Is there order in this chaos?
If I had the chance to ask President Akufo-Addo anything with reference to his presidency and current happenings, I am very sure he will say something akin to what Dr Arthur Kennedy recorded in his famous book on the fate of the New Patriotic Party’s unsuccessful 2008 campaign.
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President Akufo-Addo, then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, lamented that he could not in good conscience turn away his supporters who fuel their own vehicles, buy their own food and accommodation, and follow him around, thus creating long, cumbersome convoys which to voters, is a shameless display of wanton profligacy.
In short, this response, in 2008, captured the problems politicians face from their own supporters and lovers who would not factor into their carefree passion for their man and party, the harm they do to their cause in the estimation of the general public.
I daresay this is what is exactly happening to the government and party of President Akufo-Addo; an overabundance of love channeled into extremely unsavoury conduct threatening the personal reputation of the President as a noted legal gladiator, and this country’s progress.
Freed Delta Force members
But as always happens with columnists, this is really not what was going to be the fare for my readers today; the unexpected freedom granted the Delta Force members freed by a Kumasi court for lack of evidence. Last week for example, I had planned to write on the expected unexpected victory of Marine Le Pen as President of France and had prepared to regale readers with the gloomy prospects of that victory with reference to us as citizens of the world. But we all heaved a sigh of relief when Monsieur Macron rather handily won. I note with amusement that there is some connection to us in all these seemingly foreign events. Will the government of President Akufo-Addo make available to these anti-immigrant parties winning elections the names of undocumented Ghanaians who had registered to vote in these countries?
May 15 uprising
Again, this week, I had planned a broad overview of the career and impact of the soldier living in exile in Zimbabwe, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, who ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist from 1974 to 1991 when he was chased away from power by a ragtag liberation force which had fought his murderous regime to a standstill for years. Next Sunday, Mengistu would be 80 years old. The relevance? I am very certain that many of us have conveniently forgotten that President J.J. Rawlings made a reference to ‘’going the Ethiopian way’’ in his statement following his abortive May 15, 1979 coup attempt and the subsequent court-martial. It was this trial which was forcibly aborted by lovers and supporters of Flt. Lt. Rawlings which led to the establishment of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council regime in 1979.
The immediate relevance of the threat posed by the unchecked actions of overzealous lovers and supporters, however, is to be found just next door in our western neighbor Cote d’Ivoire Coast. There former rebels who supported current President Allasane Ouattara on his way to power, affirmed in his recent comfortable re-election, are rioting with arms for the payment of promised bonuses. This is a most dangerous development in West Africa with ramifications in the sub-region no one can predict with certainty but very unwelcome to us.
But what happened in Kumasi last Wednesday should also persuade us all beyond doubt that the law is a political tool, nothing more or less, and the office of the Chief Justice is a political office of state.
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Unfortunately, our newly-nominated Chief Justice my Lord Sophia, is somebody I have not even set eyes on before. From what I hear that she is a product of a Presbyterian manse and also of Wesley Girls High School, that excellent institution for young women who aspire to great heights just like the current holder of the office Her Ladyship Georgina Wood, I am persuaded that she would give a good account of herself. It is a political high office of state, so we should brace ourselves for a contentious vetting process.
However, my faithful readers will recall I disagreed with the outcome in court, of the Montie Three contempt case over which she presided last year. For anybody who believes in fundamental human rights, I think it is logical to include in that belief, an abhorrence of the slightest idea that speech can and must be criminalised, whether in respect of politicians or of judges, or any other citizen of the republic.
I am only amused by the acrobatics of journalists who openly supported the incarceration of the Montie Three for reasons which appear to me contemptible and risible. Personally, therefore, that would seem to be my area of disagreement with our incoming Chief Justice, though I must quickly add that, she presided over a panel.
Justice Fred Apaloo
What struck me moreover, is the ‘’fact’’ loudly proclaimed by some of her deluded supporters, that the chance for Justice Jones Dotse who was not chosen, would have been the first person from the Volta Region to have been made Chief Justice. This is a white lie. The late Fred Apaloo was chief justice from 1977 to 1986, spanning four military and one constitutional regimes, and left office to become the chief justice of Kenya. Justice Apaloo’s record has been equaled by another Ghanaian, also a woman, also a Wesley Girls’ High School product, who served in that position in The Gambia under the mercurial Yaya Jammeh.
The circumstances surrounding the elevation of the late Apaloo in 1977, who by the way, was my very good friend from my Legon days, were very funny, but wholly true. General Kutu Acheampong had removed Chief Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe from office because those opposing him in the Union Government referendum campaign, both the students and members of the professional bodies, had suggested that Acheampong leave office and hand over the baton to Justice Azu Crabbe. The inference in the mind of General Acheampong was that Justice Crabbe was in cahoots with opponents of the regime, so he sacked him.
In all these matters, the twists and turns of our history in the 70s and 80s, our current President played an important part. He was the lead counsel for Dr Amoako-Tufuor in 1980 when the government of President Hilla Limann sought to remove Justice Apaloo from office as Chief Justice. He was the secretary of the Peoples’ Movement for Freedom and Justice in 1977 which led the civilian opposition to the Union Government concept of General Acheampong. The inference, therefore, would be that constitutional order, the rule of law, the practice of civilised democratic politics, and the exhibition of unbounded tolerance for dissent first and foremost in his own party would flourish if ever he had the opportunity to lead this country. This is because the current chaos in the land is the result of unchecked but harmful love of some of his supporters, lawlessness and impunity. This is creating the chaos in governance that his life is a testimony against.
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