Many interesting developments have taken place since the NPP routed the Government of my party, the NDC, in the just ended General and Presidential elections. The looter John Mahama Government promised a smooth transition as though he had an option in the matter.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State are invited to the inauguration of the new Government as though this was a favour being done the President-elect and the new Government. The Spin is in the blood of the looter Government which loots and spins the plundering of the public purse for the likes of Woyome, Waterville and others and inflates contract prices to the detriment of the public purse.
One would have thought that the massive defeat of the Looter Government never witnessed in the annals of Ghanaian history would make it circumspect of how it handles the last days of its dying pangs as a Looter Government so that the Independent Prosecutor may have mercy upon them. Unfortunately impunity and corrupt behavior once internalized is difficult to change over-night as subsequent events show.
Agreements reached at the transitional team do not appear to have been kept by the Looter Government which is in a hurry to finish what it could not do in the last eight years. New contracts are being signed left, right and center by the outgoing looter Government under the claim of legality and constitutionalism.
We hear that 17 days to the handing over of power to the people’s choice of a new Government, serious and fundamental decisions affecting the electorate who resoundingly rejected the outgoing looter Government at the polls are being taken by it without consultation with the incoming Government.
Then on Tuesday 20th December 2016 we woke up to the news that: “President John Dramani Mahama has confirmed Joseph Whittal as the new Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).” In the same news item we are told that: “The President has also appointed Ms. Josephine Nkrumah as the substantive head of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).”
Ironically the news report adds: “The appointments come a few weeks after the President lost the presidential elections to the opposition NPP leader Nana Addo Dankwaa Akufo-Addo. The President-elect will be sworn-in January 7, 2017.” The reporter therefore deliberately leads the intelligent reader to ask whether there is nothing wrong with such midnight appointments by a Government that has just been routed by an incoming Government at the polls with corruption being one of the main electoral issues at stake at those polls.
Not unexpectedly, the transition team of the incoming Government issues a statement stating that: “These appointments ….have been done contrary to an earlier agreement at the Transition Committee’s meeting of December 19th, at which meeting it was agreed that such appointments would be done subject to consultation with the Presidential Transition Committee.”
The statement adds that: “We will, therefore, like to serve notice that the incoming administration reserves the right to review these and other high profile appointments, recruitments and contracts being embarked upon in these final days contrary to normal conventions associated with Presidential transitions and the consultation mechanism agreed.”
In a 19th December 2016 Myjoyonline report two young Ministers of the looter John Mahama regime are reported to have “defended the decision by functionaries of the Mahama led administration to award contracts and give appointments days after being voted out of government.” Haruna Iddrisu is reported to have said that:
“As a country what we need to pride ourselves is that you are assured of a peaceful, smooth transition of power from one political leadership to another, recognition of the continuous exercise of the legitimate legal authority and mandate by the current administration and know that an Act of Parliament cannot amend the constitution. The constitution clearly defines a four year mandate for the president and acts that are done on or before the midnight of 6th January are lawful and legitimate,” he explained.
In the same Myjoyonline report it is reported that: “The most eminent of the contract (sic) is the €18 million waste management contract signed with SCL Waste Management Limited.” Incidentally this sole sourced contract was signed by Mahama Ayariga who claimed that: “the contract had been on his desk around November. But as an MP seeking re-election he was busy campaigning and could not therefore give it any attention.” With outright impunity he says that: “I have up to the 6th January 2017 to implement what I want to do….”
I have heard some arguments justifying the midnight appointments, contracts and recruitments on the basis that former President J. A. Kufuor exercised executive powers to the last day of 6th January 2009 as precedent for what the Looter Government is now engaged in doing. The NDC Government when it assumed office on 7th January 2009 decided not to challenge the midnight decisions of President Kufuor thus giving them legitimacy.
It cannot pass for a precedent. Another difference which is being overlooked is that President Kufuor was exhausting his eight year mandate and his interpretation of the Constitution and the laws of Ghana cannot be binding on an incoming Government that has routed the incumbent Government soundly at the polls. I disagreed with what President Kufuor did but the then President-elect and his Vice-President-elect decided to let it pass without testing their constitutionality or legality. Their decision cannot bind the incoming Government so massively voted for by “We The People”.
