The supreme court failed Ghana

Now that the dust has settled on one of the biggest political hoax ever to have been perpetrated on a country by an enigmatic political vandal with support from a few members of the highest judicial office of our land, it is time for all well-thinking Ghanaians to take a sober reflection.

All the unnecessary tensions, waste of resources and time on this dubious, fraudulent and immoral suit for eight tortuous months could have been averted if our Supreme Court had done the right thing; thrown out the frivolous, unmeritorious and vexatious petition. It was very sad seeing our country being blackmailed and taken for ride by a dubious political figure and his cohorts who in the process had subverted our constitution.

Ghana’s constitution is very clear and unambiguous about court proceedings against the president:

“(5) The President shall not, while in office as President, be personally liable to any civil or criminal proceedings in court.”

No amount of "Pink Sheeting", legal wrangling and twisting of the facts can obscure this fact. What the NPP should have done was to have prevented Johh Mahama from being sworn in as the president by placing injunction on the swearing-in ceremony and then make him a respondent in the law suit. But they did not because at that time, they were still at the infant stages of fabricating their hoax. John Mahama having been sworn as the President, however does not prevent the NPP from challenging the conduct of the elections. They have every right to do so. The NPP could have ahead to challenge the conduct of the elections without making the President a respondent and if they had won, that would have automatically invalidated Mahama’s position as the President of the Republic of Ghana

Making John Mahama, the President of the Republic of Ghana, a respondent in a law suit in Ghana is immoral and contravenes our constitution. Our Supreme Court judges should have known better.

Another point worth noting is why the judges did not ask the NPP why their "returning Officers" and other officers signed the electoral forms validating and confirming the legality or results of the elections when they knew it was fraught with fraud. Were the NPP electoral officers coerced to sign the forms or were drunk when they signed those forms confirming the results of the elections? Our judges know that when you signed a legal document, it becomes binding on you. You cannot therefore turn around to challenge it. Such frivolous, fraudulent and bogus suit should have been thrown out. That would have saved the country like I have said, all the unnecessary tension, money and resources.

It is very important to know that this is not the first time Nana Akuffo-Addo had tried to come to power through the back door. When the late Professor Atta-Mills defeated him, he tried this same trick. It is very interesting to note that instead of throwing the case out, this same Chief Justice tried to empanel judges to sit on the so-called petition on a Sunday. Then President Kuffour and some top hierarchy of the NPP knowing the facts decided not to be part of any dubious schemes that may disturb the peace of the country and so Kuffour therefore quickly handed over power to the late Professor Mills.

It is also very important to note why Akuffo-Addo has been relying on the Supreme Court to win power through the back door. In an article I wrote on the Ghanaweb on the 24th of June 2008 (http://sil.ghanaweb.com/r.php?thread=3831782) I predicted how Kuffour and his looting brigade were preparing their backs from future prosecution and favours by packing and loading the judiciary with NPP activists and sympathizers. Having promoted and elevated some of these judges above their seniors and more experienced colleagues, Nana Akuffo-Addo and his NPP gang expect them to pay back these favours in a quid pro quo manner

For example out of the fourteen judges in the Supreme Court, Kuffour and his NPP gang appointed eight. They are as follows;

1) Prof. S. K. Date-Bah appointed in 2003

2) Julius Ansah appointed in July 2004

3) Mrs. Sophia O.A Adinyira appointed in July 2006

4) Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood (C.J) appointed in June 2007

5) Rose Constance Owusu appointed in June 2008

6) Jones M. Dotse appointed in June 2008

7) Anin Yeboah appointed in June 2008

8) P. Baffoe-Bonnie appointed in June 2008

Nana Akuffo-Addo and his gang think that mathematically, they have advantage when it come to judicial advocacy forgetting that Justice is about evidence and not about numerical advantage. As we saw in the judgment, some of these NPP activist judges and sympathizers, tried to returned the “favour” bestowed upon them by Kuffour and his NPP gang

It is sad and sickening to hear Ayikoi Otoo a former Attorney General in Kuffour’s regime also reiterating the same mindset. He is urging Nana Akuffo-Addo to call for a judicial review after the judgment because according to him the NPP has “mathematical advantage” in the number of judges they have appointed as I have already stated. It is a paradox to think that such a personality who thinks that the dispensation of justice in our country should be based on “mathematical” logic and numerical Advantage rather than evidence was once the Attorney General of our country.

History tell us how some countries in Africa have witnessed civil strives because of the inordinate political ambitions of a few misguided citizens. A good example was our neighbor Ivory Coast. That country erupted into a senseless civil war and many of its people died because of one mad guy called Gbagbo. I think that Nana Akuffo-Addo is as dangerous as Gbagbo. More dangerous is the fact that there a number of our judges who are not only bent on auctioning justice in our country but also subverting our constitution to please their benefactors. Such patronizing behaviours imperil our democracy and we as Ghanaians must be worried about this.

This dubious and unmeritorious suit has however set a very bad precedent. The possible residual effect is that any questionable and dubious character in our country can drag the President of our country to court for questionable reasons. This is not good for our democracy. The contribution of John Agyekum Kuiffour to the present dubious political chicanery in our country cannot be over simplified. While in power, Kuffour and his gang created a problem for our country by inflating and loading our Supreme Court. A small country like Ghana has one of the highest numbers of judges in that court. It is now time to do the right thing. I am therefore calling on The President John Mahama to work with our parliament to put a ceiling to the number of judges that can be appointed to the Supreme Court so that no other political figure will be tempted to emulate the bad example of Kuffour.

Till then, we can only hope and pray