The issue of the golden parachute for ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor and his fellow ex-President JJ Rawlings has made headline news.
News of such nature, presidential privileges, is grist for the media in every jurisdiction, more so when the substance of these perks soar well above those of almost every public servant, but well beneath those of the top 100 company directors in Ghana; those in the private sector in the country fare much better.
But in Ghana and in other African countries, such issues continue to evoke strong passion, not only in the media, but among some members of civil society and even among lawmakers themselves.
They have invited themselves to the feeding frenzy, and it is only time that will still the storm generated by the story. Now it is the President, soon it will be the legislators.
CLANDESTINE
It is the considered opinion of The Chronicle that the whole matter of the ex-Presidents ex-gratia awards has been mired in controversy from the start, because of the clandestine way in which it was presented to Parliament.
First, The Chronicle thinks that it lacked the element of transparency that is required in these matters and created an aura of suspicion, even though it is not a matter that should be treated with such secrecy.
Matters that touch and concern the Executive ought to be discussed in the open. The President is answerable to the people from whom all power and authority flow. In its simplest form, the democratic system of Government that we have chosen to follow, and with it comes accountability, checks and balances. It is also true that to whom that such awesome powers are given, much is expected of the President.
The Chronicle believes that any matter, with the exception of those that specifically deals with national security, is fair game for parliament. The issue of a President's ex-gratia award is not so sacrosanct as to merit the kind of treatment that the Chief of Staff, together with his boss -Mrs. Chinery-Hesse, the President's Chief Adviser accorded it.
CHINERY-HESSE
According to The Chronicle report, the retirement package prepared by Chinery-Hesse was sent by the chief of Staff, and then to the clerk of Parliament, who then dispatched it back to the Chief of Staff. Finally, he handed them over to the relevant members of Parliament, the Minority and Majority representatives, namely Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu (NPP) and John Tia (NDC), who then dealt with the matter, with what was described as 'indecent haste'.
When all eyes were focused on the Parliamentary and Presidential elections, when the entire nation was enthralled by the elections, on 6th December, the two men led their fellow co-conspirators to approve the package, and sent it back to the President within 24 hours.! Now every body is running away from it, Hon. E.T. Mensah and Hon. Lee Ocran are distancing themselves from it, with Hon. Alban Bagbin even saying that he has not seen anything like it.
The whole package has been greeted with such widespread condemnation that it is clear the people would not support it. The opposition to the retirement package has come from almost all sectors of the community. The public's rejection of it has come in with a vengeance.
Even some legislators like Hon P.C. Appiah-Ofori have gone as far as threatening court action to halt the awards, an expensive blunder, seeing that choosing that route is a non-starter, seeing that no court in the land, not even the Supreme Court can entertain a case which goes to the root of our system of Government; the concept of separation of powers. That may be why Ms. Hannah Tetteh, spokeswoman of the National Transition Team suggested to The Chronicle that once Parliament has approved the deal, there was nothing anybody could do about it.
PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY
The concept of parliamentary sovereignty is trite learning, but The Chronicle believes that ignorance has to do with the subject, because even senior members of the public have a problem with appreciating it, which is essentially a British system which we have imported hook, line and dawdles.
One of the most quoted authorities in England is A. V. Dicey, who offers the classic definition of sovereignty from a constitutional law perspective. He says that the principle of 'parliamentary sovereignty means neither more or less; namely that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever, and further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to set aside the legislation of Parliament.' In short, Parliament is Supreme.
Such is the reach of the British Parliament that its reach extends to Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica and Ghana. Such is the imperiousness of the British that in current Literature, it is even said that 'Parliament can legislate to ban smoking in the streets of Paris.' It is against this background that the threat of PC Ofori is doomed to be an exercise in futility.
Elsewhere in this paper, there are two completely different takes on the issue.
The first one by Maame Coomson makes the emotive case that a President, who has served two terms of office, is entitled to a decent retirement package befitting his status. A President, who is not cared for by the state, is likely to hang on to power, even when he sees his term drawing to a close. No one who sees poverty or penury staring him in the face will leap to welcome it, argues the author. The case of Dr. Limann is poignantly brought home to make the case of a tottering first family on the brink.
THE MP FOR OKERE'S CONDEMNATION
The argument made by another Member of Parliament for Okere, Hon Dan Botwe, subjecting the award package to blistering attack, raises the stakes even higher. If P.C. Ofori cannot stand for the award, then it is high point for the current President to hear that his own boy, Dan Botwe, can label his package as 'scandalous'. These men are both members of the New Patriotic Party.
Of course, one cannot pretend to be oblivious of the role that Hon Dan Botwe played in the Kufuor-inspired unsuccessful attempt to rid the people of the Central region of his heavyweight representation in Parliament, in 2004. It is something of a lesson that may not be lost on Hon. Botwe, who campaigned strenuously for Kufuor in 2001 and 2004, and was obviously shocked when he turned round to sabotage him, by withdrawing him from his government. No reason given.
Could it be because Hon. Botwe orchestrated the boos that President Kufuor endured at Legon during the NPP congress to elect Mr. Peter Mac Manu, who was loathed by the President. Enter Stephen Ntim.
Against the cacophony of noise that the issue is generating, there is only one logical route which the President can take.
He should reject the award and redesign it to suit the state of our economy. Surely, nobody can begrudge the ex-President of wanting to visit Japan once again, if only for nostalgia. He has done more than enough of that, globetrotting around the world more than any President in living memory.
It is the stance of ex-President Rawlings which recommends itself to ex-President Kufuor, because as the front page of the paper states -Rawlings will have no truck with any of that. Almost everybody knew that Rawlings was going to reject it. But how come nobody was surprised that President Kufuor would mastermind a package like that for himself? Rawlings rejection will fuel public sentiments to such an extent that it will be impossible to go ahead and implement the ex-gratia awards at all.
The Chronicle believes that President Kufuor has wrought such good things for Ghana, that he should not risk being tagged as the greediest President by this act, which he alone masterminded and tele-guided. He should follow the Rawlings example, else he may go down in shame. Surely, he does not deserve that.
