Why are some New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaders trying to stampede the Electoral Commission (EC) into declaring the results of yesterday's presidential election - when the electoral body is still in the process of collating results from across the country?
No one can can steal an election in today's Ghana - and all the NPP's leaders know that. So why are some of them trying to create the impression that somehow something untoward is occurring, as regards the results of the presidential election?
The question is: Why the unseeming haste to claim a 'victory' that is theirs - if they really believe that their candidate has actually won the presidential election? Would they be making the same absurd demands if their candidate was trailing his main opponent at this stage? Certainly not, if truth be told.
There is not a single EC official who is not conscious of the fact that they could be dragged before the law courts if they don't follow the rules and regulations governing their work religiously.
Caution is their watchword as far as the electoral processes are concerned - and we all know why: as the Supreme Court case challenging the results of the 2012 presidential election, brought against the EC, by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the late Jake Okanta Obestebi-Lamptey and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, is still fresh in the memories of many Ghanaians.
And, lest we forget, this is a nation of laws, after all. And according to the electoral laws governing the process this year, it is only the chairperson of the Electoral Commission - the returning officer for the presidential election - who can declare the winner of that election.
The NPP says it is committed to the rule of law.
If that committment is genuine then let the more mature and responsible individuals in the upper echelons of the NPP, stop the disgaceful demands being made by their inexperienced and hotheaded party colleagues - who are creating an unnecessary crisis: when the country is not actually in a crisis situation.
Let the John Boadus, the Sammy Awukus and the Peter MacManus keep their mendacity in check in this matter - and for once stop making unfounded allegations: about South African and Israeli companies supposedly colluding with EC officials to deny them their 'victory' in the presidential election.
That allegation is pure nonsense on bamboo stilts - and it erodes their party's credibility with discerning and independent-minded Ghanaian patriots.
The Sammy Awukus, the Peter MacManus and John Boadus must forget about pulling off the late Jake Obestebi-Lamptey's successful 2004 post-election power-grab - for none of them has the same brilliant mind Jake had. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
If victory is really his, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo will be able to claim that victory, as soon as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission announces the results of the presidential election. Not before.
That is why Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo must ask all his party colleagues in leadership positions in the NPP to be disciplined and to belt up - and have the decency and patience to wait for the EC's chairperson to declare the actual final results of the presidential election.
The NPP's press conferences making demands on the EC in that regard must cease forthwith. Ghana is not a banana republic. No one can steal this year's presidential election. Period.
Neither will any political party be allowed to intimidate Ghanaians and force the EC to hand an undeserved victory to its presidential candidate through street protests and violence. Is the voice of the people not supposed to be the voice of God - so why are those who say "The battle is the Lord's" apprehensive if truth is on their side?
If the NPP has waited for eight long years for just such a polling-day outcome, surely, they can wait for a few more hours - as the EC completes the arduous task of collating the results of yesterday's presidential election from across the nation?
The pressure being put on the EC by some of the NPP 's leaders is totally unnecessary - and it also undignified and uncalled for. Even as we speak, are election results not still coming in from collation centres across the nation?
How possibly can the chairperson of the EC lawfully declare the results of the presidential election in such circumstances?
Let the Peter MacManus, the Sammy Awukus and John Boadus be clear about one thing: Those now in power have a legal responsibility to protect the Republic and ordinary people in Ghana between now and 7th January, 2017, when a new president is sworn into office. One doubts very much if they will shirk that responsibility in the face of any growinlg chaos across the country, instigated by extremists in the NPP.
If the hotheads in the NPP's leadership escalate things, and violence by their party's myrmidon-supporters breaks out anywhere in Ghana - because the EC is following the electoral laws as it works towards announcing the results of the presidential election - the blame will be laid squarely at their feet: and they will be dealt with firmly and severely for inciting any such violence.
The NPP - a party that says it believes in the rule of law - can claim its 'victory' in the presidential election, at the appropriate time. Let the party's leaders wait for that time to come. Why the rush to claim a 'victory' supposedly in the bag - so to speak? Haaba.
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