The chairman, Mr. Brimah has managed to overstay in office for the past year. Whenever members call for elections, they are labeled with bad names, insulted, and verbally abused. When some members finally garnered the courage and called for elections this year, the chairman, Mr. Abdul Brimah, who was elected in May of 2007 for a two-year term decided to wrestle all opposition by fair or foul means. The general membership of the Organization which has the final authority in the decision-making of the organization accepted five volunteers in November last year to conduct free and fair elections for executive positions. The chairman will neither allow the electoral committee to work independently nor allow the constitution of the organization to be used to decide candidates who qualify to stand for the elections. Apparently, he has his own hidden rules and agenda that must leave him unopposed! The first report the electoral committee presented in March this year did not go down well with the chairman. That meeting ended in confusion, name-calling, and abusive language. The following meetings after that ended similarly!
The electoral committee declared that Brimah’s opponent is qualified to run for the position of chairman of the organization based on the constitution and the financial records submitted by the executives headed by Brimah. Mr. Brimah would, however, not accept that decision. He wanted to pick the referees and judges for his election bid, hence, the decision by the independent-minded electoral committee enraged him. The electoral committee’s decision brought the wrath of the self-righteous chairman. He unilaterally disbanded the electoral committee, though the electoral committee was approved by the members of the organization who are the highest adjudicators in matters of the organization. The chairmen ridiculously claim that he nominated the electoral committee to the membership for approval, so he has the right to remove them! Why didn’t he propose their dismissal to the members if he had earlier proposed the committee members to be approved? Where is his moral standing?!
The chairman, Mr. Brimah, and his protégés were demanding that the traditional council members be elected the same day as the executive members else the elections of new executive officers would not go on as planned by the electoral committee! The Ga-Adangbe constitution does not support the stand taken by the chairman to stall the elections till he ends up as the only candidate on the ballot.
As a matter of fact, not until the previous chief of the Ga-Adangbe Community Organization, Nii Lante Okunka Blebodzan relieved himself of the position due to illness; he had “reigned” graciously for over 18 years without being re-elected! Until the constitution is amended, the electoral committee is right in their assertion that the rules as they are now do not warrant the re-elections of the royal court! There is no time frame in the constitution for their service. In traditional Ga culture, a chief does not succumb to periodic re-elections. To show how dire the chairman wants to keep a strong hold on his position, he was in a brawl with his opponent, a lady, in an attempt to prevent her from speaking at a recent meeting! Mr. Brimah ended up scratching and twisting the lady’s finger in his obvious rage! One can now easily predict that he and his cronies will continue the “sayoo” behavior till they have their way. As if rehearsed to appeal to the chairman, other supporters of the chairman verbally abuse this lady without any justification at the meeting! Brimah did not ask them to put a stop to that appalling and disgraceful behavior! For years, members of the Ga-Adangbe organization have been demanding their leader’s transparency and accountability but those requests were always met with intimidation, anger, heckling and what have you. Members of the organization were shocked when they discovered recently that it was a common practice among their leaders to give “sweetheart” deals to their spouses when it comes to membership dues payment. The spouses of the executives were paying 90 dollars instead of the 120 dollars a year stipulated in the constitution. One problem we have as a people is that some in leadership positions falsely assume that without them the organizations they lead cannot survive! They do not realize that the organizations they are leading have already run out of ideas and progress and can be better if they embrace new ideas and leadership.
It is believed that a former executive member is behind the chaos Ga-Adangbe Organization is experiencing now. We hope and pray that level heads will prevail in the Ga-Adangbe organization sooner than later so that free and fair elections can be held to restore sanity.
The unity, peace, and progress of the Ga-Adangbe and all other organizations in the community must prevail. We wish all the organizations in Chicago well in their endeavor to create a better community for all of us.
Source: Kwasi A. Mensah, Chicago.
