Hon. Ablakwa is a son who must be put right when he goes wrong. I cannot therefore refuse to accept his greetings and well wishes as that would be taboo in northern custom and tradition. While I am ready to over-look this incident completely after calling him to order as a father should do, I cannot from my investigations before I wrote my article accept his mischievous denial of the authorship of one of the articles or any of them written insultingly against me. Hon. Ablakwa is fast learning the art of covert operations and deniability in international relations, intelligence, and security. Unfortunately, he left too many foot prints that have exposed him and convince me with the precision of mathematics that he was the author of the two articles. I would rather wish to believe that Hon. Ablakwa’s partial denial signals a new beginning conveyed in the tone of the mischievous denial.

Okudzeto Ablakwa is the person whom while claiming to be entitled to the title Honourable Deputy Minister at age 28 years without having done any public service in his life has made himself notorious for insulting everybody old enough to be his father and other elders including former President Rawlings and former President Kuffuor. When a child is cursed by a father who brought him up from age three because of disrespect and insults to him the child grows up to become the type of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa: with sharp teeth, both figuratively and physically and a scourge on all elders of the whole Ghanaian society except those who feed his greedy political stomach.

Despite my preference for strengthening the traditional, common law and conventional independence of the Attorney General under our Anglo-American-Ghanaian system of jurisprudence; upon my examination, analysis and critique of the provisions of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017, I have concluded that the establishment of a permanent Office of the Special Prosecutor is legal under Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution so long as it is done under the authority of the Attorney General. However, the feasibility of establishing a permanent Office of the Special Prosecutor to deal specifically with corruption and related offences by law is premised on the exemplary moral compass and integrity of the Executive Authority personified by the elected President and his determination to give law enforcement authorities, including the Attorney General, the expected constitutional support to operate strictly in accordance with their oaths of office to be fair, transparent and impartial in the execution of their duties without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Absent such a President and public officers, no number of enactments can achieve the objective of fighting systemic corruption in Ghana. My hope is that this paper will help civil society, the active public, the Government and Parliament to give due consideration to all the factors that need to be taken into account to make the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 now being discussed by the Committee of Parliament during the vacation, capable of being enacted in a bi-partisan manner when Parliament resumes in October 2017.

For the first time in the history of Africa, the Kenyan Supreme Court made all students and activists of free, transparent and fair elections in the emerging democracies in Africa proud by having the faith of their conviction to declare the Presidential election held in that country null and void. The Supreme Court cited irregularities in the vote, particularly the tampering with the electronic transmission of the results of the elections from the polling stations, and ordered a new one within 60 days. The Kenyan Supreme Court decision is a land mark decision in Africa and must be acknowledged without any attempt to intimidate the Court. May other Supreme Courts or Constitutional Courts in Africa be bold to follow such independent steps in the future where the facts dictate similar outcomes.

Any time I have raised issues concerning or relating to the unconstitutional actions or conduct (particularly about corruption and abuse of power) of the Mills/Mahama Government and the John Dramani Mahama Government, the result is a tedious repetition of the same sterile cowardly attacks on my person and multiple attempts at character assassination. The real question is whether it is the conduct of Martin Amidu that has exposed the Party? Or is it the NDC itself acting through the NEC on behalf of the Congress and some members of the NEC in their personal and official capacities that has “exposed the Party to public hatred, ridicule and opprobrium and lowered its reputation in Ghana and elsewhere”? The John Mahama surrogates or faction in the NDC ought to be warned that their modus operandi of personal attacks will not lead to reasoned dialogue, but may push me to invoke my right pursuant to Article 2 and 130 of the Constitution so that the Supreme Court may settle once and for all whether or not under Article 55 of the Constitution a political party can gag a citizen from defending, and upholding the Constitution demonstrated with a Supreme Court judgment simply because he is perceived to be a member of that political party.

There is an unsavory development in which some politicians - particularly some Members of Parliament and other political office holders – have cultivated the dishonourable habit of under-rating the intelligence of We the People by filling the press with half-truths. They misrepresent the injunctions of the Constitution and laws of Ghana to court cheap public sympathy any time one of the law enforcement agencies executes the law against one of them for the suspected commission of crime. I hate the hypocrisy, double standards and audacity of the Minority in Parliament to unlawfully and unconstitutionally impede police in the performance of their duties contrary to their very oaths of office as Members of Parliament, simply because their colleague is now under suspicion of crime in relation to the stinking AMERI contracts. Being a Member of Parliament cannot be used by former Government Ministers as an insurance against the commission or suspected commission of crimes. Ghanaians, be alert!

