“I am inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really…. I hope that everyone is equal but people who have to deal with black employees find this not true…You should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”.
__Prof James Dewey Watson
During the period of Kufuor’s administration, a seminar was held at the Teacher’s Hall, Accra. Nana Akufo Addo, the current President, was one of the speakers. At that time, he was the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. During question time, I had the opportunity to ask him whether the time was not ripe for some amendments to be made to the 1992 Republican Constitution. His answer was “No”, his reason being that it was too early in the day and that the nation needed some time to work with the Constitution. Naturally, I was disappointed with his answer knowing the circumstances under which the Constitution was fashioned out. So I was naturally delighted when Professor Mills during his tenure in office as the president appointed a Constitution Review Committee to look at the areas of the Constitution for possible amendment. I submitted my own proposal to the Committee. Indeed I was heavily involved in the deliberations of the Committee and even chaired a session of one of its sub-committees.
During the inauguration of Nana Akufo Addo, the only aspect of the function I paid attention to was his inaugural speech. Throughout the ceremony, I was moving around attending to my various chores in the house. The inaugural speech to me should be the most important incident since what shall happen to this country during the next entire four years shall be based on the import of the speech. The speech was great so also was his kente cloth. I remarked that he must have consulted the Asantehene’s kente weaver for that masterpiece. It did not surmise me that it took a whiteman to do a research to come out with an interpretation of the meaning behind the design of the kente despite all the professors and educated people in this country. Kofi Wayo, where have you been hiding? Some people miss your hilarious commentary on the intellectual capacity we have in this country. Prof. Watson, I stand up for you. One thing which delighted me about the speech was the new president’s desire and willingness to get the Constitution reviewed this time round.
This country is faced with gargantuan corruption at all levels, in every aspect of our national life perpetrated by individuals and institutions. Unless we can kill corruption there is no way we can bring development and growth to this country and to the suffering citizens. One very dangerous corruption perpetrated in this country with great and shameless impunity is LEGAL CORRUPTION. Massive national resources are siphoned off nonchalantly and with no guilty conscience under legal corruption hiding behind the constitution by persons in entrusted positions; be it elected or appointed. Sadly enough, they are able to do that because the main source of this legal corruption perpetrated against the state is the 1992 Republican Constitution. A critical provision in the Constitution under chapter one states as follows: “This Constitution shall be the supreme law of Ghana and any other law found to be inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void”.
It is indeed a sad commentary on the intellectual base of this country which requires all university lecturers to have a doctorate degree that a country with such massive intellectual base can give itself and live with such a Constitution for over 24 years with numerous provisions which allow legal corruption to be perpetrated by public officers. Again, I stand up for Prof. Watson. John Dramani Mahama, a failure of a president, who brought so much shame and suffering to the people of this country through massive corruption and incompetence and greed, sought to rely on the Constitution to perpetrate legal corruption against this country. Some commentators have waxed eloquence arguing the immorality of John Dramani Mahama denying John Agyekum Kufuor his rights under the Constitution while he himself sought for his pound of flesh under the same Constitution. What the commentators forgot or refused to accept was the fact that the claims of both John Dramani Mahama and John Agyekum Kufuor were immoral and sought to perpetrate legal corruption.
I do not have an accepted legal definition of legal corruption. What I will try to do for the sake of this article is to hazard one as follows: “Legal corruption is that type of corruption perpetrated by a person in entrusted position, whether elected or appointed, by hiding behind laws, rules and regulations which form part of the legal system of a country. Such corruption is very often perpetrated with impunity by persons in very powerful positions”. Before I continue further, let me quote Martin Amidu as reported in the DAILY GRAPHIC of Wednesday, January 11, 2017 page 16 under the title: “Amidu Accuses Past Two Parliaments of Corruption”.
The report says in part: “In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, four days after the Sixth Parliament had been dissolved on January 7, 2017, Mr. Amidu, an anti-corruption crusader, alleged that the immediate past two Parliament institutionalised corruption, to the extent that, in some cases, members of the House took bribes from ministries, departments and agencies nominated (MDAs) to approve their budgets and, on other occasions, took bribes from nominated appointees to have their nominations approved….The partisanship, cronyism, patronage, ethnicity and endemic corruption of the looter governments of the Fifth and Sixth governments of the Fourth Republic had been allowed by the majority to infect the fabric and conduct of legislative business in the House. The whole body polity, consequently, became infected with the pandemic of corruption and corrupt practices from the Presidency of looting the national purse for private profit’, he said”.
The situation cited by Martin Amidu is a clear case of legal corruption and it happened because we have a Constitution which sanctions legal corruption. That is why John Dramani Mahama can dare the sensibility and the resolve of the whole nation while insulting the intelligence of the citizens by claiming possession and right to a state property while hiding behind the Constitution despite the massive wealth he and his family have acquired during his tenure as president. The greed in us makes us forget the time honoured biblical injunctions: “A fool has aid in his heart there is no God. Thou fool, your soul is required of thee tonight.”, and what the poet of old said long ago: “Yesterday a monarch he, today subject of the flea, Why such boasting, oh man!”
E-mail: makgyasi@ug.edu.gh
By Kwame Gyasi