‘You have a problem with English if you don't understand my ‘any idiot can go to court’ comment - Asiedu Nketia

The General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said his infamous ‘any idiot can go to court’ comment does not mean that anybody who takes a matter to court for adjudication is an idiot.

According to him, that statement has been taken out of context.

Mr Asiedu Nketia first made that statement after the 2012 general elections when the results were contested in court by the then-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo and the party machinery.

The infamous comment resurfaced following the recently-held 2020 general elections, whose results are being contested by the NDC.

Mr Asiedu Nketia’s own words have been used to troll him and his party on social media, as his critics dare while other well-meaning institutions urge the party to resort to judicial process for redress.

The National Peace Council, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, various civil society groups such as the Institute for Democratic Governance, among a raft of others, as well as the Electoral Commission, the US and UK embassies in Ghana, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and several institutions, have all encouraged the NDC to use the laid-down legal processes to seek redress.

However, Mr Asiedu Nketia has explained that his infamous words were taken out of context.

He told Accra-based Joy News in a recent interview that with regard to the ‘any idiot can go to court’ comment, “those who do not understand it have a problem with logic”.

“When they say that you have been taken to court and even before the matter is heard, you are declared to be guilty, that is the response you have to give”, he explained, adding: “Somebody taking you to court does not make you guilty”.

“I said that any idiot can take you to court but it is the judges who will decide whether the case is sensible or not, and that is the process we have in Ghana.

“Our law indicates that any idiot can go to court, but there are people who are saying that when you say any ‘idiot’, the meaning is that those who go to court are idiots; they have problem with logic or English”, he said.