CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN POLITICS FOR GRADUATING LAWYERS
The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act. 1978 in Morrison v Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988) and the Supreme Court of Ghana may be similarly persuaded that the Special Prosecutor who cannot be appointed by the President without being first nominated by the Attorney-General under Act 959 is thereby clothed with prosecutorial authority for the appointed tenure of seven years.
Kissi Agyebeng has exposed his own incompetence and vindictiveness as the Special Prosecutor to the entire world in the manner in which he handled the allegations of corruption made by Martin Kpebu against him and the OSP he supervises. The consequence has been the massive public disapproval of his conduct in unlawfully arresting and detaining Martin Kpebu with the draconian bail condition of the production of a landed property in Martin Kpebu’s own name.
Sycophancy breeds autocracy which slowly erodes democracy and the rule of law, and eventually kills democracy. That is how democracies die! Parliament must, therefore, never be seen to be on the leash by the Executive arm of government in its law making functions under Article 106 of the 1992 Constitution. The Security and Intelligence Agencies Bill 2025 as presently laid before Parliament has failed to comply with the mandatory provisions of Article 106 of the Constitution to be introduced in Parliament, accepted and considered for enactment.
The Chief Justice is the head of the judicial arm of government and I am surprised that the paragraphs numbered 14 and 15 of her supplementary affidavit contain a childlike ingratiating cry, begging and appeals to the emotions of the Court and the general public without any scintilla of supporting facts. It is a patent insult to the citizens exercising their constitutional rights under 146 to petition for the removal of the Chief Justice from office.
The Judiciary is the least dangerous branch and the citizen’s hope for freedom and justice. Consequently, we must channel our efforts to defending Article 146 of the Constitution and produce cogent evidence when we allege it is being subverted by any person or group of persons. In the absence of any concrete evidence of impropriety on the part of the petitioners, the public has a vested interest in knowing the outcome of the removal process begun by the petitions submitted to the President.
With a vote of no confidence in both the President Nana Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and the Speaker Bagbin-led Parliament on 7 December 2024, We-the-People who have proven our capability to take our destiny into our own hands must remain ever vigilant against further abuses during the balance of the tenure of the President and the 8th Parliament.
The deep polarization and intense emotions generated by the governance of the country under the Akufo-Addo/ Mahamudu Bawumia administration shows that the future stability of the 1992 Constitution is dependent on how free, fair, and transparent the 7 December 2024 elections are seen to have been managed and conducted by all the public institutions entrusted with supervising the elections. The time to defend the 1992 Constitution against election interference is NOW!
Just in four years, Ghanaians are missing you as the most honest Ghanaian leader of integrity under the 1992 Constitution, a hard taskmaster, with a heart of tolerance and magnanimity. We are still looking beyond the horizon and wondering when salvation will come to Ghanaians again under the 1992 Constitution you gave to our homeland Ghana. I salute you Comrade, and assure you that as long as we live on this earth we shall continue to fight, fight, and fight for the egalitarian ideals that underpinned our revolution.
The NDC and the NPP appear to be so invested in their opposing positions and the desire to use the dynamics of gay rights to win political power that they have not stopped to think about the consequences of their actions to the sustenance of constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law. The elders in the room who could have sought a compromise appear to have taken sides leading to both sides engaging in a dialogue of the deaf.
I am raising my finger in this rejoinder against the wanton violations of the rights of the people of Ghana in the use of the military by the Government to brutalize the very electorate that brought it into power. We the people are sovereign under the 1992 Constitution and not the Speaker, Parliament, or the executive which if let alone will continue to trample upon our sovereignty with the obnoxious show in Parliament on 13 November 2023. Ghana will rise again!
Comrade Jerry John Rawlings, I salute you and you will continue to live in our hearts amidst the culture of silence in Ghana today. Every day I look beyond the horizon and wonder, when will salvation come to Ghanaians again under the 1992 Constitution you birthed? Say hi to Arikpo (GP. Captain Richard Forjeo (rtd.)), who followed you to eternity at the beginning of 2022. You are deeply missed and most fondly remembered.
