Aponkye Justice

Someday, in the near future, Ghana will wake up from her deep slumber and realize, the reason we are where we are as a country; the reason we have moved from a high flying potential middle-income nation to a HIPC country once again; the reason we have no electricity and our national health service is collapsing, is not because a judge took aponkye and yam to set a thief free, as sad as that may be.

Someday we will realize, that corrupt officials everywhere in the country are rejoicing, because the judges story takes the heat away from people engaged in systematic large-scale corruption involving millions of dollars; that Woyome is a free man, and those who colluded in the fraud that robbed a poor country of 52 million dollars, were never brought to justice. Someday we will remember once again, GYEEDA, SADA, and the several botched projects littered round the country for which ministers have already taken their 10%. We will remember once again, someday, all the other huge judgement debts, millions of dollars gone down the drain, because officials have deliberately colluded with contractors to steal from the public purse.

So I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed that it's fallen on Mr Anas to publicly humiliate judges for taking aponkye. Where was the Chief Justice? Did she know what was going on under her watch? If she did not know, should she have known? Did she not have any suspicion or inkling at all? So why is she still at post? Why has she not taken responsibility for what has happened and resigned? Until such time that bosses are made to take the blunt for the misdemeanor of their subjects, and continue to believe that "a man should not be made to sweat after someone else has eaten his hot pepper" we have no chance in hell of eliminating corruption.

So a judge takes a goat to set a murderer free! Big deal!! We are being murdered in our hundreds everyday by corrupt officials through whose incompetence and corruption there are no drugs in the hospitals to treat our sick. We are being murdered in our hundreds by the policeman who takes bribes to allow drunken drivers in poorly maintained cars to drive on our streets. Yes, we are being murdered, by the city council official who oversees the building of substandard high rise buildings which then go on to collapse, killing innocent Ghanaians. We are even being murdered by the radio presenter who sells medicines on radio that treat everything from premature ejaculation to cancer. We are a dying people. And the soul of the poor Ghanaian weeps in his weary sleep.

There is no good corruption and bad corruption. But a judge holds immense power, even to condemn his fellow man to death. A corrupt judge is a danger to all of us. Soon Ghanaians may opt for taking the law into their own hands rather than going before judges who seek the highest bidder. Violence in our streets would be the result. Foreign investors might think twice about spending money in a country where they cannot rely on the judiciary for justice should things go wrong. The position of the judge is so important, that it behoves on people in authority to put checks and balances in place to ensure that we do not only depend on the goodwill and strength of character of individual judges to attain justice, that there are rigorous guidelines for sentencing, and that allegations are against judges are delt with the utmost seriousness. And that is why the Chief Justice and even the president who appoints people into positions based merely on their political affiliations should bow their head in shame.

And all of us Ghanaians, have to bow our head in shame. Anyone who has ever offered a bribe in Ghana, however small must bow their heads in shame. For, as Shannon Alder said;

“I am tired of people saying that poor character is the only reason people do wrong things. Actually, circumstances cause people to act a certain way. It's from those circumstances that a person's attitude is affected followed by weakening of character. Not the reverse......"

We have a Bureau of National Investigations, Economic Crime Unit, CHRAG etc. It is our duty to empower these institutions, expand them if necessary and pay them well, to work effectively in ending corruption. And our leaders must lead by example. We do not need to have Kwaku Baako's vigilante masked men on our corridors seeking aponkye justice!! Ghana deserves better than that.

Papa Appiah
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