Crass Impunity
Now, the battle lines are drawn, brain against brawn. The state security apparatus has decided that if the authorities of the University of Ghana will not surrender a better reason for a good one, then the law is an ass. Therefore, in the name of a state which has agreed to be governed by the rule of law, follow due process and constitutionalism, the National Security Coordinator states openly that following the legal process could be cumbersome and must be curtailed with impunity.
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That is why he could justify the unilateral action of deploying security personnel to vandalise structures put up by the University of Ghana on lands belonging to the university to collect tolls from vehicles which use its roads. To him, the use of force surreptitiously and under the cover of darkness is justified because the university authorities scoffed and ignored a plea from the Office of the President to suspend the collection of the tolls.
The notion held by some Ghanaians that anything that comes from the Office of the President must be obeyed, honoured and respected is not only wrong but elevates the office to a status of autocracy. Indeed, once Ghana adopted constitutional rule, that underlined the fact that all authority, including those provided under the presidency must be subservient to provisions of the constitution. Nowhere under the 1992 Constitution is the President said to be supreme to the constitution.
Indeed, Article 1(1) states unequivocally that “the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this constitution.” The supremacy of the constitution is, therefore, in no doubt.
Again, Article 58 (1), which vests executive authority in the President, provides that “the executive authority of Ghana shall vest in the President and shall be exercised in accordance with the provisions of this constitution.”
But then, even if the constitution vested the presidency with any authority, it would have frowned upon using force and violent acts to enforce respect for such authority. As Dr Martin Luther King has so succinctly put it; “if one is in search of a better job, it does not help to burn down the factory. If one needs more adequate education, shooting the principal will not help or if housing is the goal, only building and construction will produce that end. To destroy anything, person or property, cannot bring us closer to the goal we seek.”
What it means, therefore, is that if the intention is to prevail upon the authorities of the University of Ghana to stop the tolls, then the demolition of the structure is not the answer. There must be a more meaningful and functional way of engagement between the Office of the President and the University of Ghana Council.
If one may ask, assuming that the Office of the President wrote to the vice-chancellor advising against the tolls and that was scoffed, did that warrant the surreptitious demolition of the tollbooth without recourse to the university council, chaired by no less a person than recently retired Supreme Court Justice Mr S.K. Date-Bah, with Busumuru Kofi Annan as the Chancellor?
Under what and on whose authority did the national security apparatus act and for whose interest?
These are critical issues because today, illegality has been committed against Legon in the name of stopping road tolls. Some may be glad that the Legon authorities have been stopped by the Office of the President, but we must be concerned about the means of achieving that objective. We must not only be interested in the substance, but equally about the form. We need to live and give meaning to our constitution and professed faith in the rule of law and due process.
For as Dr Martin Luther King insists, all we say to Ghana is “be true to what you put on paper….. But somewhere, I read of freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of freedom of the press.” And somewhere I read of the autonomy of the University of Ghana and that it must initiate income-generating ventures.
That is the spirit with which Ghanaians must condemn the acts of the national security apparatus and side with the University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana.
My anticipation is that the university council would likewise condemn the impunity committed by National Security and, in consonance with our elders, we must tell those who think that they are above the law because they operate under the Office of the President that “monka hyen nkoduru na momma esum ntomo da.”
The university council must act now and decisively too. The vice-chancellor must be supported to resist the application of force to resolve a matter that must be dealt with through dialogue and open discussion.
What has happened touches at the core of our governance system and any protestation that we are a constitutional democracy where the rule of law, due process and constitutionalism work. Continuing with the toll means victory for the rule of law.