Yaw Donkor, it does not lie in your mouth to be whining when the police bent over backwards to only invite you to the police station. Do you remember any of those people whose fundamental rights and freedoms you violated without compunction the right to counsel, yet which you are lucky to have been given by the police? Your predicament is Karma for abuse of the Constitutional rights of fellow citizens as a public officer during your oppressive service in the Security and Intelligence services of Ghana. Stop whining for the respectful treatment from the police when you refused to grant to your fellow citizens similar respect when you had the opportunity to serve our motherland Ghana.

One cannot claim the rights of an Honourable Member of Parliament when as a Minister one created suspicion of looting the national purse and deliberately running to Parliament (in anticipation of one’s his Government being voted out of office) to escape justice through the subterfuge of immunity. The President was elected with a national mandate to fight corruption. The Speaker and the Parliamentary Minister have created the impression that there is a mismatch between their perception of who must be investigated and prosecuted for suspected looting of the public purse, and the President’s vision and determination to prevent future looting by fighting corruption within his first four-year term. However, the Speaker and the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs have no national mandate to undermine the President’s executive authority to enforce the law through the instrumentality of his policing and prosecutorial powers. Only the courts of law can contest his authority.

The reputation and dignity of the Speaker of Parliament has deliberately been brought into serious inexcusable opprobrium and disrepute both in and outside Parliament by those indecorous Members of Parliament who rioted, banged desks, wagged their figures at the Speaker and granted interviews to the media to bring the high office of the Speaker into disrepute and contempt before reasonable members of the public. We elected the 275 Members of Parliament to show exemplary conduct to the nation in discharging their functions on our behalf in Parliament. Consequently, those who are calling for mere apologies to assuage the deliberate contempt are not helping to uphold the Constitutional order. The reputation, dignity and honour of the office of Speaker (bi-partisanly elected) must not be allowed to be used for partisan, cheap and uncouth posturing in any way.

There is an unsavory development in which some politicians - particularly some Members of Parliament and other political office holders – have cultivated the dishonourable habit of under-rating the intelligence of We the People by filling the press with half-truths. They misrepresent the injunctions of the Constitution and laws of Ghana to court cheap public sympathy any time one of the law enforcement agencies executes the law against one of them for the suspected commission of crime. I hate the hypocrisy, double standards and audacity of the Minority in Parliament to unlawfully and unconstitutionally impede police in the performance of their duties contrary to their very oaths of office as Members of Parliament, simply because their colleague is now under suspicion of crime in relation to the stinking AMERI contracts. Being a Member of Parliament cannot be used by former Government Ministers as an insurance against the commission or suspected commission of crimes. Ghanaians, be alert!

Is someone sabotaging the President’s fight against corruption? The current enactment of the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor Bill, 2017, raises questions around the inclusion of Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Bill. If, as it states, the Special Prosecutor is not to investigate and prosecute corruption offences relating to the Public Procurement Act, 2003 and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 – this lays down vague and ambiguous exceptions that can be exploited. Whoever inserted the sub-clause is legalizing an undefined species of corruption as not being serious enough to warrant prosecution ever or at all. The Bill before Parliament also has consequential amendments in Section 78 (1) that remove the offence of corruption from the jurisdiction of the Economic and Organised Crime Office. Who will then investigate and prosecute categories of corruption offences by public officers and politically exposed persons not meeting the standards in Clause 3(4)? We cannot justify any form of corruption. Let us take a keen interest in the passage of the Bill through Parliament so that Ghanaians are not short-changed in the actualization of the promise by the President to fight corruption as corruption, and crime as crime.

Is the fight against bribery and corruption amongst the political elite in Ghana a mere political slogan for winning political power, which signifies nothing? Parliament has concluded proceedings in respect of the allegation of bribery, and transformed it into an allegation and punishment of Honourable Mahama Ayariga for contempt of Parliament. However, there is no express or implied complaint, allegation or charge of contempt of Parliament made in the Terms of Reference against Hon. Mahama Ayariga personally or any other person to ground any power in the Committee to make findings and recommendations of contempt of Parliament. Analysis suggests that the constitutional oaths of the Speaker and of members of Parliament, from both sides of the House, were each abused and violated just to protect the suspected commission of the crime of bribery and corruption in Parliament, instead of transparently maintaining the institutional integrity of the legislature.

The legal advice tendered by the Ashanti Regional Office of the Attorney General to the Ghana Police Service, Kumasi, in the case of R v Mensah Azer & 7 Others, popularly known as the 8 Delta Members Case, is exceptional in the manner it states the facts of the case, and the evidence as disclosed upon the perusal of the police docket, and the legal opinion based on the facts and evidence on the docket. The impression that the regional office of the Attorney General’s Department had to have recourse to the Attorney General simply because the suspects were alleged to be members of the New Patriotic Party is dangerous for our democracy, the rule of law and the prosecutorial discretion delegated by the Attorney General to each of her prosecuting attorneys and particularly her regional representatives.

