So Much Noise About Nothing

The Special Prosecutor issue should not be an albatross around anybody's neck safe the corrupt and those who have not been fair to Mother Ghana.

Ever since the subject debuted on the public space, it has generated interesting interventions from the National Democratic Congress (NDC). These were nothing but futile attempts at giving the subject a bad name and hanging it.

Had Ghanaians despised the subject they would not have perhaps given the then Candidate Akufo-Addo the overwhelming votes they gave him when he touted it before them as manifesto stuff. They heard, they loved it and voted for him so he can make good the promise of a Special Prosecutor.

A few days ago, the monster bill, as the NDC would rather it is labeled, was withdrawn because of some technical blemishes. We wish such a withdrawal did not happen at all. Given the importance of the subject in our overall war against corruption and various forms of malfeasances which pollute the governance atmosphere, those responsible for nurturing it should not have left any room to warrant such a reversal.

Be it as it may, it has happened this way and all we can do is pray that the appropriate things are done for a re-presentation.

We have no doubt in our minds that the bill in question is for the overall good of the country's governance which in its current state is suffering from a social ailment whose antidote includes what is scaring the political bad nuts in the form of a Special Prosecutor. It can only be conjectured how much the state has lost through thievery from state coffers.

We have heard the various debates regarding the necessity and otherwise of the bill vis a vis the national interest. So many things must play out to ensure that our national interest is protected in the optimum fashion – one of them being the protection of the public purse.

In a country where people go into public service with the unfortunate obsession of making money outside their official remunerations, the need for such an office regardless of the Attorney General's Department cannot be swept aside.

We listened to the President's remarks about the subject especially how nobody should be scared about the Office of the Special Prosecutor. Special offices are needed as appropriate responses to our peculiar challenges of endemic corruption and outright graft.

Those who are underrating the extent of corruption in the country and how this socio-economic aberration has eaten deep into the fabric of the state are either ignorant of the reality on the ground or merely displaying hypocrisy because they are beneficiaries of it.

Government appointees responsible for managing such legal novelties must do their work well to obviate such avoidable mishaps which led to the kind of withdrawal that we have witnessed.

The subject under review covers a wide spectrum of governance issues with far-reaching effect on our democratic experiment hence the need for meticulousness in dealing with it.

We demand the bi-partisan approach to this subject so that those who claim they did not steal public money will confidently respond to invitations to clear their names if need be rather than pressing the political or witch-hunting button for sympathy from gullible members of the public.

Witches can only be hunted when they exist. They should have nothing to fear about when they do not fly about in the night on vampire missions.