The incoming Government has through its transition team given notice of its intention to contest the midnight decisions of the Looter Government and I think the overwhelming votes it received at the polls justifies its stand. I have also read on 20th December, 2016 that, unlike the Mills/Mahama Government, Philip Addison, a lawyer, has commenced an action to challenge some of the present midnight decisions of this looter Government.
My kinsman is being appointed the Commissioner for the CHRAJ when after wasting the public purse up to the Supreme Court to contest whether or not the suspects in the Mabey and Johnson case could be investigated for corruption he chose to go to sleep after promising he was going to investigate using the trove of credible evidence I sent CHRAJ in the case as Attorney General.
This same kinsman of mine white washed the Ford Expedition Saga even though he knew the CHRAJ had no jurisdiction over the President because the Attorney General could not prosecution him even if he were found culpable by CHRAJ. So even though he is my kinsman and culture requires me to keep quiet, I ask myself as an enlightened Ghanaian Putting Ghana First whether this appointment is compensation for past and future protection. This is a problem of conscience and not kinship or ethnicity – wrong is wrong no matter who is the beneficiary!
I had always thought that Governments were to act not only in accordance with the letter of the law or constitution but above all in accordance with its spirit if the rule of law is to prevail. Let’s wait and see whether the sterile legal and constitutional arguments of Haruna Iddrisu and Mahama Ayariga and their kind would prevail or the spirit of the Constitution that animates the letter of the law will prevail in the Courts.
President Barrack Obama had a constitutional right to nominate a US Supreme Court Judge, and nominated Merrick Garland but the Republican senators in a move with little precedent in US history simply refused to consider Garland’s nomination saying the winner of the November 8th presidential elections should make the pick. One Steven Michel filed a suit in a US federal court and lost and made an application to the Supreme Court of the US to force a senate committee vote on it.
The US Chief Justice, John Roberts, denied the emergency application on Monday, 19th December 2016. The spirit prevailed over the letter of the Constitution.
I argued and lost what is now referred to as the 31st December Case in the Supreme Court of Ghana in December 1993 narrowly but I took away the wise words of the late Mr. Justice Fanscios, (who was one of the majority that ruled against my case), whose speech in the case appears to me to remain the locus classicus on the balance that should be struck between the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution. Mr. Justice Franscios said in that case that:
“The letter and spirit of the Constitution A constitutional document must be interpreted sui generic to allow the written word and the spirit that animates it, to exist in perfect harmony. It is interpreted according to the principles suitable to its particular character and not necessarily according to the ordinary rules and presumptions of statutory interpretation: see Minister of Home Affairs v Fisher [1979] 3 All ER 21, PC. This allows for a broad and liberal interpretation to achieve enlightened objectives while it rejects hide-bound restrictions that stifle and subvert its true vision…”
“My own contribution to the evaluation of a Constitution is that, a Constitution is the out-pouring of the soul of the nation and its precious life-blood is its spirit. Accordingly, in interpreting the Constitution, we fail in our duty if we ignore its spirit. Both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution are essential fulcra which provide the leverage in the task of interpretation. In support of this, we may profitably turn to the Constitution, 1992 itself which directs that we accord due recognition to the spirit that pervades its provisions….” [79].
On the people’s choice as pointing to the spirit of the constitution, Mr. Justice Francois said:
“The People’s choice
By its sovereign will, the people of this country have chosen a multi-party system of government to regulate their affairs. The fact that they chose a new direction and a new system of governance, is the clearest pointer to change. In charting a different course, the democratic path, the people of this country took a solemn step away from what was immediately prevailing. Viewed in this light, it is idle and illogical to hold that the old order has yielded place to nothing new. Especially when the new order is diametrically opposed to the old which it supplanted….[80]”
What is going on in the transition to the new Government reinforces my conviction for my pre-election call upon the electorate to vote out the incumbent looter Mahama Government to stop the plundering of the public purse and get our looted monies back. When I look at how the Looter Government is preparing its final exit after its miserable and unprecedented defeat at the polls, I am left in no doubt that Ghana would have been bankrupted with another four years of this looter Government in power.
