Is God writing on our crooked lines?

Don’t believe those who say we are a middle-income country! Nothing shows that we are, apart from the official statistics.

Middle-income countries are not as dirty — and we are.

Not all the moustache of Oko Vanderpuye, the hugeness of Henry Quartey or the cluelessness of Lydia Seyram Alhassan has been able to create sanitation consciousness among the people.

Shopping malls filled with 99 per cent imported goods affordable to and patronised by less than five per cent of the population; Europe and USA=style multi-layered high-rise apartments whose rents are calculated in dollars per square metre. That is not development; it is a fallacy.

Having said that, I move to Topic Number One.

Carpet-Crossing saga

I viewed the viral video of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo preaching in her church last Sunday. I scrolled further down to read the comments of netizens. Shocking!

Pouring on her their venom and contempt, the people are blaming her for leading the Supreme Court (SC) to deliver last week’s verdict on the Minority Leader’s injunction application to set aside the Speaker’s ruling in the Carpet-Crossing saga.

I am told that judges do not defend their judgement in public, no matter the provocation. We cannot all be lawyers, but some level of understanding of the legal processes would improve the health of our public discourse.

Once upon a time, GTV had a weekly programme, ‘You And The Law’ in which controversial points of the law were dramatised and explained. 

The Judicial Service could make ‘Public Education on the Law’ a line item in their annual budget. Alternatively, it could approach one or two radio/TV stations for airtime.

Aside from taming extremism, public legal education should be able to explain, for instance, why it took less than 24 hours to decide to hear last week’s ex-parte Carpet Crossing injunction application, when that on the LGBTQI++ Bill has crawled for six months at the SC and there is still no end in sight. 

Exposed

This week’s discussions on the Carpet Crossing saga have further exposed the extreme polarised nature of our society.

In Ghana today, even the Law is read and interpreted with partisan lenses, even by very senior lawyers we had hitherto considered neutral.

Be that as it may, I want to ask if everybody involved in the debate heard or read the submissions of Mr Justice Atuguba, the retired SC Judge, on the issue.

Quoting Article 91 (i) of the 1992 Constitution, his position is that “it was legally wrong to invoke the Supreme Court in the Parliamentary vacant set controversy.”

Of course, I am not attempting to place his knowledge above that of the five Justices who sat on the case, but my humble question really is: was the intent and purpose of this Article (un)known to whoever accepted the case for hearing by the Apex Court?

Should the CJ not have asked Afenyo Markin to re-route his application, knowing the finality of a SC decision?

It is the reason why I insist that ex-parte motions, especially for injunctions in such cases that affect governance in an extremely polarised society such as five Justices who sat on the case, but my humble question really is: was the intent and purpose of this Article (un)known to whoever accepted the case for hearing by the Apex Court?

Should the CJ not have asked Afenyo Markin to re-route his application, knowing the finality of a SC decision?

It is the reason why I insist that ex-parte motions, especially for injunctions in such cases that affect governance in an extremely polarised society such as Ghana, must be handled with a little less haste. 

Disruptive finality

I wrote on this page last week and I repeat, that knowing the absolute power which SCs hold over our lives, and the disruptive finality of their decisions in constitutional matters, the granting of ex-parte motions could be abused to block discussion or action on any issue even before Mr Speaker has opened his mouth.

Again, as I did last week, I cite the example of the LGBTQI+ Bill. Two injunction applications were filed in April this year, a day or so after Parliament passed the Bill.

Since then, further action on the Bill has been stopped, allowing the President (any President) the comfort of citing the pendency of the injunctions as an excuse to have his/her personal or partisan will to prevail.

And now, readers, I will take a break from the judicial tumult.

My final topic this week is to remind us all about what God has been doing with us since June 4, 1979.
 

Ghanaian story

God is writing the Ghanaian story. His aim is to make a paradise out of our present Third World status, but to do that He must first straighten us up to live a life that brings Him glory.

It is often said that God writes straight with/on crooked lines. His handwriting is legible but our lives, as Ghanaians, form a crooked line.

How often did God not desire to write straight on the crooked lines of biblical Israel? In their extreme disobedience, God gave them over to their enemies.

Will Ghana be handled differently? Can the daily (almost hourly) sermons on radio/TV provide God a smoother surface to write Ghana’s story?

Unsurprisingly, not one of our presidential candidates has a word on morality in their manifestos — in spite of holy hands by bishops, prophets and Imams being placed on them. 

The writer is Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture.

E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com