Between Anas And Martin Hamidu, Who Is Our Greatest Devil As A Country?

It is indeed another beautiful day the Lord has made and we as Ghanaians must rejoice and make glad in it. I bring to you all my fellow country men and women greetings from my humble abode. I believe as a country we have made several strides and efforts towards our national development. Admittedly, no one can say; Ghana as a country has come to no level of development irrespective of the various forms of government we have encountered since our independence. But the big question to be considered is that; considering our age as an independent state, is our current level of development what we deserve? The answer is obviously a big NO!

An almost 60 year old country with a lot of natural and human resources must see more than we see in terms of our development. Our peers in other parts of the world like Malaysia and India have gone a long way we have not gone even a half of it. You can agree or not but it is the principal fact. It is my humble prayer and wish that, my Ghana, your Ghana and indeed our Ghana will catch up with the development we desire soon.

There is one obvious natural truth with the word “development” we have always been fighting to attain either in our private lives or national aspect. Development does not come by itself but it takes people to come. YES, people with the mental enthusiasm and will to do. A commitment against personal egos and gains is the very root of development in any form. In Ghana now, we have few persons who are willing to sacrifice their personal egos in favor of our national development. A few of such persons are Mr. Martin Hamidu and ace investigative journalist, Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and my good brother of Joy fm, Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni. Undoubtedly, no one can tell me Ghana does not need any of these gentlemen in our quest to seek the level of development we need. For a fact, Mr. Martin Hamidu has paid his good dues to mother Ghana even if his Maker calls him today. At least, his selfless posture led to much illegal exposure of certain rots in a government he was serving as a minister. He sacrificed his juicy position for his country. Even when he was sent out of office, he continued to save our dwindling economy some millions of Ghana cedis and US dollars that were illegally paid to cronies and allies of his own government.

Mr. Anas on the other side has also proven beyond any reasonable doubt that, he is so interested in Ghana’s development. His tactical investigative revelations in our country are overwhelming. Indeed, like Mr. Hamidu, Anas has also saved us some millions of Ghana cedis.

To be an investigative journalist in a country like ours is not easy.

You must do that with your life and that of your family a deep risk.

However, let me put it on records that, none of these honorable citizens is a SAINT to me and also many Ghanaians. To me, none of their works are unquestionable. As humans as they are, their works cannot be said to be divine and holy. One must have the total rights to question the credibility of their works if he or she seems not to understand certain aspect of their works. The most important thing is to take effective actions their works deserves.

At this point, I would like to add my voice to the whole brouhaha between Mr. Hamidu’s statement on Anas’ judicial corruption video which has taken almost the media at hostage since it broke out. I, as an individual and a Ghanaian guided by the constitutional privileges and freedoms also expressed my views on the said video and believe many Ghanaians did same. The only difference is that, you and I didn’t have our own in the public domain because, we are not popular or perhaps we don’t have the platform as the Mankranso DCE once said…..so Ghanaians didn’t hear. I have read the release of Mr. Martin Hamidu for several times and I personally don’t see the logical reasons why Ghanaians must put the man to public ridicule. It is bad to be insulting people like Mr. Hamidu. Unfortunately, some of the people insulting and trashing Mr. Hamidu are people who have compromised their offices in one way or the other. They are the people creating, looting and sharing the little monies we have in our public purse.

What was the crime he committed? Is it because he questioned the integrity of the video?

If one had read very well the press release of citizen vigilante Hamidu, he would realize Mr Hamidu didn’t attack the actual work done by Anas but instead he told Anas some things he thinks was going to add more value to his documentary. Mind you, Mr. Hamidu is an astute lawyer who knows the law very well…..his competence doesn’t need to be told here. The fact that he never agreed with Anas on certain post-videoing processes doesn’t mean he is against Anas. This is evident in his statement and I quote; When contentions begun to surface first that the culprits could not be disciplined unless they were first convicted of a criminal offence and secondly that they could not be liable for disciplinary proceedings because the petitioners entrapped them into the misconduct I disagreed vehemently.

Fellow Ghanaians, does this statement an indication of someone against the work of Mr. Aremeyaw? It obvious the man is rather weighing his support for the documentary and the chief justice. To me, he was backing the actions of the chief Justice and for that matter,Ghana.