Come to think of it, the last election (2012) was not won at the ballot but by the razor-thin votes of eleven Justice of the Supreme Court, indicating a doubtful people’s mandate. So how come this Looter Government is so arrogant even after the people have spoken decisively on the only occasion one can call a representative ballot since December 2008? Impunity! But this impunity can be curbed by constitutional means to the regret of this outgoing Government after 7th January 2017.
It is important that as many enlightened middle class Ghanaians speak up to defend the majority of our citizens who are uneducated in the Whiteman’s ways but funded our education through college and university. Ghanaians must be the beneficiary of our public purse and not just a few political elite and establishment figures.
Fear is the enemy of change! I am not cowed, have not been cowed, cannot be cowed, and will not be cowed by subtle messages of threats of postponing my disappearance until the new Government comes into office. Ghana is worth dying for and so fellow citizens speak up and defend your 7th December 2016 votes by not allowing this looter Government to deliberately make it impossible for the Government you popularly vote for to govern smoothly upon assuming office on 7th January 2017.
Do not sit on the fence at this last hour and allow looters who came into office by the razor-thin majority vote of Justices of the Supreme Court to intimidate fellow citizens Putting Ghana First.
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AMENDMENT OR BILL OF RESTRICTION MAHAMA APPOINTMENTS TO CHRAJ, NCCE, AUDITOR GENERAL AND OTHERS, AS WELL AS NEW CONTRACTS WHICH CAN BE DUBIOUS AND INFLATED CONFIRM HIS CORRUPT NATURE. HE IS DESPERATE TO COVER UP HIS CORRUPT DEEDS, FEARING THE NEW GOVERNMENT WOULD YIELD TO THE CALL OF GHANAIANS TO INVESTIGATE THE CORRUPTION. THE EXISTING CONDITIONN IS A VERY BAD PRACTICE IN GHANAIANS POLITICS AND WE SHOULD NOT SIT DOWN UNCONCERNED AND LEAVE THE MATTER IN THE HANDS OF ONLY POLITICIANS AND THE GOOD WILL OF A GOOD OUTGOING PRESIDENT. THERE SHOULD BE LAW IN GHANA EITHER BY AMENDMENT OR BILL TO RESTRICT AN BAD OUTGOING PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT TO SIGN ANY NEW CONTRACTS OR MAKE APPOINTMENTS AND RECRUITMENT AFTER ELECTIONS IF SUCH VACANCY OR NEED HAS EXISTED MORE THAN ONE MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTIONS. THE REASON IS THAT IF THE VACANCY OR THE NEED HAD EXISTED OVER ONE MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTIONS AND THE PRESIDENT, HIS GOVERNMENT AND THE NATION HAD COPED WITH IT THEN THE SAME PRESIDENT AND HIS GOVERNMENT AND THE NATION SHOULD BE ABLE TO COPE WITH THE SITUATION FOR THE REMAINING ONE MONTH BETWEEN THE ELECTIONS AND THE HANDOVER TO THE NEW GOVERNMENT.
