The Supreme Court Verdict - Justice Is What The World Is Waiting For (3)

Justice william Atuguba

—The Petitioners' Plea
Independence has been accepted by professional bodies world-wide as a fundamental professional ethic which should be exercised by any professional in the performance of his or her duties. Independence has traditionally been defined by the professions as the ability to act with integrity and objectivity. When it comes to the legal profession, no concept of professional ethics can be viewed more important to the judge sitting on a case than that of independence as far as the image he or she projects is concerned. The concept of independence of the judge is a cardinal pre-requisite for the effective delivery of justice. The independence of the judge should ensure that he or she approaches his or her work with an unbiased viewpoint while listening to arguments from counsels, evaluating evidence adduced before him and in delivering his or her judgment. Independence ensures that the judge pronounces the impartial and unbiased judgment essential to the proper delivery of justice.

The judge is independent when he or she can carry out this work freely and objectively. Objectivity is an independent mental attitude which the judge should maintain throughout the period during which a case in front of him or her lasts. The judge should have an impartial, unbiased attitude and avoid conflicts of interest. He or she is not to subordinate his or her judgment on judicial matters to that of others. It is an accepted fact that judges cannot practise their profession and participate in the world's affairs without being exposed to situations that involve the possibility of pressures upon their integrity and objectivity.  While it would be impracticable to prescribe all such situations, it would also be improper to ignore the problem and thus refuse to set limits for that reason.

Judges cannot avoid external pressures on their integrity and objectivity in the course of their professional work, but they are expected to resist those pressures.  They must, in fact retain their integrity and objectivity in all phases of the case before them and avoid involvement in situations that would impair the credibility of their independence in the minds of reasonable men familiar with the facts of the case.

The nine honourable men and women of the Supreme Court are faced with two possible impairments to their independence: duress and undue influence from certain evil quarters. The criminals who brutally and callously abducted three high court judges and  an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces deep in the bowels of a state sanctioned curfew, murdered them and burnt their bodies beyond recognition have managed to warm themselves back into power. They have also vividly reminded us that there are many ways of killing a cat. Twenty five years of being in power have moved their state of living from those of poor church mice to the glutinous, opulent and obscene lifestyles of top film stars and sportsmen of the Western world. They will do everything to maintain that filthy lifestyle through either duress or undue influence on the nine justices of the Supreme Court. We in this country witnessed during the dark days of our history a Chief Justice who delivered a verdict and refused to present his written judgment.

Twenty five years have not softened the hardened hearts of these atrocious cabals to move away from their evil ways and thus turn to God. The fact that they continue to create and perfect various corruption machineries like  WOYOMEGATE, GYEEDA and SADA to loot and share the nation's wealth amongst themselves consolidates the fact that all right thinking citizens should pray to the Almighty Allah to protect the nine Supreme Court judges from any evil machination from the satanic tentacles of these evil people. Again, the Almighty Allah should grant the judges the fortitude and the strength of character of David and the wisdom of King Solomon to maintain their independence at this crucial time of the nation's history and do what they have sworn an oath to do so that they can deliver a PEOPLE'S VERDICT which will stand the test of time and leave a lasting legacy behind so as to consign the PNDC/NDC era into the dust bin of history and the hottest part of hell.

While we pray for the judges, we should also throw hypocrisy to the wind and direct all prayers and pleas for peace to the rightful quarters where such prayers and pleas logically belong. Everybody in this country, including the clergy who are praying feverishly for peace understands and appreciates where any disturbance of the peace we are enjoying today is likely to come from. The good God should therefore not be mocked by any hypocritical attitudes and mindsets. Let us call a spade a spade for that is the only way we can help the wicked in the society to change and turn to God's ways so that justice and peace shall reign. There are many reasons why the Supreme Court should deliver a PEOPLE'S VERDICT in order to save this nation from turning into a failed state.

On the political front, by the acts of commission and omission of the NDC foot soldiers in the seizure of toilets, lorry parks and the ongoing cases of district chief executives, and the burning of both state properties and NDC party offices while the security services look on unconcerned, it has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the NDC leadership has lost control over the Frankenstein monster it created and hence lost all claims of its ability to govern this country.  Any continuous stay of the NDC in power will strengthen the hands of the NDC foot soldiers who will make this country ungovernable. Never in the history of this country have we experienced so much state capture where greedy and gluttony by some despicable characters who have placed themselves in position of trust and turn round to so much abuse that trust to capture all the critical institutions under their armpit to their own good and at great loss to the citizens. Today, public servants including men and women of the security services look to the direction of the State House for direction before performing any duties disdainfully thrown at them. Another six months of John Dramani Mahama's incompetent and corrupt NDC's administration, and this country will become a failed state.

On the economic front, the five years of the incompetence and the corruption of the NDC administration have virtually brought this country down onto its knees. This country has been thrown back into time 100 years after five years of NDC misadventure. The country is broke and at a complete stand still with corruption everywhere. State institutions cannot function because no budgetary allocations have been released since the beginning of this year. The NDC administration has moved the nation's debt from GH₵9 billion to GH₵39 billion within five years and yet, there is nothing to show for all the huge revenues, loans and grants the nation accrued during that period. The corruption industry has become the most profitable venture in this country. The John Dramani Mahama's NDC administration has become adept in siphoning any state revenue which comes into the state coffers into the private pockets of the members of the administration with such crass impunity, is simply frightening.

On the social front, the NDC administration has succeeded in giving ethnicity a bad name. Under John Dramani Mahama's NDC administration, most top positions in the public service have been given to people of the Savanna descent, while the Volta Region has been appeased with some spoils of the war, with the other remaining regions having to rely on the crumbles from the dinner table. In the meantime, resources meant for development of the Savanna Region and allocated to SADA which could have benefitted majority of the people from that region have been looted and shared among the elite from that region who were put in charge of SADA. This is the same developmental agenda adopted by Rawlings PNDC/NDC administration when top public service positions went to the people from the Volta Region while the region was left impoverished.

On the legal front, what the Supreme Court is being called upon to adjudicate is to interpret the constitutional provisions with regards to the election of a President and then look at the evidence adduced before it and then apply it to their interpretation. The fact that both the Chairman of the Electoral Commission as well as Mr. John Dramani Mahama's representative who also doubled up as the NDC representative stand discredited and disgraced has never been in doubt in the eyes and minds of the discerning people of this country, thanks to the live screening of the Supreme Court proceedings as they repeatedly committed perjury. The work of the nine honourable men and women of the Supreme Court has been finely chiselled out for them. The whole nation and the world at large entreat them to deliver a PEOPLE'S VERDICT so that justice and peace can be given a chance.

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 By Kwame Gyasi