Mr. Hamidu again explored several avenues for us as Ghanaians who doesn’t know the law to know what indeed the law was all about in these gargantuan revelations of Anas. In his second attempted, he cited the evidence act to discredit the claim of some of the embattled judges that, the video of Mr. Anas was illegally obtained and that it could not be used as a basis for their suspension and trial. This was his statement “On the entrapment charge I contended that since the coming into force of the Evidence Act, 1975(NRCD 323) the evidential rule in relation to improperly obtained evidence is that relevant evidence was admissible notwithstanding that it was even obtained illegally subject only to any exclusionary rule of law or discretion”.

On the same charge that some of the judges sought to have discredit the merit of the video because they argued it was a unconstitutional violation of their right to privacy, again, Mr. Hamidu was quick to lay bare the fact of the law which says “On a third argument that the constitutional right to privacy might have been violated by the petitioners , I took the view that privacy cannot be invaded upon an invitation or permission to a private person by the complainant as he can be said to have voluntarily invited the person into his privacy. Secondly, consent by deception has been held to constitute valid consent for purposes of the invasion of privacy in the prosecution of crime”. Let’s not forget that, Anas did not just enter the offices of the justices to illegally obtain the videos but he always went on an invitation except that the judges didn’t know he was Anas and also was recording them. So though the evidence was collected illegally, it can still be used as trial evidence. I quote him again, “I still think that the law in criminal trials is that relevant evidence, however, obtained is admissible to prove an event except when there is a rule of law or practice excluding it”. In all these, what evil did Mr.Hamidu to merit all these insults from Government and some members of the media? I agree at some instance he was a bit rude on some of comments since the Anas-Amidu brouhaha but doesn’t give calls for insults against his personality. We must be proud of our national heroes like these gentlemen. Ghana needs either of them to survive the fight against corruption.

To cite my support for Mr. Hamidu, I agree with him 100 percent that, political corruption is the biggest tragedy that has befallen this noble country. From useless judgment debts, overspending, inflating of contracts (the DVLA saga) and direct stealing from national coffers is killing us much. Why should we strike on a judicial officer who has taken GHC 1000.00 as bribe to influence justice and rather allow a politician who has dubbed the country a whooping GHC 51million to live a happy life, all because he is a politician? Does this make sense at all? Any incorruptible government will collect this illegal money paid and put all culprits behind bars on top. Why should Woyome be living a free life after a Supreme Court ruling to refund the money to the state? Isn’t it obvious the John Mahama led NDC is shielding political corruption like Hamidu said? Again, I am sharing the same view that, president Mahama cannot fight the political rot that has bedeviled his government. We have seen several instances where corruptible appointees of his government are rewarded with bigger positions.

Typical examples include the appointment of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah from sports ministry to the presidency when it was obviously clear to the whole world that a lot of corruption went on under his authority as sports minister. Also, the appointment of Dr Opuni from FDA to COCOBOD in a time when he was alleged to be involved in some illicit drugs dealings.

I feel shy when I bring out words that seem to bring the dignity of our presidency into the gutters but the situation there calls for such words. My president is corrupt and he doesn’t want accept the fact that he is. Like our elders say, “an elder who sit aloof for children to perpetuate evil is himself an evil man” and Mr. President, you cannot convince us that you live the opposite. Please, Your Excellency, the best way to fight corruption is to accept that your government is corrupt and from such tags, you can put up appropriate measures to fight the corrupt nuts in your administration. Several instances, Ghanaians have heard you debunking claims that there is massive corruption in your government. On the other hand, we have also been hearing you expressing your unflinching commitment to fighting corruption in your government. So my big question is, if there is no corruption in your government, then which of corruption have you always pledged your commitment to fighting it and in whose government too? You need to be very serious, Mr. President.

To conclude, I wish to ask Ghanaians simple questions. Between Martin Hamidu and Anas, who do we not need in our fight against corruption? Who is the devil we don’t need as a people? Our elders say “when the toad comes from the river to announce the death of the crocodile, we don’t argue”. For all I know, Mr. Hamidu is a through son of NDC who served on several positions in the party and government. He patterned late president Mills as vice presidential candidate in the 2000 elections, government advisor on corruption, Interior minister, deputy Attorney general and substantive Attorney General….so there is no doubt that, the man knows the NDC government and party than our radio commentators and we the listeners. As far as I am concerned, we need each of them as a people. We shouldn’t allow the political spectacles to defray us from the obvious truth. Even the Holy book entreats us to “say the truth and the truth shall set you free”. The NPP/NDC syndrome is sending Ghana aback. The youth of this land must rise and redeem our mother land. Ghana is dying!

GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA…….. The write:

Richard Sarpong
Email: [email protected]