President Obama was dealing with a GOP controlled congress,we know he faced racially motivated opposition,had congress been under control of Democrat and in any case,the supreme court nomination would have passed effortlessly so it is mischievous for Martin Amidu to compare apples with pawpaw
ATTIC MOHAMAED IS N,D C AGENT,, HE TOOK MONIES AND CARS FROM MAHAMA TO CANVESS FOR N,D,C, , HE WANT POSITION FROM N,P,P ,. HE TOOK CAR AND MONIRES FROM MAHAMA AND CAMPAIGNED FOR MAHAMA, BAWUMIA MUST BE CAREFUL WITH ATTIC, HE WORKS WITH BENARD MONA, THEIR N,D,C AGENT, IF BAWUMIA GIVE ATTIC APPOINTMENT IN NANA GOVERNMENT , ALL N,P.P PEOPLE WILL LEAVE N,P,P AND JOIN N,D,C FROM MEMBERS OF N,P,P ALL OVER THE WORLD
Martin Amidu is a ***barred word***. He does not think correctly. It is just envy and hatred. It Pains him that he has not achieved anything as compared to Mahama. In the North he is the Only one on Top now. Martin, you better heal your heart, otherwise you will die a ***barred word*** death. Bitterness will kill you. Atta Mills had Mercy on NPP Government when he came to power. An old person like Akuffo Addo should be doing witch hunting but to reconcile with others and prepare for heaven. Martin, go and arrest poeple and prosecute them. Look at you, you are the chief looter. Your face resembles a looter. That s why you will still not get any position in the coming government. You will turn against them when things dont go well. A disloyal person is always disloyal. Go burn the sea. ***barred word***
The GREAT BOOK,says 'inter alia' like came into the world,but the people preferred darkness, because their ways were evil. Many would prefer that Martin keep silent, because of their 'evil' ways.But you see there is always a day when 'evil' and 'wicked' deeds shall be accounted for,no matter your level in the society. Man brace yourself up for 'yours' is coming. Instead of condemming Martin ,and 'branding' him with all kinds of names,repent of your evil ways and live a life that please the LORD.Do not be overly greedy. Even with all your estates; buildings,cars, hotels,money,etc.Whether as 'Presiden' 'Parliamentarian',or 'Professor'you shall leave all behind. SO LIVE AND LET LIVE.
It is not about getting to the level of Mahamma, rather its about patriotism for your country.
EVERYBODY SHOULD UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE WORRIES OF MAHAMA ABOUT CHRAJ, NCCE, AUDITOR GENERAL AND THE OTHER APPOINTMENTS AND CONTRACTS WHICH THEY INFLATE THE COST. HE KNEW OF WHAT HE HAS DONE AND HE THINKS HIS APPOINTMENT WOULD HELP HIM TO COVER UP IF THE NEW GOVERNMENT YIELDS TO THE CALL OF INVESTIGATION OF THE CORRUPT DEEDS OF MAHAMA GOVERNMENT. WE WAIT TO SEE HOW THINGS MIGHT UNFOLD IN THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. I THINK THERE SHOULD BE LAW IN GHANA THAT AN OUTGOING GOVERNMENT CANNOT APPOINT ANYBODY TO ANY OFFICE IF A CONTRACT OR A POSITION HAS BEEN VACANT FOR MORE TIME, UP TO THE DAY OF ELECTIONS, THAN THE REMAINING PERIOD BETWEEN THE DATE OF THE APPOINTMENT AND THE TIME TO HANDOVER. IF THE OFFICE HAD BEEN VACANT FOR SOME DAYS OR MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTION WHY CANT THAT OFFICE BE VACANT FOR THE REMAINING DAYS BEFORE THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
Amidu would have been equaly good suited for the position of Independent Prosecutor just like those mentioned above.But he has overly prejudiced his good intentions which might tend to be misconstrued and therefore, would not stand the test of unbiased and fair public's judgement.Especially, when the public opinion is so polarized along the lines of NPP and NDC.
As far as I am concerned president Mahama is more relieved losing this election than still being the president. He has lost the presidency but he has not lost his pay, his vehicles and all that former presidents receive after their tenure. It's maybe his appointees who may be affected, even those people would still have ex gratia. How about those of us celebrating his lost, if we were poor before he lost we may still be poor or poorer because nana addo would not call us and put money in our pockets. The earlier we find something productive to do the better, because what npp are going to do is to also fill their pockets and leave and blame it on the past government.
Independent prosecutor doesn't necessarily mean the person would not be a member of party in government. What it means is the person whether a member of government or not should be independent minded. There are so many persons in npp who are not biased at all, such as papa owusu ankomah and ayikoi otoo, therefore to say an independent prosecutor cannot come from the party in government is nun sense. After all was amidu not NDC member yet he was a torn in the flesh of its own government. My point is there are still npp leading lawyers who can do better job than Martin amidu.