Ghana Has A Cheap Opposition Leader � Gabby Otchere-Darko

The Executive Director of policy think tank Danquah Institute, Asare �Gabby� Otchere-Darko has described Ghanaians as �lucky� to have a �cheap opposition leader,� weeks after a tension-filled election whose results are still being resolved. Gabby Otchere-Darko believes a more rabid opposition leader would have incited his supporters to take to the streets and violently challenged the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections but Nana Akufo-Addo has constantly urged his party members to stay off the streets and seek redress in the courts. �Ghanaians are lucky to have a cheap opposition leader in Nana Akufo-Addo, because he chose the cheaper option of going to the court and keeping the peace, rather than the more expensive option of telling his supporters to take to the streets and protest. �So yes, Ghanaians are lucky the main opposition leader chose the cheap option,� Gabby declared on Adom FM�s Dwaso Nsem morning show of Tuesday March 26, 2013 in response to an article in the Africa Watch magazine, which claimed that Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP were scheming to bring about chaos if the Supreme Court ruled against the party. He accused the New York City-based magazine of seeking to �cause mischief when there is no mischief�. Mr Otchere-Darko had also warned in an earlier article that major actors in the political sphere especially the National Peace Council (NPC), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) and others were guilty of shirking their responsibility to Ghanaians, by remaining silent in the face of the simmering tensions in the country. The Publisher of the New Statesman is particularly worried about the failure of civil society groups and other stakeholders to prepare the minds of the electorate to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, pointing out that whatever the outcome, one side of the political divide will feel aggrieved. Asare Otchere-Darko took particular issue with the Peace Council, wondering why they had gone so quiet so soon after the elections. Ghana, he said, is enjoying �negative peace� and �we are not preparing ourselves to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court. We are not doing it, we are all such quiet as if Ghana cannot experience any disturbances. �Perhaps the National Peace Council will only act when they see people violently protesting. They want to see a conflict before they act. �I doff my hat for them, they played a positive role in ensuring a peaceful election, but the election results are in dispute, and this is not the time to keep quiet.