Judiciary trustworthy, freedoms limited: Biggest lessons from Petition hearing

A lecturer in Political Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has pointed out what he says are two outstanding lessons Ghanaians must live by from the Supreme Court’s hearing of the petition challenging the outcome of the 2012 presidential elections.

According to Aminu Dramani, the lessons are that as a nation, Ghanaians still have a trustworthy judiciary reliable enough to run to for redress, and the fact that freedom of expression is not limitless.

“One big positive lesson that I would like to mention is the fact that at least we could trust our judicial system. Again it has made us realise that, yes we have our freedom to express ourselves, there are limitations to that freedom. We cannot carry that freedom across somebody else’s freedom.

“These are lessons we should carry with us and then realise that whatever we are doing, we have some limitations and then the courts are where we should go and seek redress.”

Aminu Dramani who was speaking on Radio Gold on Thursday, said should the petitioners, led by 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have chosen the other ‘ugly’ option of violence, “we all know the consequences”.

While admitting that he could not follow all the proceedings because of his work, one other lesson from the proceedings that is clearly etched in his mind is that humility pays, recalling how Stephen Atuguba’s show of remorse when being heard on contempt of court charges, mitigated the punishment he would have suffered.

He however said calls for a review of the law of contempt of court should be carefully evaluated and if found useful, why not, we should go ahead and reform the laws and improve them to make us a better society instead of allowing the laws to enslave us.

He implored political and opinion leaders to help educate their followers to accept the verdict of the court at the end of the hearing, saying it remains a key assignment particularly for political party leaders towards their followers.

“I’ve always said that we thank God this matter went to court in the first place, at the time that the temperature was very, very hot. The court issue if you look at it critically has showered some returns on the temperature and brought it down. Whether the temperature will continue to go down even after the pronouncement of the court will depend particularly leaders of the various political parties and commentators on radio that is the media as a whole.

“What we say, what we tell our followers, what we try to plant in the minds of our followers are very, very important at this time. At this time we should go ahead and preach peace to them, we should go ahead and let them realise that because we had respect and we had trust in the court, that was why we went to court in the first place. So let’s uphold this trust we have for the court even after its pronouncement. This way the followers will know this is the position of their leaders, media will continue to educate people for the need to uphold the peace we are enjoying now. We don’t want to experience what others have experienced. Let’s continue to demonstrate that our democracy is maturing. In fact we are able to go through this test, I believe that it will add a big plus to the already democratic credentials we have as a nation.”

Former deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, cautioned the public that the case was still undecided and urged circumspection in the discussions the danger of contempt of court still looms.


Story by Isaac Yeboah/Graphic.com.gh/Ghana