We cannot do business as usual

A hornets’ nest has been stirred, one can say, regarding the recent revelation of very discreditable happenings in the judiciary. In fact, it is no secret that the Ghanaian populace had for a long time ‘known’ of murky processes of the justice system in the country, except they did not have the hard evidence until now.

What about dockets getting missing and cases those go on for ‘centuries’. It was not hearsay when a group of lawyers some time ago spoke out boldly about bribery in the judiciary.

At the time I was one of those who thought the lawyers had hit below the belt and that if even it was true, their lack of evidence would lead to a lowering of the hard won reputation of men and women on the bench.

Even though I was not shocked by the fallout from the Anas investigation and the ocular evidence supplied, it was nonetheless a huge let down for me, and I believe countless others, considering that those caught in the net were men in whom so much trust was placed.

So much power

It is no gainsaying that judges wield so much power. They call the shots on cases and determine the fate of people who appear before them.

So to think that the awesome power in their hands was applied at their whim and caprices, regardless of what the law says, was at once terrifying and blood curdling.

The police had on a number of occasions complained about how they were becoming frustrated with the courts for releasing armed robbers back into society. Now, we know why they come back to haunt us and it is so abominable.

While it is true that judges come from the same society as the rest of us, and as some say, they are a product of the society, I beg to say that although there is corruption almost everywhere one looks, the fact that judges, besides God, exercise right over life and death, make them such huge revered figures that to see them kowtow to low levels as to receive goats and foodstuff in exchange for the release of armed robbers is painful beyond measure.

Circumspection

A number of prominent people have come out to speak against the bribery scandal that has hit the judiciary.

Among them are the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Theodora Georgina Wood, the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Dominic Ayine, former Presidents J. A. Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings, and the Asantehene, Otumfuor Osei Tutu II, all describing the episode as unfortunate and deplorable, and have cautioned all the same that society exercised circumspection so we did not throw the baby away with the bath water.

What has happened should provide opportunity to have the entire judicial service system cleaned up.

Since the matter broke, much of the attention has focused on the judges involved who only constitute a small number of the Judicial Service staff that was caught receiving bribe money and other inducements to influence justice.

Those who hang around court houses and have made influencing justice their stock-in-trade must from henceforth be flushed out, shamed and punished.

Of course, as a democracy the judiciary must still be our bastion and we must never lose hope in it, particularly at this time when we seek to consolidate gains we have made in our governance system.

It is on this point that I will like to add my voice to that of the President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Nene Amegatcher, who at the recent annual conference of the association encouraged members not to be deterred by the scandal but still continue to submit applications to become judges and magistrates because of the expansion of infrastructure and the likely fallout from the ongoing investigations.

Principles and ethics

It is also a relief to know that not all our justices could be made to chuck out principles and ethics for meagre expendables.

To those judges who stood strong, the people of Ghana salute you and urge you to continue to stand firm and rooted in the truth, knowing that there are greater rewards at the end of your sojourn here on earth.

We need the judiciary by all means and that is why efforts to investigate the current matter must be done swiftly but concisely so that we can allow sleeping dogs to lie and carry on from where we left off.

One point that bugs me no end is the attempt to stop the public screening of Anas’s investigations.

Since the judges were acting on behalf of the people and from whom they derived their power, it is fair that they become accountable to the people who would want to know how they exercised the powers they were given.

It is also important that in all our dealings as Ghanaians we remain true and fair to one another ,and so if other investigative pieces from other sectors of the economy were shown publicly why must the judges be treated differently.