We need both Anas and Martin Amidu
It is said that, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. And so it is that as these two crusaders of anti-corruption continue to 'fight', we the 'grass' continue to suffer.
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Both Martin Amidu and Anas Aremeyaw Anas have become institutions. They have become reference points in the fight against corruption. They have been fearless. And they have sacrificed comfort and their lives to do what they have done.
We all know who Martin Amidu is. He is well-versed in the law and brooks no nonsense. Having been a long-standing former Attorney-General, he knows how to fight corruption in the law courts with some devastating effects. Under normal circumstances that's the way to go.
But we also know that bribery and corruption is not practiced in the open and that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain evidence to confront the perpetrators. In fact, we have all heard people in authority, including two former presidents, demand evidence before investigations or prosecutions can be conducted.
Through our daily dealings with our state institutions mandated to fight corruption, we also know that they cannot be trusted to carry out their duties without fear or favour, sometimes through no fault of theirs but sometimes too through outright corruption themselves. And how can you trust the police when cocaine can disappear from a high-security-CCTV-covered vault at the Police Headquarters and not be found up to date?
In fact, if these state security institutions were working proactively and without bias or political influence, most of these cases of corruption would probably not have occurred. Don't we all live in this country? Don't we all hear rumours about corruption everywhere? So how come we hardly hear about arrests and prosecutions.
And this is where Anas comes in. How else would anyone be caught in the act unless through subterfuge? This is practiced all over the world by journalists and other private individuals , sometimes setting up phoney businesses and companies in order to entrap the criminals. And it usually starts with rumours about a wrongdoing somewhere.
Do we remember the case in which some Ghanaian sports administrators were almost entrapped in match-fixing just before the last World Cup? If your heart and hands are clean, no amount of entrapment can trap you.
Therefore, in the kind of environment we operate, we need people like Anas to do covert operations while the likes of Amidu also do their overt part.
As far as I am concerned, both are complementary of each other. Amidu's style is good but that can only scratch the surface of the canker as he himself would confirm.
If any one of them succeeds in discrediting or destroying the other, I bet my last cedi that the battle against corruption would have been lost.
Already some people are seizing the current Amidu attacks on Anas to ensure that nobody is punished based on technicalities even though the evidence is incontrovertible.
I am therefore entreating both Anas and Amidu to cease fire. If not, their years of anti-corruption work would have been meaningless and we, the people, the grass, would be the losers.