Spawning Monsters (Thinking Aloud)

A in the months before we entered the Fourth Republic, Prof. Kweku Gumye Folson, a former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, noted that the country had the choice to do away with revolutionary sentiments or carry with them the revolutionary fervour. 

He, however, pointed out that if we entered the constitutional democracy with revolutionary fervour, it would be difficult for us to follow the rule of law and due process.

That is why we must not do anything to garnish reckless irresponsible conduct and any violent act as lawful or having legality. It is unfortunate that at the vetting of the Minister designate for the Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice,  Dr Dominic A. Ayine, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Bernard Ahiafor, my classmate of the Law Class 2002 at the Ghana School of Law; the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Armah-Kofi Buah, Mahama Ayariga, my SRC president at the Ghana School of Law, and the Majority Chief Whip, Governs Agbodza, tried to justify the reckless, wanton and violent seizures of public institutions by supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), with the chairperson making reference to an irresponsible statement made by Mr Freddie Blay, then acting chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2017, and read by Hon. Ayariga, justifying such reprehensible conduct.
 

Bestialism

What is worse, there was the irreverent, disingenuous and damnable anchoring of the bestialism under Article 41(f).

The article provides that "The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations and accordingly, it shall be the duty of every citizen to protect and preserve public property and expose and combat misuse and waste of public funds and property".

Therefore, for anybody, much more honourable Members of Parliament, to in any way defend impunity as legitimate, is, to say the least unfortunate.

During the change-over of government in 2017, when irresponsible supporters of the NPP footsoldiers, as such supporters are derogatory referred to, all well-meaning Ghanaians including leadership of the NDC at various levels, justifiably and legitimately condemned the violence.

Indeed, those who care to know can make reference to the Daily Graphic, to read what I wrote about those destructive developments that have roots only in revolutionary sentimentality but are alien to the rule of law and due process.

Such conduct brings to mind the prognosis by Prof. Folson and makes democratic governance difficult.

Spawn

I pray that we do not spawn monsters, who will grow and enmesh us at a later date.

What I wanted to hear from Dr Ayine, no matter how irritating and irrelevant the question about the Operation Recover All Loot Committee, was to have simply agreed that at the time it was set up, President John Dramani Mahama did not have the power or authority to have done so and, therefore, he will ensure that the right thing is done when he is approved.

This is important because we do not want to wake up one day and hear that the work of the ORAL committee was unlawful and, thus, void.

If the process had gone this way, there would not have been the temptation for those honourable MPs to have waded into justifying conduct that we all agree is not acceptable for good democratic constitutional governance.

This is imperative because Article 41(b) enjoins Ghanaians to understand that, “The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations and accordingly it shall be the duty of every citizen to uphold and defend the Constitution and the law".

More important, the vetting process happened after the leadership of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) had complained that the reckless acts of the NDC supporters in taking over public offices and ejecting lawful tenants from their bona fide homes were against the law and due process as provided for under Article 41(d) to the effect that, "The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms are inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations and accordingly it shall be the duty of every citizen to respect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of others and generally to refrain from doing acts detrimental to the welfare of other persons".

Rita Mac Brown maintains that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to be different" while G. Santayana says "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Siegfried adds another dimension when he submits that, "The human animal is the only one on earth so intelligent that it can actually learn to be stupid".

Since I vividly recollect how well-meaning Ghanaians condemned the recklessness committed by NPP supporters which was a reaction to what happened in 2009 and I was privileged to have expressed my views against the development in both periods, not only verbally but in writing, I cannot sit by that eight years after the NPP deviants undermined the peace of this country, there would be some MPs, elected representatives of the people, willing and ready to defend irresponsibility and garnish it with constitutional provisions.

We cannot continue to give credence to Siegfried. 

Another thing, the Ada Traditional Council has openly blamed some leaders of the NDC for the vandalism at the offices of Electrochem for making comments that if the NDC won the elections, upon the swearing-in of President John Dramani Mahama, they would take back their land. The consequence is what has happened.

There are also supporters of the party in the Okaikoi Central Constituency who are causing destruction and blocking roads because of the propaganda of their leaders who did not properly explain the decision of the Supreme Court as regards the winners of the four constituencies that went to court on a mandamus action.

Explain

If the legal process had objectively and accurately been explained to them, there would have been no need for the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Nii Ashie Moore, to hold a meeting with the party supporters and ask them to calm down and let them go through the legal process.

Even when the legal team knew that service on the adversaries had not been completed, the atmosphere was saturated with accusations of contempt of court.

No wonder, a lawyer, Kwame Juantuah, could sit on TV3 moments before the swearing-in of the MPs and boldly assert allegations of contempt against the four beneficiary MPs from the mandamus application.

He equally condemned the leadership of Parliament for allowing such an illegality to go through.

Now that the facts have been established and the NDC has pleaded with the court to adjourn indefinitely to enable service to be done on the said MPs, would he be humble enough to apologise to our people for offering a misleading and wrong legal opinion?

We must be careful not to spawn deviant monsters that could end up sabotaging and hijacking our constitutional democracy and enmeshing us in a rule of brawn and might rather than of brain and law.