Professor Raymond Atuguba, Dean of the University of Ghana School Of Law
The Dean of the University of Ghana School Of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba is warning of an imminent clash between two parties ahead of the 2024 polls.
He observed that the entrenched positions of the country’s two major political parties on to either “Break the 8” or “Do on Die” will be a major trigger to the violence.
Repeating the calls of the current Finance Minister in 2013, he said “I would like to end my speech by repeating the words of Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta as quoted above, and for those who do not realize it, those are not my words. I call on all the persons, institutions and groups that Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta was called upon in 2013, and who heeded that call in 2016, to once again speak up and act up, and in the near term, save this country from the imminent disastrous clash of “Break the 8” with “Do on Die” and in the medium term launch an afro-centric review of our constitution, the better to ensure sustainable people-centred governance in our nation. If we do not do anything in the near term and in the medium term, read my lips, there will be no Ghana or Africa to save in the long-term”
According to him, the Finance Minister then head of Databank on 12th March 2013 called on Ghanaians to stop being cowards and to express outrage at some governance issues of the time.
He charged Ghanaians, “including the youth, teachers, NGOs, journalists and clerics to stop being quiet and neutral in the search for justice and show some courage and outrage in the face of attacks on integrity in our democracy and the way the nation’s finances [were] being mishandled”…
He accused clerics, civil society groups, journalists, Ghana’s middle-class and other important organizations, such as the National Peace Council and the Ghana Bar Association of cowardice and hypocrisy and reminded the nation that it was this kind of culture of silence in the face of impunity that forced a young Jerry John Rawlings and his colleagues to stage their revolution of June 4, 1979.
‘For me we can cause a revolution with our lack of outrage, with what Rawlings did in 1979, you will realize that this is not merely hyperbolic,’ Mr. Ofori-Atta cautioned.”… …To be apathetic toward issues that can destroy our country is to be negligent of the present and inconsiderate towards the future; to be indifferent when your voice can make a difference, or to be silent when those without voices count on you to voice their yearnings, their fears, their aspirations, and their hopes does not amount to being a peaceful person.’…
The Bar Association is quiet, the Clerics are quiet, the think tanks are quiet and the radios have been abandoned to mostly propaganda…we appear to have walked backwards into that culture of silence, without being prodded by the butt of an AK47”, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta is quoted to have said
He accused Ghana’s growing middle class of becoming silent accomplices to the culture of impunity and the assault on integrity within our governance space… 23 No cause of our time is greater than the cause of boldly speaking the truth… Yet, all around us there is apathy of a most debilitating kind — the apathy of the educated middle-class and the celebrated, top-notch NGOs of our country. At this critical period of our history, it is as if there is no learning, no scholarship, no courage, no vision, and no voice in our beloved country! Even the hitherto much revered Peace Council appears to be buried in a very convenient and self-serving passivity and near-docility… …to be so is to be a coward. And as Shakespeare reminded us over three centuries ago, cowards die many times before their death…
He charged the young people of Ghana, ‘look around you, you will see enough that make you probably angry. These will provoke you to act as a real citizen… but you must arise to assume your birthright.’