It is time to take seriously the warning about the intention of Nana Akufo-Addo to abuse the spirit of the 1992 Constitution so he can achieve an outcome at the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections favourable to him as an insurance in his retirement. Ghana’s democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism enshrined in the letter and the spirit of the 1992 Constitution must be defended by all patriotic citizens even if the heavens fall.
I have lived under threats of assassination, armed robbery, and the burning of my house, from this regime since 16 November 2020. The late Victor Newman aborted discussions to assassinate me then. These threats intensify any time I exercise my right to defend the Constitution just as I did on 28 June 2023 and 30 June 2023. There was a covert attack on my residence at dawn on Monday 3 July 2023. President Nana Akufo-Addo, is ultimately responsible for anything violent that befalls me or my residence. I shall not back down from defending the 1992 Constitution. No Ghanaian patriot must be cowed by threats of those violating the Constitution.
The NDC must be congratulated by all patriotic persons who act apolitically in the national interest and believe in defence of the Constitution and in the sustenance of democracy and the rule of law in Ghana. I take the view that Constitutionalism won in the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General failed woefully in weaponizing the administration of criminal justice, while democracy and the rule of law won massively at the Assin North by-elections.
“Every day for thief man one day for master”, so the saying goes. The Courts have spoken and exposed the true Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The chickens have at long last come home to roost and to vindicate the contention of this writer since 2014 that Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI are nothing but a scamming entity on the anti-corruption landscape of Ghana parading as anti-corruption crusaders.
Nana Akufo-Addo would not have abused the spirit of Chapter Seven (7) of the 1992 Constitution on the sanctity of the right to vote and the Electoral Commission if We the People had not in the past five and half years condoned the Government’s several abuses of power and impunity. By failing to act to defend our Constitution, we emboldened him to ignore the views of the majority of citizens and to do as he pleases. But all is not lost. Nature has its own way of dispensing justice to humanity
Those who aspire to genuinely crusade against corruption as investigative journalists, and to lead this nation in the exercise of the executive power ought to show an example in upholding the integrity of the judicial process instead of lending their voices to the cohorts of a losing party to scandalize and bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Remember, there is abundant documentary and other evidence of who created and facilitated Anas A. Anas’s rise as an anti-corruption entrepreneur and a covert political agent with unaccountable privileges.
President Rawlings had only one term left if he won the 1996 election, which the NDC was confident he was going to win whosoever became his running mate. The transition to an NDC Government in the future without Rawlings began with the nomination of Professor Mills as Rawlings’ running mate. The Ahwois hedged their bets as the main pillars behind Professor Mills’ Vice Presidency and his future. Rawlings’ trust in his comrades blinded him from seeing the double agency in the behaviour of the Ahwois. The “Ahwoi Capture” of Professor Mills that will affect and influence the future relationship between President Rawlings and Professor Mills had begun.
The contradictory conduct of the Speaker in his rulings on 25 October 2022 and 10 November 2022 has demonstrated the need for patriotic citizens to remain ever vigilant in a split parliament in which the Speaker exhibits traits of being transactional and arrogates to himself powers and authorities not conferred upon him by the Constitution and/or Standing Orders of Parliament. This conduct of the Speaker underscores the urgency with which patriotic citizens must be ever watchful of every step and pronouncement by the Speaker of Parliament.
Our late Comrade and President Rawlings, the people of this country whom you loved so much and died for have been led into an economic mess, suffering, and poverty which is worse than what led you to risk your life to save this country and give it a viable constitution that has lasted for three decades.
Elected members of parliament are sacrificing the national good of our country for their personal selfishness and partisan interest, contravening the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution. Their actions are the sole reason why for some time now, “Everyday things are getting worse” for the economic and social survival of ordinary Ghanaians. The selfish economic and political power motives underpinning the divergent positions and tactics that both sides of the House used to remove two ministers from office demonstrate to Ghanaians that these members of parliament cannot be relied upon to fight for what our citizens need.
