<<Print>>

The medical, legal and other professions are largely hinged upon a code of ethics, a standard which sets them apart from non-professional occupations. The administration of justice in particular, a specialized profession, demands the adherence to time-tested and laid-down procedures by their practitioners, a deviation from which is intolerable and indeed almost sacrilegious. Little wonder therefore that in his reaction to the continuous attacks from pro-NDC newspapers, Hon. Martin Amidu, Attorney General, described those behind the tendentious project as displaying ignorance of the law. Over the past three years, people in Dagbon waited in vain for President Mills to make good his campaign promise of arresting and jailing those behind the murder of the late Ya Na Yakubu Andani II. There was no doubt in the mind of the then Candidate Mills that such an action could not be undertaken without recourse to the law. Arbitrariness has no place in law and yet for political expedience, persons seeking power sought to convince the electorate, demanding a special favour that there was a way out of such matters. Unable to make good the promise, a deputy minister, in his reaction and that of government, pointed out that the promise was all but a political stunt. In the belated remark, he asked how the law could be set aside and replaced by arbitrariness. The foregone reality notwithstanding, people who ought to know better that the Alfred Agbesi Woyome�s debacle is inconsistent with the law continue to spew falsehood in the name of political loyalty. The AG�s recent actions, the bombshell press statement and a subsequent marching to court, all in a bid to retrieve for the state the illegally paid money, have not earned for him accolades from all Ghanaians. While good Ghanaians with nationalist fervour saw in his actions an enterprise worthy of emulation, parochial-minded persons in the minority are seeking his blood. We are enthralled by the remarks of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in reaction that lawyers should first and foremost uphold the law regardless of whose ox is gored. For those who think otherwise and therefore proceed to make outrageous demands and remarks, their faux pas can only be attributed to ignorance or outright mischief. Three female lawyers at the Attorney-General�s Department, in one of the twists to the Woyome saga, have attracted the ire of the latter as they ask for their dismissal from the state department. According to them, the ladies are related or married to some NPP officials. If this is not nonsense, we do not know how else to describe this rubbish. The GBA offered this crop of sick Ghanaians an appropriate response which we associate ourselves with: �Members of the Ghana Bar Association work and serve in various capacities and are held to very high professional and ethical standards, which are also laid down by statute. Thus, unlike many other professions in the realm, a breach of our ethical rules is a breach of the law.� Hon Martin Amidu, a lawyer commanding enviable deference, knows what he is doing. Indeed, had his dismissal been a cut-and-dried affair, the President would not have hesitated to take that path. They added, �For the uniformed, it must be pointed out that as lawyers our prime objective is to uphold the law.� A word to a wise is enough but for the foolish the opposite.