[ASU] Prosper, you gave the presidency away!

[Andrews Ofori-Birikorang]

Hello folks,
During the US presidential campaign in 2008 John McCain made a statement on
September 15, the gravity of which will cause him to give the presidency away
forever. In a response to the crisis facing the US economy he remarked " The
fundamentals of the economy are strong"... the rest is history. It was a
statement that turned several voters against McCain, a statement that I believe
he, up to now, regrets making on that September day. Critics summed it up by
saying "he was out of touch" with the realities on the ground.

In our own small world here in Athens during the ASU debate night Prosper made a
similar statement which I believe made a lot of people who, as he believed, had
been rooting silently for him to reconsider their choice of him as their
favorite candidate.

Prosper, was asked a very simple but fundamental question by the panel:"which
aspect of the ASU constitution will you like to see amended when voted into
power?" to which he responded "honestly I have not seen the constitution,..."
and went on to make a case for this blemish (the debate is on tape for
verification).It was a  statement which despite the sense of honesty with which
it was delivered did not strike a positive chord among the full house, and which
will eventually cause him the presidency no matter how close he was to winning
it. His opponent, Titus, made matters worse for him when in response to the same
question he shoved a copy of constitution into Prosper's hands and indicated to
him and other members that the ASU constitution can be found and downloaded from
the ASU website! Yes, ASU website!!!

Both responses from the two candidates proved that despite the enthusiasm that
surrounded his candidacy,  Prosper was clearly "out of touch" with the realities
of ASU. It was the lowest point of an otherwise good performance but it made all
the difference! It was so clear that Prosper did not fully prepare for the
debate or he took everything for granted. For me and probably others, two
questions emerged from this response: 

1)How can can a candidate seeking the highest office of an organization inform
its august body/members at such an important moment that he/she had not availed
himself of the very laws of the organization upon which he/she would use to
govern and still hope to be elected to lead them?  

2)How can a candidate come up to contest for the presidency if he/she, at the
material moment of the debate, did not know the very duties and responsibilities
he would be performing if elected into power, since these duties and
responsibilities can only be found in the constitution? And is it an issue that
we can easily gloss over?

Well, Prosper you have the right to contest the results but unless you still
believe that some stuff about ASU can still be taken for granted I believe your
current position of attempting to have the results annulled and hoping that it
will be re-conducted for you to be voted into power will be a fruitless exercise
and in vain. I wished you had used the post-election opportunity to help ASU
address some of the lapses you pointed out by conceding defeat and helping to
push the Africa agenda forward here at OU.   

As I said in the beginning, you enacted your own version of "the fundamentals of
the economy are strong" and it will be difficult for you to change the course of
history now. You gave the presidency away with that statement on that debate night!!

Please, kindly acknowledge your position as an ordinary member of ASU like the
majority of us have done by accepting the results and sparing all of us the
agony of having to add this election issue to an already existing headache of a
grueling campus and US life!!!   

Thanks, and God Bless Africa!

Andy

Quoting Ebenezer Malcalm <em283505 at ohio.edu>:

> Dear All,
> I have  been following the with keen interest the pre-election and
> post 
> elections discussions. I have decided to put across my candid opinion
> on 
> some of the comments of other colleagues. I think some of the
> comments are 
> too hash on Mr Tsikata. As future leaders, we have to tolerate others
> 
> opinion. I also think  dialogue can resolve the current impasse. I 
> therefore call on the current executive to convene an emergency
> meeting to 
> discuss the issues raised by Mr. Tsikata.  I was out of town on the 
> election day, for that for that matter, i can't comment on the
> procedure of 
> the election. But if it is true that the number of votes casts, were
> more 
> than the number of the voters, then there is fundamental problem.
> I trust the leadership of the current executives and hope they can
> deal 
> with the  problem. I would like to use the opportunity to appeal to
> all 
> members to tone down their comments.
> I rest my case.
> Respectfully,
> Ebenezer.
> 
> 
> --On Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:48 AM -0800 PY Tsikata 
> <pytsikata at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Members,
> >
> > Thank you George for responding to the issue of leadership without
> being
> > hostile, as some have done with the use of labels like ?arrogance?
> and
> > ?ignorance? and so on for what they disagree with. They couldn?t
> simply
> > state their opposition to a dissenting view without the ?flash?
> labels.
> > Indeed, this is what is expected of us in the academe, elucidating
> > without intimidating, dissenting without slighting, and offering
> > alternatives without being emotionally driven.
> >
> >
> >
> > I am glad that at least someone like you has been moved in the?
> last
> > beats of the dance? to question  who a future leader is and to
> proffer
> > your definition of what leadership is. I am grateful for that.
> >
> >
> >
> > Now, you should appreciate that I did not use the term ?future
> leaders?
> > to downgrade our respected members who have been in myriad of
> leadership
> > roles prior to returning to academe. I simply fell on the label for
> that
> > is the most convenient in this discussion. If for instance,
> Obasanjo and
> > Nujoma and many more top-level leaders, or teachers, community
> workers,
> > and salesmen decide to return to academe, in an address to the
> student
> > body Roderick will not address all this individuals one by one by
> their
> > varied former designations. There is a presumption that those seek
> > knowledge, by returning to academe, do so with the recognition that
> they
> > want to improve the clarity and precision of their lens in looking
> at the
> > world or in finding solutions to its mammoth problems in specific
> areas.
> > Proceeding from there, it is obvious that the future is not a
> static one;
> > it could be today, 10 years ago if that was tomorrow and even now
> as we
> > map the path for a better ASU. The bottom line is that the future
> is in a
> > continuum and we can only refer to intelligentsia as the hope for
> the
> > future and its membership as ?future leaders?.
> >
> >
> >
> > Let me assure you that we have not arrived at the ?last beats? of
> the
> > dance yet, when you decide to answer the questions I raised in my
> > petition about how the number of voter outnumbered the names on the
> list
> > and why some would decide to parade their ballots for others to
> see, then
> > you probably can have the last beats and the last dance.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank you and keep them coming.
> >
> >
> >
> > Prosper
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> Ebenezer Malcalm
> Ph.D Student
> Instructional Technology
> Ohio University
> 300 West State Street Apt.G-6
> Athens, 45701
> Ohio- USA
> 740 591 1165 (Cell)
> 740 593 3986 (Home)
> 
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