, We are our own worst enemies
On 08/16/2013 I read an article critical of the President of the Supreme Court of Ghana . I get irritated when people write just because they are overseas making the impression Africa has nothing to offer except primitivism. When we are called monkeys we shout or when the British impose Bonds on us for visiting their country we get up tight. We have freely lived among them but we still behave like we never left our cottages in spite of writing big degrees after our names . Sometimes I can even stomach the ranting and raving of people like Okoampa , A community college “professor” which shows the quality of some of the institutions we so admire in the Diaspora and the Adofo Rocksons. But to me this from Dr Agyei Sarfo is a very low, low, which should be condemned , not to talk of Sakyi also comparing Nkrumah to Hitler. Guys what is wrong with us ?Ghan’s, Nkrumah is “ Africa’s man of the millennium “ and we Ghanaians want as much as possible to denigrate him for politics instead of being proud . Did Nkrumah show tribalism or racism as Hitler did ? Please ask Jesse Owens how he felt winning in Berlin . Then ask the millions who lost their lives because of Hitler . The man who plunged the world into a war causing untold destruction and suffering and we liken Nkrumah to him?
As for Dr Sarfo he writes about the President of the SC “Now he is usurping executive power by making himself a veritable dictator, a person whose word is law, relishing in imposing unreasonable punishments on others for expressing their opinions, and denying people of due process much against established constitutional processes. If this is not a voodoo deity, then who is?” He goes on “ Given that Atuguba can hardly express himself in intelligible English, one wonders what type of legal argument and judicial precedent he would have used to justify his verdict were he challenged to detail such argument in a written opinion. And given his clear ignorance of the nature and scope of freedom of speech, one wonders if the man reads any law books beyond his caveman’s texts acquired two score years ago. And all these should not be surprising about the character called Atuguba, having achieved fast-track promotion through dubious appointment by a leader whose grasp of the law was virtually non-existent. Indeed, if one looks at the comedy of amnesia being put out by former Justice Kpegah, one is not left in doubt that our justice system is inhabited by half-baked scholars who were imposed on the country by leaders who had no vision of qualitative justice for Ghana.”. I wonder and wonder . Law is about what “ a reasonable person will do or not do” . In our African societies we had our own laws even before the advent of the Whiteman. We were not lawless but ordered with respect for old age, institutions and one another . So even in the cave and before the “vodoo’ deity , there was respect and laws of dos and don’ts. Does Dr Sarfo want to say that in his village or tribe there is no law and order? That there is no respect for the institutions that are there and you can just say what you like? Does he want to say , jungle law permeates the place to such an extent you can impregnate a girl and get away with it , molest under age children , get produce from anyone’s farm with no repercussions , sleep with any one’s wife at will ? If not can he truly say what he has written makes sense or is reasonable? If not then as a legal practitioner I implore him to write and withdraw it and apologize to us the readers and the esteemed court How does he expect others to respect our institutions and persons ?. He lives in the US and I want to say, the Supreme Court there leaves a lot to be desired as Justices are noted for voting along party lines . Can he say the judgment in the Trevon Martin case is Justice? Is that what Ghana should emulate? No society is perfect and so we should stop this idea, Africa is nothing but a mess. Let us learn to be proud of what we have while assimilating the best from other cultures
• Justice Kpegah has not displayed a “ comedy of amnesia”. Amnesia is forgetfulness or a deficit in memory caused by brain damage, disease, or psychological trauma. What did he forget .That some one changed his name and so is mis representing his identity or that he passes by saying he has a law qualification but has no proof. Is that amnesia? Let the impersonator who claims he has been cheated come out with his certificate and also give his year group at Achimota .
The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist and believes it is African Unity that will solve Africa’s underdevelopment
