Ghana is in another crisis. There is nowhere to turn to for justice as corruption leaves no tissue of state untouched, including the judiciary.
With our last bastion of justice now in disarray, perhaps it is time to throw our hands into the air in desperation and mark of hopelessness.
The expose of the rot in the judiciary – something which publicity has always been moderate for want of adequate evidence – has shaken the foundation of the country.
Snippets of the expose, when they made landfall over the past couple of days, had many questioning whether one particular judge whose vociferousness during the election petition hearing cast him in angelic mode, without blemish, could have been part of the crestfallen.
Behind the scene manoeuvres to shield some whose humiliation could be fatal to them and even threaten the viability of the government are said to be mounting.
Is there fairness in the country when those who have trampled upon the sanctity of their occupations in this regard, having sworn oaths not to do so, pretended for many years to be administering justice and jailed many in the course of their routine assignments?
In one of her many admonitions to members of the bench, the Chief Justice did not leave anybody in doubt about the spreading affliction in the judiciary: she has had cause to crack the whip on defaulting judges.
The morality of members of the bench has never triggered so many integrity questions. The expose of massive corruption in the judiciary, now trending locally and in some networks abroad, has compelled Ghanaians and all who have something to do with the country to oppugn the quality of justice administration in general.
What is the quality of many judgments delivered in the past few years, especially the election petition hearing, when those in-charge are blemished?
What is the impression of potential foreign investors? Until now the fear of corruption on the bench was largely bordered on perceptions.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, we are in a better position to appreciate the quantum of graft in which the country is enmeshed.
We can conclude without any iota of doubt that no department of state is spared from the affliction if the judiciary is compromised.
When the legislature, executive and now the judiciary are afflicted by the contagion of corruption then the country we can conclude is doomed.
The awesome powers of members of the bench, which one of the justices of the Supreme Court who sat on the landmark yet rubbished election petition hearing gleefully referred to when he humiliated those hauled before him over a questionable contemptuous conduct, have been exercised by those lacking the morality to do so.
For those who saw this crop of Ghanaians as above board, close to angels, now they know better. We shall return.
