Dr. Dominic Ayine and Kwame Asare-Obeng
Sometimes we are constrained to ask whether this country is under a spell of sorts.
Some of the things we are seeing and hearing do not belong here at all. Yet they are happening with many stakeholders such as the clergy yet to speak out against them.
Here, we are witnessing the government’s chief attorney engaged in abominable exchange of vitriolic with a Member of Parliament (MP), the bulk of the insults anyway emanating from the latter.
The Attorney General’s (AG) response to the allegation of being corrupt and a thief is a lame one and makes it look like his accuser knows a lot about his dirty closet.
According to the lame response, the AG sought some funds for his campaigns. The bottom-line is that corruption has been associated with the AG.
And the AG is still at post. Honestly, we do not see the President cracking the whip by way of asking his AG to step aside as investigations are conducted into the allegation of corruption against him.
Dr. Dominic Ayine should have resigned, but he won’t even as he suffered those verbal attacks from A-Plus, convincing responses to which he failed to adduce.
To invite his accuser to the gutters to trade insults as it were, is something we should not encourage at all in our political space.
Although he was responsible for the unwarranted enjoyment of nolle prosequi by suspected corrupt government appointees, acting of course upon the direction of the President, he takes discredit for the action too. What an AG we have!!
Here he is today trading insults with his colleague MP, the accusation from the latter enough for him to head for court. He won’t, preferring to host press conferences to label former President Akufo-Addo appointees as corrupt.
It is palpable that there is no dearth of cases of corruption to investigate in this country.
The AG vs A-Plus fight and the fallouts thereof provide sufficient fodder for corruption fighters such as the Office of Special Prosecutor.
Not even a simple mention has emanated from the President about the gutter fight let alone an action such as a probe being ordered.
Those who want to assess how far the country has gone under the incumbent government can consider such factors and draw a sound conclusion.
The judiciary is under siege, the reaction from various stakeholders loud and clear.
The coming days are going to be interesting in this country as President John Mahama’s attempt at removing the Chief Justice meets with stiff resistance from the people of Ghana.
An AG who can be insulted the way A-Plus did and all he could do—give a wry smile and threaten a gutter showdown—for us is not worthy of that office.
We are in choppy political waters where flimsy petitions to remove the Chief Justice can be countenanced not only by the President but the Council of State, which has all too soon been reduced to a rubber stamp. God save this troubled country.