to do her a very very big favour: “I want to entreat you not (to) do anything for me and Fifi Kwetey to go to prison. It lies with you all to ensure that no Ewe person goes to prison. So I am pleading with you to work hard and deliver the 120,000 vote target for the party in the constituency.”
She is by no means the only person who holds such views. And just to be sure, the views expressed by the former minister reflect the fact that economics and prosperity is not the only factor that drives and informs voter choices.
Yes, it is true some people want roads. Yes, it is true some people want schools. Some others want hospitals and healthy drinking water.
Some want an enabling environment to develop and grow their business. Some others vote and make electoral decision just to avoid the arms of the law.
To be fair to Ms Attivor, any politician anywhere in the world, including the Ghanaian opposition, would foresee such a thing happening - a new government steps in to power and then begins to be all saintly by prosecuting top officials in the former administration for various offences. But that is the very essence of accountability.
Indeed, winning power is a form of political insurance and prosecution insulator. There is no way some persons are going to go to jail no matter what they do - having in mind that the Attorney-General is a government functionary entrusted with the power to initiate criminal proceedings.
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The next truth that can be taken away from Ms Attivor’s statement is that indeed there is selectiveness in the prosecution of corruption related offence.
Why should an Ewe not be jailed under the current regime? Does it mean that this regime serves as a haven for some persons just because of who they are and where they come from?
Indeed, her statement makes nonsense of all that the President has been saying over the years on his fight against corruption.
In the last State of the Nation Address, the President, John Mahama, noted: “We cannot be adherents of constitutional democracy and be admirers of arbitrary justice. I wish to emphasise the commitment of my administration to take action on allegations of corruption that is brought to our attention.”
The President further noted: “Sweeping and generalised conclusions drawn on the basis of scanty and often misleading information ought to be guarded against. Corruption has serious implications for any society’s advancement. For that reason the push against it cannot, and must not be ceded to those whose only motivation is electoral advantage.”
If what the President said is anything to go by, the former minister’s role in the Smarty’s bus branding deal should be under intense judicial scrutiny - especially when the Attorney General had issued a report which pointed to some wrong doings in the bus branding saga.
This case clearly does not come within the remit of “sweeping and generalised conclusions.” The Attorney General has reached her own conclusions and even some money have been refunded under the deal.
It should not matter, therefore, whether Ms Attivor is an Ewe or not. If any subsequent government feels that she has issues to respond to, then so be it.
Did she speak too early? Why was she drawing other ministers into this? Considering how far we have come; and the robust nature of our judiciary over the years, I doubt if any government can successfully set out to prosecute persons from a particular ethnic group without cause.
It would indeed be a fool’s errand. The world has changed a lot. It would have been in her interest to encourage her audience to simply partake in the limited voter registration by the Electoral Commission; rather than using fear and self-serving examples as reasons why the people of Ketu South should partake in the limited registration process.
The politics that pitches one group against the other should at all cost be desisted from; or creates a sense that a group is vulnerable because of another group, should be discouraged at all cost. It is usually laden with nothing but pure and unadulterated self-interest.
In the case of Ms Attivor, everyone should remember her motivations for the election - it is not about roads; it is not about schools; it is not about education standards in general.
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It is about her. It is about her contemplating way before anything happens that she may have her day in court.