Where Are EC's 'Friends', The 18 CSOs when Ghana needs them in this Covid-19 Pandemic Fight?

Some Civil Society Organizations, numbering 18, not long ago, bared their teeth to the Electoral Commission when the latter served notice of moves to compile a new register for our elections.

The 18 CSOs include Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), IMANI Africa, SEND Ghana, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Youth Bridge Foundation, Financial Accountability and Transparency-Africa (FAT-Africa), West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC), Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Parliamentary Network Africa (PNA), ISODEC, Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA).

The group came out with some voodoo analysis which they said supported their stiff opposition to the EC spending $70 million to acquire equipment with the view to registering Ghanaians for elections.

Amongst other issues raised, the 18 CSOs said the reasons adduced by the EC to warrant the compilation of a new register were defective as they contended that the existing BVRs could be injected with technical fortifications to enable them carry out the exercises of registering the few Ghanaians who would be 18 to allow them to vote.

Though the EC's superior counter arguments ousted these weak positions of the 18 CSOs, they have since been loudly battling the Commission over the matter.

As avowed critics of the EC, one would like to believe that these CSOs have the country at heart and would not turn their backs to the nation in difficult times. They are too patriotic to leave the country in the lurch when we need them desperately.

Coronavirus has paid us a visit, an unwelcoming one at that. We have been wrestling with this alien of a virus in order to send it packing and return to wherever planet it journeyed from.

In major battles, victories, very much often, depend on reinforcements. Our reinforcements in this battle against coronavirus are donations to enable us acquire PPEs to deal with the pandemic.

The fervency with which these CSOs and think tanks were suffocating the Electoral Commission over the Commission's planned constitutional mandate should have informed them to hurriedly make their presences felt with huge donations.

Some may have made their donations, the larger chunk are yet to justify why we should give them audience as credible CSOs. We look forward to seeing the donations of these ardent critics and self-styled anti-corruption bodies in the coming days.

Every one of them should make a donation towards our own well-being. Without these donations, they would have no one to preach their sermons to since coronavirus may sweep all of us away in the coming months.