I invite fellow patriotic citizens to join me in condemning recent unwarranted attacks and shameful insults on the British High Commissioner and his Government, who only sought to defend the honour and dignity of Parliament as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution by pointing out past misconduct and suspected crime of some members of Parliament. The insults coming from MPs from both sides of Parliament give the impression that Parliament is more hysterical about its reputation being brought into disrepute through the exposure of dishonourable conduct by its members rather than maintaining the honour and dignity of the institution of Parliament through a transparent, fair and credible constitutional process of dealing with members who bring the reputation of the institution into disrepute.

Mr. President, Ghanaians exhibit a great deal of good will for you to succeed as President. But make haste slowly and be fairly sure of each step you take. My humble observation from some of your recent pronouncements and acts as President, however, is that you appear to trust so many people without any reservations. Your anti-corruption agenda was a winning manifesto item at the elections, and we are expecting you to implement your promises without fear or favour, affection or ill will. Many Ghanaians, like me, are not followers of your political party but as long as you continue occupying that high moral ground and fight corruption in deeds, you will succeed and your first four-year tenure will usher in the golden age of Ghana again. If you always put Ghana First in your administration, the present goodwill you enjoy will endure throughout your tenure.

Ghanaians have demanded and expect that the mandate of the 7th Parliament will be consistent with the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution; and the promises by the President to protect the national purse and be impartial in the governance of our dear country. The evidence of criminal and unconstitutional conduct in the whole body polity is overwhelming, but unconstitutional attempts are being made through influential chiefs and elders to let bygones be bygones. This is contrary to the demands of the Constitution for accountability, transparency and fairness in governance. May the 7th Parliament and the President remember that even walls have ears and we hear the attempts at trying to compromise the President’s anti-corruption agenda in the name of reconciliation. The President’s anti-corruption drive will be still-born with such compromises and reconciliations. May Ghanaians at the end of this 7th Parliament’s tenure be proud that it has helped to restore the underlying principles and values that Ghanaians gave to themselves the Fourth Republican Constitution, 1992.

One would have thought that the massive defeat of the Looter Government never witnessed in the annals of Ghanaian history would make it circumspect of how it handles the last days of its dying pangs as a Looter Government so that the Independent Prosecutor may have mercy upon them. Unfortunately impunity and corrupt behavior once internalized is difficult to change over-night as subsequent events show. Ghana is worth dying for and so fellow citizens speak up and defend your 7th December 2016 votes by not allowing this looter Government to deliberately make it impossible for the Government you popularly vote for to govern smoothly upon assuming office on 7th January 2017. Do not sit on the fence at this last hour and allow looters who came into office by the razor-thin majority vote of Justices of the Supreme Court to intimidate fellow citizens Putting Ghana First.

The free market place of ideas for expression of personal opinions appears to have carried some away to assume the President-elect’s prerogative of whom he may appoint into his Government by trying to stampede him with choices for several positions within his administration. What has been and is worrying for me is that some citizens are using this natural democratic process of citizen free expression of expectations and anticipation to telephone or speak face-to-face with individual citizens to suggest that they have, are recommending or intend to recommend them to the President-Elect for particular appointments. It is not in the interest of the President-Elect, his Government or the incoming Parliament. Such actions are inevitably a harbinger of cronyism and corruption in the body polity.

The results of the just ended Presidential and General Elections showed that Ghanaians have voted against the propaganda use of the state-owned media by ignoring all those false and fake news stories published about opponents of the incumbent Government, contrary to the requirements of the Constitution for fair reporting by the state-owned media. The state-owned media cannot continue in the old style of being a ruling Government or party media as opposed to a public media paid for by the tax payer to give citizens impartial reporting of news. It is time that the state-owned media took seriously the independence and freedoms guaranteed them under the Constitution and moved away from self-imposed controls or censorship to please the Government of the day. Corruption takes many forms. Misreporting or skewing reports in consideration of any benefits whatsoever or promotion from the Government is corruption of the media. Let 7th December 2016 be the harbinger of the actualization of a just, fair, transparent and accountable state-owned media reporting under the 1992 Constitution.

The decision that we, the majority of fellow citizens have made at this year’s elections portends hope, expectations and anticipation in each of us who put Ghana First at the ballot for good governance, the rule of law, probity, accountability and transparency in the coming four years of the administration of the President Elect, his Government and the Parliament Elect. I congratulate and thank you all, once more, fellow citizens for your Gargantuan efforts in heeding the advocacy of the various civil society and activist organizations in enhancing constitutionalism and democracy at this year’s elections in changing this Government. God bless you all, God bless the Republic of Ghana and may God let us always Put Ghana First.