Mr. President, in these difficult economic times you have brought upon the nation of Ghana, you cannot lead the resolution, because you are an inherent part of the problem. Our people are suffering under your failed and mismanaged policies and stewardship, and your November 2022 Budget is going to impose further austerity upon Ghanaians. Listen closely to the echoes of history and avoid replaying the discordant notes of past Governments that cost this nation dearly – for as Mark Twain once said: “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme”.
Efforts and attempts by the group of non-governmental organizations called Corruption Watch Ghana, their associated friends, and lawyers to silence, intimidate, and cancel my voice from defending the 1992 Constitution in the fight against corruption within the narrow laudable objectives of the law will, and has failed. The more my person is attacked and intimidated, the more I shall use all available legal means to ensure that the Office of the Special Prosecutor does not become a rogue institution.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has achieved finality in his deceptive long game with his recent national security apparatus appointments. If confirmed, these appointments will be a sign that Akufo-Addo has captured the National Security Secretariat and apparatus towards his electoral agenda for the 2024 parliamentary and presidential elections. While appearing to follow the letter of the law in making appointments to public office, the President’s long game substantively breaches the Constitution’s fundamental spirit of integrity, transparency, accountability, and merit – resulting in the actualization of a calculated and deliberate intention to undermine the 2024 electoral process. Ghana must always be put first.
This article is dedicated to the ideals of the June 4 and 31st December Revolutions, and the 1992 Constitution that sought to preserve the natural resources of Ghana for the public benefit of its Chiefs and People.
The public must be reminded that the three-year mandate of the Governing Board of the Office of the Special Prosecutor expired at midnight on 11th July 2021 without word from the President or the Office to the public. Now that the three-year tenure of the Governing Board of the Office has expired, patriotic Ghanaians need to be alert and support the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Organizations to ensure that this time round their chosen representative is sworn-in by the President when the new Board comes to be inaugurated.
Eleven months of service as Minister of Justice and Attorney General is not a record in the history of the Office of the Attorney General in Ghana. The evidence is openly on display in front of, Mr. Dame, the Attorney General’s office, that there were other Attorneys General who served in that office for less than eleven months: eleven months is not therefore a record. I am, without any regrets, proud of putting Ghana First and upholding my constitutional oath by leaving office as Attorney General fighting corruption just as I resigned as the SP from President Nana Akufo Addo’s Government on the same account of “The Family’s Corruption”.
The 1992 Constitution enjoins the President and the Government of Ghana to practice good governance based on “Freedom, Justice, Probity and Accountability” and to avoid infringing on the rights and freedoms guaranteed the individual citizen under the Constitution. The disclosure of half-truths by the President to do wrong to any citizen or person living under the protection of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana for performing his professional duty in reporting on a statutory matter such as the Agyapa Royalties Transactions is inconsistent with and contravenes the Presidential Oath of office contained in the Second Schedule of the Constitution. The sovereign…
I wish Hon. Yaw Buaben Asamoa to understand that the Office of the Special Prosecutor is governed by statute and I am mandated to lead it in the achievement of that mandate. I do not need any direct or indirect instructions from any office holder of any political party like him. It is time for him and others like him from other political parties to stop confusing the fact that I was appointed by the President of the Republic to mean that it created a vested right in the political party which supported him to win the elections to instruct or direct me as the Special Prosecutor. I was appointed by the President in his capacity as the Executive Authority of Ghana under the 1992 Constitution and not as the flag-bearer of any political party. Should he think that I am talking too much and not doing my job the simple solution is for him to have me removed from office. Until then he should leave me alone to continue to exercise the independent duties of my office in accordance with my oath before Parliament and my oath at my appointment as the Special Prosecutor.
Who is really sleeping on the job when it comes to dealing with the canker of corruption? Heads of institutions wantonly disregard statutory requests made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for information and production of documents to assist in the investigation of corruption and corruption-related offences. Public officers have been charged, arraigned before the High Court and their pleas taken only for them to return to their workplaces and work normally as though they have never been suspected of committing any corruption offences. Despite all the powers conferred on the Office of the Special Prosecutor by the law, when heads of institutions continually refuse or fail to support the fight against the canker of corruption by not vigorously applying regulations intended to aid the fight against corruption and other crimes, they ultimately undermine the work and impact of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.