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13.01.2018 Opinion

Concerning the office of the Special Prosecutor

By Abdul Sidibe
Concerning the office of the Special Prosecutor
13.01.2018 LISTEN

We all know that the so-called office of the "Special Prosecutor" is nothing more than a witch-hunting arm of the NPP using disgruntled members of the NDCs who never liked their party's government as a front to undermine and destroy the opposition NDC by persecuting their members and officials.

Every observer of Ghanaian politics knows where Mr. Rawlings and Martin Amidu stood vis a vis the previous NDC government. The two are fun of making baseless accusations against members of the former Administration and when asked to substantiate their claims with evidence, they both punt. It was precisely the reason why the late President Mills fired Martin Amidu from his government and was at loggerhead with Rawlings throughout the life of the NDC government.

Therefore, attempts to paint Martin Amida and Mr. Rawlings as somehow NDC stalwarts by the ruling NPP is just as stupid as it is nonsensical. Everyone knows that Martin Amidu, Mr. Rawlings and his wife have all but tried to drag the good names and reputations of members of the previous NDC administration in the mud when Mrs. Rawlings’s bided and lost the NDC primary against President Mills.

When President Mills passed and John Mahama succeeded him, they turn their attentions to helping the NPP unseat the very party they claim to belong by making baseless and classless accusation against the NDC. Something they couldn't do when Mills was alive because the humble Professor's reputation was unimpeachable at least in the eyes of many well-meaning Ghanaians.

As stated earlier the supposed office of "Special Prosecutor" is nothing more than a witch-hunting office. We know that because Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, the vice president of perjuries and the man whose lies under oath still echoes in chambers of Ghana’s highest court and in the ears of senior justices when they overwhelmingly dismissed the NPP petition, told us it is. No sooner than last month was he everywhere in the Ghanaian airwaves telling the country how they are going get back at NDC officials using the office now to be head by Martin Amidu, the man who professes and signifies the very ideology of witch hunting opponents.

The Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo and the government he now lead must be careful here. The very elements he is now using against the NDC were those who called on the late President Mills to institute offices of prosecutions to hold member of the Kufour led NPP administration accountable after the latter left office in 2008. Something they deemed as a retaliation against the NPP for what it did to the NDC officials, including Mr. Rawlings and his wife after the 2000 election. The late President Atta Mills refused, and it constituted the earliest fallout between him and his government and the likes of Mr. Rawlings, his wife and Martin Amidu which culminated in Mrs. Rawlings’s contest against Prof Mills in the NDC primary which she was rejected by the party’s rank and file.

Ever since that congress, the NPP became their best friend. Those of us with political senses know where Mr. Rawlings, Martin Amidu and Mrs. Rawlings are headed. Their purpose is to befriend the new NPP government and use it as a leverage to get back at those they dislike in the NDC. Martin Amidu in particular was embittered by John Mahama’s selection as Vice Presidential candidate to run alongside mills in the 2008 over him. A grudge he still holds against the latter.

Martin Amidu’s appointment is just phase one of that overall objective. I am stunt that the leadership of the NPP is allowing itself to be used by a bunch of politically sadistic people. If the modern history of teaches Ghana us any lesson, it is that likes of Mr. Rawlings and his wife, and Martin Amidu have no permanent friends. Everyone on their path is a tool that can be to be used and be easily dispensed with when it suits them. Even those who sacrifice lives and limbs to free Rawlings from the shackles of Ghanaian prisons in 1979 after his first coup attempt are no long his buddies.

In my opinion, the late President and John Mahama were right in refusing to travel the path of the Rawlingses and Martin Amidu. The humble professor perhaps fathomed as I am doing in this piece that a harmonious relationship among ruling classes in democratic politics is necessary for peace and prosperity. In democracies ruling classes are opponents who contest among themselves. The more understand and harmony there is in these classes, the better it is for society as whole. The less harmony and more conflict among ruling classes the more disastrous it is for the society. We have observed this obscure political dictum in our own history and in several African countries including Cote d'Ivoire in the early and mid 2000s, Liberia in the 1990s, and now the United States. The famous African maxim that when elephants fight the grass suffers is just as true in politics. It is rather unfortunate that President Nana Addo has decided to travel along the path of political narcissist and sadists of Ghanaian politics.

I conclude by calling on President Nana Addo to disband the idea of appointing Martin Amidu to head the office of the special prosecutor. I see no need for that office but if the government disagrees and thinks otherwise, a neutral and reputable person who is beyond reproach be appointed as its head. There is no shortage of these caliber of people in Ghana. Amidu will not uphold the duties of the office in good faith. He is already compromised and has animosity against a faction of the Ghanaian political class, particularly in the NDC. Martin Amidu is bitter and angry and chances are that he will not hold the office in fairness.

Abdul Sidibe

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