The recent decision by the United States Embassy to restrict politicians and individuals who will attempt to undermine Ghana’s democracy ahead of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, is highly commendable and a step in the right direction.
This decisive decision will not only help promote peace and stability in Ghana, but will also reduce political violence and eventually force unscrupulous politicians to think and act right in the upcoming elections.
However, this reporter has discovered that this decision by the US Government through its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was just an enforcement or implementation of a recommendation from a research work by a Ghanaian professor and peace advocate, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Yao Nash.
The good Professor between 2014 and 2016 undertook a research work ahead of Ghana’s 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections and strongly made a passionate call on the various embassies in the country to stop issuing traveling Visas to politicians until the December 7 polls were conducted.
His recommendation to the various embassies was extensively captured by the media and was also published on GRAPHIC ONLINE on October 15, 2016 under the headline: “Withhold Visa for politicians till elections”. Rev. Professor Nash was of the view that “when politicians know that they cannot leave the country at any point in time during this election period, they will be decent in whatever they do or say”.
Knowing how tedious and costly it is for an institution or individual to conduct such a comprehensive research in all the region of Ghana, this reporter deems it highly unfair for the American Embassy to deny Rev. Professor Nash and his team the needed recognition and appreciation.
It is his intellectual property and must not be taken for granted. This reporter has a fair knowledge about how the US Embassy in Ghana failed to support the research work of this Professor, and how they [the embassy] also failed to attend the official launch of the Ghana Peace Awards (GPA) ceremony in 2016. The GPA, was an initiative born out of the research recommendations to reward individuals and institutions who were committed to ensuring peace in Ghana especially before, during and after elections.
Astonishingly, the US Embassy upon realizing the importance and practicability of Rev. Professor Nash’s research recommendation, is going about placing visa restrictions on other nations ahead of their elections. The Embassy through Secretary Antony Blinken has unduly adopted the idea and implemented it not only in Ghana but in many other countries across the world to restrict key political actors and individuals from securing US visas ahead of their elections. In June 2023 the US Embassy announced a visa restriction policy under the Immigration and Nationality Act for undermining the democratic process in Sierra Leone claiming that the decision reflects the commitment of US government to support the developing country’s aspiration to have free and fair elections that demonstrates the will of the people and strengthen democracy and rule of law.
Similar restrictions were placed on Bangladesh on May 3, 2023 and Liberia on September 27, 2023 by the same US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ahead of their elections.
Implementing the Rev. Professor Nash’s research recommendation is not a bad idea, but this reporter is of the view that an open endorsement, recognition and appreciation from the US Embassy and possible partnership with the Professor would give much more credibility to his future research works and would encourage him to do more for Ghana, Africa and the world at large.
Source: Edmond Gyebi, Accra
