Friday,
March 22, 2013
Of course, those NPP officials
who have risen to Akufo-Addo’s defence may claim that because he is their
flagbearer (and leader?) of the party, they have every right to defend him. But
are their public pronouncements and insults against Justice Kpegah the defence?
They are wasting their breath, I
daresay, because the suit will not be determined at the bar of public opinion.
It is the High Court that will do so and all these people making this noise in
Akufo-Addo’s stead will probably not be invited to testify. So, what is the
real motivation for their jumping on Justice Kpegah?
One may quickly peg all down to
INTIMIDATION and public humiliation or calumny of Justice Kpegah to make him
look bad. That is why some have even quickly clothed him in the NDC garb and
begun seeing his action through their blinkers and politically tinted lenses to
suggest that he is being used by the NDC as a diversionary measure. They have
begun claiming that Justice Kpegah is a surrogate of the NDC to be used to
deflect public attention and interest in the NPP’s lawsuit at the Supreme Court
challenging the outcome of Election 2012.
One clear example of this
ascription of the NDC’s motives to Justice Kpegah is captured in the article (“‘Justice’ Kpegah, NDC’s Prince of Darkness,’ by one PaaNii Saka). The author claims, among
others that “The NDC is
battling on every side to remain in power; power they themselves know they do
not deserve. There is a lot of chatter on frequencies being used by the
National Security apparatus.”
Then,
he emerges with his major claim: “The Ex-Judge knows what he is doing. He’s
been deployed to slow down the process. It has the purpose of taking Nana’s
focus from the case…. Kpegah has been gunning for a role in this government
since its first term. Now is the time to show he can really be a member of the
gang by ‘shedding blood’. To belong, he must ‘kill’ a big prize. He can only do
this by attacking the principal of the case, i.e. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.
Kpegah knows he will lose the case, but he would have proven to his paymasters
that he can be as ruthless as they are, and that he should be admitted into the
gang.”
Those
NPP members who have attacked Justice Kpegah may have their own reasons for
doing so. Their outright insults won’t end the matter, though.
Of all these harsh words, none piques my interest
more than this one from Kwaku Baako: “Nana Akufo-Addo is indestructible.”
I want Kwaku Baako to know that attempts by
people to question Akufo-Addo’s integrity don’t necessarily amount to anybody’s
wanting to destroy him. It suggests to me that those people have some hunches
that they want confirmed or disproved. That’s why they can’t be dismissed as
irritants or people with a misplaced vengeance.
Even it were so, the question would be: Why
Akufo-Addo particularly? Why is Akufo-Addo the one whose integrity is always brought
into question or disrepute?
And we quickly note that it is not only about his
integrity as a lawyer that is at issue. Many have raised questions about his (im)moral
lifestyle too.
We recall the negative propaganda before the 2008
elections that put him in public discourse regarding allegations of his
drug abuse, licentiousness, and other streaks of character that were being used
to undermine his quest to ascend to the highest office of the land. Those very
issues cropped again when he contested the 2012 elections.
And I bet you, if he stands again at Election
2016, those very damning issues will be raised again to tarnish his image. The
conclusion is that not until a closure is found to those issues, they will
continue to poison public opinion against him. Is that what he wants?
The publication of those leaked wires to the US
Embassy (courtesy Wikileaks) also featured him (thanks to Kwasi Pratt’s
utterances).
Indeed, some of the allegations have hinged on
outright criminality, where Akufo-Addo was alleged to have killed somebody with
his car but was not punished because of his father’s influence.
In all these instances, especially the damning
allegations concerning his drug abuse, he never stepped forward to clear the
air. Instead, several people played the frontline role of doing damage control
for him. And they failed to clean the mud from him.
The only occasion on which he came out to say
anything in connection with the issue was when he issued a stern warning to
take legal action against anybody peddling any allegation of that sort against
him. He worsened his case.
That was even after his so-called legal team, led
by Nana Bediatuo, had already set the stage on legal action against anybody
imputing drug abuse to him. That threat didn’t achieve anything positive for
him. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the harm done to
Akufo-Addo’s image by such allegations is irreparable. Only he can save himself
from further calumny.
He can do so only if he tackles the bull by the
horn and not by its tail, as he seems to be doing now, taking the back seat and
allowing all manner of people to speak for him.
The matter is simple. Produce incontrovertible evidence
to silence all these people troubling him. I will take myself to explain this
problem. If someone accuses me of not being a trained journalist, for
instance—which I am—and that allegation is damning enough for me to care about,
all I have to do to prove that person wrong is to produce the evidence.
In this case, it is the certificate that will
confirm my academic or professional standing. I have my Diploma in Journalism,
signed by Kojo Yankah (then Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism), and
dated, June 1984, to confirm that I attended the GIJ for two years to qualify
for what I claim to be. Those bothering Akufo-Addo are the “seeing is
believing type”; so, he has only one solution for them: prove them wrong with
evidence!
You see, unlike journalism, where no one really
needs professional training in journalism to practice journalism and be known
as such, law is a different profession with its own regimen and rigours. That
is why anything that can prove Akufo-Addo right should be welcomed, not
condemned.
What Justice Kpegah has set in motion isn’t
strange to warrant all this verbal attack on him. His approach is different
from all others, including that of Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings who in 2008
accused Akufo-Addo of not being a lawyer and was equally condemned by all
Akufo-Addo’s defenders, including the Ghana Bar Association. The dust might
have appeared to have settled, but the negative fallouts harmed Akufo-Addo’s
reputation and political fortunes.
In this case, Justice Kpegah has gone to court
with the matter. The case cannot be wished away by those who don’t like it or
swept under the rug as has been the approach all along. This time, it is in
court and will be heard. No amount of defence by the Ghana Bar Association or
insults by those angered by the resurrection of this matter will settle it.
Justice Kpegah is seeking reliefs that will bring
about very serious work by the court. Even if the court dismisses his suit, its
reasons should help Akufo-Addo breathe a sigh of relief.
Instead
of seeking to intimidate or calumniate Justice Kpegah in his quest to reveal
who exactly Akufo-Addo is, those reacting to his suit should approach it in a
more level-headed manner. After all, this is not the first time that anybody is
questioning that aspect of Akufo-Addo’s life. Not until the matter is laid to
rest properly, it will keep recurring, and probably follow Akufo-Addo to his
grave.
So, for how long must Akufo-Addo
expose himself to such public scrutiny without this matter ever being exhaustively
and conclusively dealt with? I think that it is in his own interest that
Justice Kpegah (with all the legal weight behind him) has come out with this
suit. If the Court deals with the matter, we will all know the truth of it, and
that should put to rest forever this albatross hanging around his neck.
I am certain that this suit will
bring a closure to this controversy so no one can gleefully point accusing
fingers at him again and use it to tear his reputation into shreds. We wait for
further developments.
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
Join
me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment