Prophetic Drive for 2011

Proverbs 11:1-31 is the Prophetic Drive for 2011. 

The following are the Prophet's Predictions for some Important  National and Global issues in 2011:

• Many good men are going to be rewarded for being friends of humanity. 
• Many hitherto 'untouchable' notorious political and economic power-houses are going to crash so heavily that it may be impossible for them to rise again.
• Someone very close to Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast may do him in. 
• There is going to be increased Intra-Political Party Unrest and there shall be major shifts based on critical thinking and questioning of historical positions. 
• The strengthening of the hands of good men and the weakening of the hands of crooks and gangsters. 
• Wise Investments will pay-off big time. 
• Shocking Revelations of Scandals. Your cup is just about to be full- please save yourself from shame - Repent now!.
• There shall be lots of Miraculous Deliverances and  Strange Happenings will be taking place in several places. 
• God's servants must stand up and be counted on all serious national and global issues. 
• The Banner of Christ WILL fly HIGH in spite of threats and wild attacks from  false religious bigots! 
• Civil society is going to be more militant in demand for more transparency from governments. 
• It pays to stake your fortunes on God. 
• Generally not a bad year for good citizens. 
• Do not give up easily - salvation is closer than you and others may think and even predict. 
• Do not make impulsive moves - like taking the gun to achieve an end. 
• Trust God to fight your battles for you! Trust HIM- HE will not fail you!!!!!

Do Ghanaians have to Fight Over Who Becomes President? Part One

Leaders are supposed to lead both by precept and example. Good leaders use carefully chosen words and concepts to galvanize the energies of their people, towards pursuing great purposes for themselves and their nations. Through selfless examples of commitment, hard-work and sacrifices; these ends are attained.

Bad leaders do not even know the importance of the words they speak. Their speeches are dry and drab. They discourage and confuse their people with almost every word they speak. To make things worse, they are masters in the art of ‘divide-and-rule’; hypocrisy; treachery and trickery.

Most leaders have a mixture of both qualities. The better leaders have more of the former and less of the latter; whiles the worse leaders have less of the former and more of the latter. Unfortunately most of the leaders of the developing world, and especially Africa fall into the second category.

The bottom-line is that leaders leave lasting imprints on the nations they rule and the people they lead. They bequeath their people with ethical, developmental, spiritual and philosophical legacies. Sometimes these legacies live on several years after they themselves have died and gone.

I want us to look at the last four leaders (Presidents) of Ghana in the light of the above broad categories. This exercise is meant to help us accomplish the following objectives:

·         Tone down on the level of partisan alliances to these leaders;

·         Help our two former Presidents to view their contributions with the utmost humility;

·         Encourage the current President to be more responsible in his conduct in office;

·         Make all of us more sober in our assessment of Presidential aspirants;

·         Help future Presidents to seek to be better leaders.

Our first Case Study is of course Jerry John Rawlings:

He burst into the political arena through the famous June 4^th Coup ‘de tat. According to him and the key apologist of the regime, Boakye Djan; theirs was an effort to end ‘Military Interventions in the Political History of Ghana’. Jerry Rawlings held the people spellbound with his people-centered rhetoric and selfless devotion to ordinary everyday duties like helping to clean the gutters, and joining the masses to evacuate locked-up cocoa in inaccessible parts of the country. He ruthlessly punished ‘criminals’ including exacting the death penalty of three former Heads of State: Generals Afrifa, Acheampong and Fred Akuffo.

Rawlings and his people handed over power after three months to the late Limann on September 23, 1979. Rawlings however came back through a Coup ‘de tat on December 31, 1981. He ruled for 11 years as a military leader. In 1992, he became the first President of our fourth Republican Constitution in a general election, and governed for an addition eight years- bringing it to a total of nineteen long years.
How does this Prophet assess Papa Jaye (as he is fondly called by his supporters)?

First his strengths:

1. He has quite an appealing personality- quite likeable. He exudes strength, energy and confidence. He has a winsome smile. His ‘education was acquired more through ‘Street Professors’ than those of the Lecture Halls
2.  He is and remains a good communicator. He almost always knows what to say to carry the ‘masses’ along. He always wants to be sure that he has the ‘ordinary people’ on his side. Through a mixture of his own renditions of popular proverbs- he most of the time leaves his audience screaming with joy and laughter- and also angry against Jerry’s opponents.
3.  He knows his limitations (especially in academics); and will therefore want to work with competent people- but these must however realize and accept without any questioning that: ‘JJ is the Big Boss’ (JJBB). They must have some kind of ‘fear’ for him- because he can be ‘very wild and dangerous at times’.
4. Jerry is not a Socialist, but was quick to recognize that ‘the Ghanaian Socialists were the ready tools’ he had at his disposal; for his personal survival and that of his ‘revolutionary’ agenda. He also fully exploited the Ghanaian’s penchant for ‘Power at any cost’, and thereby attracted some of the leading members of the parties in opposition to Limann’s PNP; and even some of the unprincipled members of Limann’s party.
5. As a Pragmatist, Rawlings managed somehow to get his ‘Socialist Boys’ to kowtow to IMF and World Bank Conditionalities, as his new Economic Paradigm sometime in 1983. Through revolutionary force, fear and intimidation he managed- through the enterprising Finance Minister, Kwesi Botchway, to bring some ‘sanity’ into the economic malaise of the Mid-Sixties to the Early-Eighties. The IMF and World Bank Conditionalities could perhaps only be carried through with the ‘Dictatorial and Revolutionary Arms’ of Jerry Rawlings and his cohorts.
6. Jerry’s reign brought quite some huge developments in Infrastructure; Health; Education (I do not think the JSS-SSS system was complete waste); Re-Structuring of our Economy (the divestiture of several State Enterprises was absolutely necessary); and even in Law (the Intestate Succession Law) being maybe the hallmark of his legal accomplishments.
7. Jerry is appreciated by lots of people in Africa and some parts of the world. He is thus helping to raise the banner of Ghana- though out of office.

His Weaknesses

Jerry Rawlings has several fine qualities, and achieved a lot for Ghana. But he also has abundance of weaknesses, which if not tamed or corrected, could destroy himself, his followers and even Ghana.

1.  If things do not go the way he thinks; those things must be wrong, and must be resisted or rejected wherever possible. Recently I heard one of his supporters make a statement to this end, on an FM station: “If I have to eat even Rawlings’ excreta for survival- I will”.
2.  “Jerry Rawlings does no wrong”. This is obviously one of the very bad pictures Rawlings cuts of himself. If crime is committed during his reign, it is the Opposition that is behind it. But if he finds himself in Opposition, and crime goes on: “The government has lost control over security. What a bad government? Soldiers must remove them from power- they cannot govern”
3.  If he is in power and his policies are challenged; those who mount up such a challenge are nation wreckers who must be ‘hunted down and destroyed’. But if he finds himself in the Opposition; ‘Ghanaians must resist and reject unjust commands’.
4. Jerry Rawlings knows those who according to him murdered: The women during his reign; The Ya Naa, Roko Frimpong, Alhaji Mobilla; etc. He knows all of those who committed these crimes. Interestingly however, this Master Investigator, Astute Spy and Super-Intelligent Agent; does not know those who ‘burnt down his house’ recently- or does he?
5. When he assumed power in 1979, the cars on the streets of Ghana, were evidence of corruption; during his 19-year reign he pointed to the same cars as signs of how prosperous  Ghanaians had become;
6. He counted among the ‘Criminals’ of Ghana: Lawyers, Professors, Doctors, Businessmen, etc; today he has stopped saying so, because: His daughter is a Medical Doctor; another daughter is a Lawyer; he has several Professors in the NDC and several Businessmen (maybe including his own wife) as friends and acquaintances;
7. Jerry Rawlings and Boakye Djan claimed that in 1979 they had to kill all previous Coup makers, because they had committed treason. That according to them was a deterrent to all Ghanaians and coup makers. The clear message they wanted to send out was: “Anyone who overthrew a Constitutionally Elected Government, will be shot in accordance with the Laws and Constitutions of Ghana- in spite of any moves they may make in insulating themselves from this just end”.  Boakye Djan has said this over and over again. And it makes a lot of sense- does it not? Because JJ shouts the loudest about ‘Justice’ in Ghana: Why should he not do the honorable thing- go to the stakes- and maybe Boakye Djan can pull the trigger this time- or friend- am I wrong? After all, he overthrew the sovereign will of Ghanaians in 1981- or did he not? Ghanaians please listen: “If the one who cries out for ‘Justice’, the loudest in Ghana; is himself a fugitive from justice, is he actually telling us that ‘we are all cowards’?” Tell me, please- if you think that I am wrong!

Friend, this is the first part of four write-ups meant to help all of us to look at the strengths and weaknesses of our Four Most Recent Presidents. At the end of the forth publication- about the current President Atta Mills; maybe we shall be in a better position to answer the Question: “Do Ghanaians have to Fight Over Who Becomes President?”

The Prophet’s counsel:
“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12 King James Version).

prophetmicaiah@gmail.com ;
http://prophetmicaiah.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001686510117

ROPING THE CLERGY INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL HYPOCRISY?

On Friday Nov 12 2010, President Atta-Mills invited the Ghanaian Christian Clergy from various denominations to the Peduase Presidential Lodge for discussions on some ‘important’ national issues. A report from the Ghana News Agency (GNA) spelt out the following facts.

Purpose for the meeting:

• The meeting had two sessions. The first was in the open and to the hearing of all gathered. The President expressed his appreciation to the clergy and the Christian community for their participation in this year's national week of prayer and thanksgiving, as well as their prayer support.
• The second part of the meeting took place behind closed doors. According to E.T. Mensah the following issues were discussed:

1.      National Security;

2.      Intra- and Inter- Party polarization;

3.      The depravity in Moral Values;

4.      The resurgence of the politics of insults on the national scene.

According to the GNA, the meeting was opened by the Rev. Dr. Nii Amo Darko, a leading member of the Southern Baptist Convention of Ghana, the President of African Enterprise (a Christian NGO), and a member of Ghana’s Council of State. In a welcome address, he said something to this end:

 “The church has a strong role to play in nation-building. The society thrives when the family, the government and the church played their roles well”.

He also stressed the need for a stronger and effective Church and State collaboration for rapid national development. With examples from the Bible, he sited state and church collaboration that benefitted the nations and their allies. Rev. Dr. Amo Darko said there were modern examples also of nations that had benefited, when the church teamed up with the state in addressing national concerns.

The GNA report further said the following groups were present: The Christian Council of Ghana; the Catholic Bishops' Conference; the Ghana Pentecostal Council; the Charismatic Christian Association and the Independent Churches Association of Ghana.

They were represented by the following: Rev. Dr. Yaw Frimpong-Manso, outgoing Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana; the Rev. Dr. Fred Deegbe, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana; the Rev Dr Seth Ablorh of the Manna Mission, the Rev. Dr. Robert Ampiah-Kwofie of the Global Revival Ministries; Archbishop Duncan Williams of the Action Faith Ministries; the Rev. Dr. Christie Doe-Tetteh of Solid Rock Chapel International; and the Rev. Tackie Yarboi of the Victory Bible Church.

According to Mr Koku Anyidoho, Head of Communications at the Office of the President, the President impressed on the clergy to continue being the conscience of the nation and let their voices be heard on national issues.

Since this ‘Peduase Summit’, we have heard some of the participating clergymen point to the following causes for the moral degeneration, the deteriorating security situation, the very high levels of the use of insulting language in our public life, and the turmoil within our body politic:

• The take over of our public schools from the control of the churches by the government;
• The removal of moral and religious teaching from the  curricula of our schools ;
•  That the ages of the armed and highway robbers fall within the early twenties - and that affirms the above two stated causes.

As a Prophet, and a clergyman, I also want my views to be heard by the President, the Christian community, and all fellow countrymen, as to why the present situation may be prevailing in the country. First of all permit me to lay the following foundations:

1. What is happening in Ghana may be nothing different from what is happening in other nations. This is because of the fact that all of us humans have forsaken our God. We have rejected HIS laws and commandments. We love doing the wrong instead of the right;
2. Nations are mandated by God to institute human governments to make laws to regulate our societies. The laws must be such as to uphold the dignity of the human person and promote decency in society. The law-abiding must go about their duties without fear of intimidation and unjust punishment. The lawless must be resisted: Arrested, tried, punished and wherever possible, be taken through a system of reformation whiles under punishment;
3. The Christian Church, if alive and well in a state, is mandated to preach and teach God’s Word (the Bible) with the intention of transforming people from within. The Church also helps the citizenry to recognize that the human person has a capacity to live forever; and that this could only be achieved through the ‘Acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s LORD and Savior’. This makes the Church the most important partner to government in morally sanitizing the state.Please understand that in a multi-religious (pluralistic) state, there is ‘freedom of worship’ – there may therefore be differing approaches to the stated ends. And this makes it absolutely imperative that the State and the Church are kept separate.  
4. Through a transparent system of taxation, the state raises resources to create institutions, systems and programs to lay the turf for each individual to ‘play his/her game’ to the delight and benefit of the community. Every law-abiding citizen must be made to feel that ‘he/she belongs, is needed, and appreciated’. There must be a social contract to make ‘each a neighbor’s keeper’.
5. The state also becomes the means through which an individual interacts with the rest of the world. The state acting through her government ‘slugs it out with other nations in the international market place’ to ensure that equity is assured in global transactions, to the benefit of the citizens.

In the light of the foregoing, I may want to add the following ‘suggestions’ to those made by the honorable clergy who were privileged to meet with the President:

• Any society that fails to punish known criminals; but pretends that such criminals are national heroes, will ultimately elevate crime to the level of an ‘honest pursuit’ – and her youth will ‘go for it’. “Woe unto the nation whose heroes are glorified criminals”.
•  If there were any competition about the ‘Capacity to Spew Insults’ (CSI); the champions will certainly be some of the highest placed politicians – including those who bear the titles of Presidents, Ministers of State, Parliamentarians, etc. (and we unashamedly refer to them as Honorable, His Excellency, etc.)
• If our politicians are calling their opponents: Thieves, Criminals, Cocaine Dealers, Drug Addicts, Sexual Perverts and Immoral; what do you expect the youth to do?
• The sitting President is doing everything to lift up the name of Kwame Nkrumah to such heights that, many Ghanaians feel justifiably angered by it. What else is he going to name after Kwame Nkrumah? Nkrumah definitely has a pride of place in our history (but what the President is doing is completely out of balance and decency). There are several other Ghanaians who deserve some honor. And then he hypocritically turns around and says ‘the nation is polarized’. What a shame?This President has publicly said that: “He cannot work with those who do not share his political philosophy”. He made this statement at a Press Conference at the Castle early in his reign.He has ordered his District Chief Executives (DCEs) to give preferential treatment to NDC supporters who come to them for job placements (whenever there are any such slots).This President has not said a word about the shameful manner Nana Akuffo Addo was treated at Cape Coast during the Fetu Afashye (initiated in his presence by Nii Lante Vanderpure- an appointee of his).
• When a whole President points to his opponents as those behind everyday crimes, this is outrageous. This is criminal and highly unbecoming of a Law Professor who also claims to be a godly man.

The Prophet’s Counsel

The story of Ahab, Jeshoshaphat, the 400 false Prophets and the Prophet Micaiah is told in I Kings 22: 1-40. The King Ahab managed through sleight, craftiness, inducements and pretense to hoodwink 400 Prophets to sing to his praise and unholy agenda. The Prophet Micaiah decided to tell the truth, and he suffered persecution for this. In the final analysis however Ahab allowed the false prophets to lure him to an ignominious defeat and death. I pray and hope that my very honorable colleagues spoke the truth to the President. If they did not, it is not late yet. It is an honorable thing to tell truth, especially to leaders who need to be so told!

Doubtlessly most of these problems predated you. You did not create them. But it seems they are getting worse under you - your high and boastful promises not withstanding.

You and your supporters bragged too much about your ‘holiness and ability to miraculously transform Ghana into a moral cauldron’.

Mr. President, some of us are getting worried about your style of leadership- it does not look good at all. And yet we know that you can do better. Please redeem your name – and do it now. You may not be better than any of those who have gone before you or are coming after you. Get real and play your part!!!

Prophet Micaiah
prophetmicaiah@gmail.com ;
http://prophetmicaiah.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001686510117

       

    

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS GAME? PART 2: THE SAGA OF AMINA!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS GAME? PART ONE

SCENE ONE:
DATE: JANUARY 7, 2009

President Atta-Mills is sworn into office as the successor to President Kufour. In his maiden Presidential speech, he promised:
“No Ghanaian should live in fear of armed robbery. Many of our people cannot move around for fear that somebody would attack them. Improvement in internal security would therefore be one of our top priorities”.
With so many other words, the President meant that his leadership was going to usher in a near corruption-free; armed-robbery-free; criminal-free society.

Then he takes up office and begins to attack his Agenda-Asomdwee-Better-Ghana. The armed robbers straight away set out to challenge his resolve. The police went after them. The front-pages of our newspapers were daily littered with dead bodies of armed-robbers. The police seemed to have acquired additional powers- unspoken and unwritten: “Chase the armed robbers; if you have to shoot- just make sure it’s a knock-out shot, and not a knock-down one. You have become: Arresting Officers, Prosecutors, Attorneys, Judges and Executioners!” (Just thinking out loud- definitely not meant to cause fear and panic)
At least on one occasion the IGP and some of his top lieutenants were at the Castle to receive the enviable ‘Asomdwee-pat’ on their shoulders and the ‘Hallelujah Praise’- they had done a good job of ‘finishing’ the armed robbers

Whiles some of the populace welcomed this development, a minority felt that ‘instant justice and a shoot-to-kill policy’ could endanger the lives of the very citizens this policy has set off to protect. This group felt the Police could aim their bullets at ‘non-fatal’ portions of the bodies of the robbers; so that they could rather be arrested and taken through the court processes. After thoroughly fair trials- establishing their guilt beyond any reasonable doubts (and all legal appeals dealt with) - they should then be led to the stakes, to receive just recompenses for what they set out to do to others. This is an essential part of the “Rule of Law”.

It seems our Heads of State and Presidents, since 1986, have ‘vowed’ not to effect the death sentence. If the Police could do it for them- under the pretext of self-defense- that was their preferred option. If former President Rawlings, a military man, chose this option sometime during his nineteen-year reign; it is absolutely mind-boggling for an Oxford-Trained Lawyer and a Professor of Constitutional Law to acquiesce to this same crude and unwritten policy of ‘shoot-and-kill’ as a first option of taming armed robbery.

The robberies were somehow reduced for a season. But then the robbers began popping up from all kinds of places. They have become viler and grossly barbaric with their demands on their victims. They will not only rob them of their wealth and belongings; but sometimes humiliate them through sexual demands; and even ask their victims to do same amongst themselves. Though the police continue to assure us that the crime rate is coming down; the quality of the ‘fewer’ crimes are so chilling that, the feeling of insecurity may have rather accentuated. Two Pastors of the same church were attacked and shot at different times. One died, the other is still undergoing treatment. At the trial of the three young-men who attacked the Pastor who died; the three rather young robbers cried out “Kill us now’.

SCENE TWO:

The Ghana Police are the main actors in this scene. The police PRO, Kwesi Fori, served in this same position during Kufours regime. He kept telling Ghanaians at the time that: “The police are on top of the crime wave. We are equipped and ready to take on the criminals whoever they are and wherever they are”. He was at post when cocaine stored at the Police Headquarters mysteriously metamorphosed into “kokonte”. Under the new President, Kwesi Fori keeps telling Ghanaians how the Police force is now even in “better-charge” of the situation. He was questioned as to what may have contributed to the new image of the “Better-Ghana-induced-Status”.  His answer? - Yours maybe as good as mine! He is quite a colorful personality though!

The Asomdweehene’s government decided to embark on some housing scheme for the general public, the Police and other security agencies. This has famously become known as the STX Korean Housing Scheme. The government claimed it was entering into contracts with the STX Company that will fetch 200,000 ‘Affordable Houses’ that were going to cost Ghanaians $10 billion. Professionals and other concerned citizens felt that the average cost of $50,000 per house had nothing to do with ‘affordability’. The other difficulty was that this average cost did not include the land, and all the ground infrastructure and utilities that ‘must be provided by the Government and people of Ghana’. These additions could increase the average cost to over $60,000. These calculations obviously led to the raising of concerns by the Opposition NPP (and some other minority opposition elements), and GREDA, the professional association of real estate developers. GREDA submitted estimates that could build the houses at far cheaper prices.
The government Propaganda Machinery then turned around to the Police and told them: “Police men and Military men; the NPP does not want you to get good housing”. As a result of this, Policemen were commandeered to the Parliament House on the last day of the debate on the STX Loan Approval- probably to ‘intimidate’ the NPP members and others in the chamber who had raised very legitimate concerns.

The previous government initiated what they called the Single Spine Salary Structure, meant to streamline the Payroll of all under her employ. The Police seemed to have benefited a lot from this. Since the NDC Government implemented this policy, the Police heaped lots of praises on the President and his men. So to some extent the Police want to do ‘everything’ to prove to the Presidency that they are appreciative of their new-found ‘high standards’. This is the background of Scene Three.

SCENE THREE

Recently there was a young lady on one of the numerous FM stations- Adom. She narrated to the ‘shock’ of Ghanaians what she and some travelers had been taken through by a gang of robbers on a journey from Accra to the North, via Kumasi. The gang of robbers asked all the passengers to strip themselves naked; and pair up (male-to-female); and have sex together at gun point. A man was forced to sleep with his 14 year old first-year student (who was also a virgin). According to the lady who narrated the story; all the passengers agreed that what had happened to them was so humiliating that, they should all keep it a secret. They sat in the bus and went to report to the police that they had been attacked by armed robbers who had shot at the bus and broken the windscreen. The Police recorded this and gave the necessary Police Report to the driver.

The lady, on her return to Accra narrated the events to a male friend who felt the story must be told to a radio station, contrary to the agreement of the victims. The lady was invited by other radio stations to testify. This got to the President, and in his characteristic ‘Better Ghana’ spirit, summoned the leadership of the Police Force to the Castle. This is the beginning of the Saga of Amina Mohammed (for this is the name of the lady who narrated the ‘secret’ to the radio stations). This is the unfolding of a story that the Fantes may call “Bisi Bisi Baasaaa”.  A holy-father-crime-busting-asomdweehene-humble-Nkrumaist-Pesident; teaming up with- an obedient-grateful-hardworking-never-do-wrong-new-Better-Ghana-Police-Service, ‘heavily drunk’ on the Single-Spine Wine – on one hand; against a young lady, mother of three-young-children- and a branded ‘dangerous woman with a dangerous hoax, calculated to bring Ghana to international shame and ridicule- with the ultimate objective of driving away investors- on the other hand!

Friends, stay tuned. These are interesting times in Ghana. Our Professor of Constitutional Law is fully in charge of the Saddle-of-State. He ceases every opportunity to let us know that: “Whether you like it or not, I am the only President of Ghana”. Do not miss Part Two next week!

THE PROPHET’S COUNSEL
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 (New Living Translation)
⁴ When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. ⁵ It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.

Even Jesus Christ had in his team of twelve, Judas, who finally betrayed him. Judas was supposed to have had some demons and was also a thief. He kept the purse for Jesus- and he made sure he lived well from it- whether Jesus sanctioned it or not. Uncle Asomdwee may have some competences and skills that ‘even Christ did not have’. All the developed countries have their fair share of armed robberies, grand crimes, petty thievery, and all sorts of socially deviant activities. So maybe Uncle Atta has some tricks the whole world can benefit from. Uncle Atta- go for it; please do not mind anyone- they are all jealous!
God richly bless you all

Prophet Micaiah
prophetmicaiah@gmail.com ;
http://prophetmicaiah.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001686510117

The Ghanaian Judiciary Under Attack!

One of the essential elements that hold societies together is a system of justice. Our great ancestor Noah, was instructed after the Flood that devastated his world, to institute Human Government (a justice system that could execute the death penalty for murderers).  The giving of the Ten Commandments through Moses, offered a formalized Codified Legal framework. Many have pointed to the similarities in form between Hammurabi’s Code and Moses’ Decalogue. But the fact that we could even identify Codified Legal Regimes with antiquity; strengthens the notion that:”Society and Law are inseparable”. A society without law is primitive, brutish and chaotic.

The Ghanaian Judiciary has had her challenges throughout our fifty-year post-independence history. Generally our courts have ‘silently’ done their work, except when faced with ‘high-profile’ political cases. Kwame Nkrumah’s Presidency was confronted with the trial of the suspects of the Kulungugu Bomb Incident- one of the several attacks on the life of our first President.
Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia was confronted with the Sallah case.
J.J. Rawlings’ share of the ‘disturbance’ of the Judiciary was the ‘murder of the three High Court Judges and the senior Military Officer’. Many saw this event as a move, not only to punish the judges for personal ‘unpalatable’ decisions at the courts; but to ‘intimidate’ the Judges into ‘staying away’ from the ‘holy and untouchable ways’ of the revolutionaries.

Some Judges, Magistrates, Tribunal Chairmen, and even the staff of the Judiciary; have been accused at different times of frustrating the wheels of justice through corruption, nepotism, ethnocentricism and all the wrong ‘isms’.  On the whole however, we have not had a ‘bad’ Justice System over the years. So many Judges and Magistrates can be counted among the greatest sons and daughters of our nation. The Ghanaian Judiciary can be safely acknowledged as one of the Pillars of our country. Together with the Legislature, the Executive, and the Mass Media- the wheels of State have been kept running.

My dear friend, the Ghanaian Judiciary today is under unprecedented attacks from the ruling government and her supporters. The refrain from several officials of state, including the Attorney General is that: “The Judiciary has been compromised by the Kufour regime and that it must be purged by hook or crook”. No less a personality than the current Chairman of the NDC, Dr Kwabena Adjei blew the whistle for the commencement of hostilities. Almost every NDC official or government appointee has supported the assertion of their Chairman. One is left to believe that this was a carefully orchestrated plot by the ruling party and the government of the day.

If the Chairman blew the whistle; former President J.J. Rawlings is the ‘mid-field-dynamo’. He shouts, screams and threatens anytime he had the opportunity. In fact he claims his present difficulty with the current President is that: “Atta Mills has woefully failed to jail the NPP criminals”. His taunts and jeers are calculatedly to cow the judges.

A High Court Judge has had to ‘chicken out’ from sitting on a case because he was accused by no less a person than the Deputy Attorney General, Ebow Barton-Oduro, of making prejudicial statements about the case in Takoradi. As funny and hollow as this accusation was, the judge recused himself from the case. When the judge decided not to continue sitting on the case, the ruling government’s perspective was that: “Yes we are right- he is a corrupt judge- otherwise why has he stepped down?” This is the government of Ghana- they can get away with anything. They are always right.

The Chief Justice has especially borne the brunt of this very dangerous juxtaposition of the NDC government. They have insulted, assaulted, maligned, impugned her integrity, lied and unashamedly assailed her with every verbal, intellectual and emotional weapon that could be brandished against any person. The whole Chief Justice- the fourth on the hierarchy of the national positional ladder- has been literally reduced to nothing in the eyes of the ordinary citizens of this country. In the absence of the President, his Vice, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Chief Justice assumes the seat of the Presidency. In fact, she was the one who swore the President into office.

The NDC wants to hound her out of office, so that another takes up her position. They reason that since the President is supposed to appoint a new Chief Justice (if they succeeded to get Auntie Georgina out), he could then put a government favorite to replace her. And then hopefully, the NDC could have control over the courts.

Justice Georgina Theodora Woode has been working in the Judiciary since 1974. Throughout the nineteen-year reign of Rawlings, she was a Judge. Both the Judiciary system and the succeeding governments have had no difficulty with her long standing record as an astute Judge. She was raised to the position of the Chief Justice during the last year or so of Kufour’s reign; and all of a sudden- this otherwise ‘woman of integrity’ becomes a ‘criminal-anti-NDC-Judge’, who must be ‘destroyed’ at all cost. Where is truth? Where is fairness? Where is Justice? Where is integrity?

The excuses the NDC offer for their ‘demonic onslaught’ on this lady are so surprisingly laughable.

“She set up a court on a Sunday”. The particular case was an electoral one.
Fact- She has the legal support to do this. The bottom-line is that the presiding Judge ruled in favor of the NDC. What was then her crime?

Another one was that the Chief Justice presided over a Ministerial Committee set up to investigate a high profile Cocaine case. The NDC claims that because she did the ‘bidding’ of the Kufour-led government, she was rewarded with the Chef Justice position.
The fact is that the then Chief Justice, Acquah, had died. He had to be replaced. He could be replaced by anyone of the Supreme Court Judges- and she was one of them- and equally qualified as any other. 

Another funny excuse is that she had bought a ‘Stolen State Land’. And because the current government is trying to retrieve the land; and she is the one who appoints judges to sit on cases in the courts; she as an interested party, cannot be a ‘judge in her own case’.
Fact is that Georgina Woode bought a government land at one part of the city (this is a general practice- that even the current President has benefited from). Kufour’s government decided to do something else with her original land and offered her the present one. She paid for it. What is her crime? And please remember Georgina is a Ga- and if even non-Ga government officials (with lesser pedigree) could purchase such lands- she is even more qualified to.

Another crime of hers is that her sister is married to an NPP lawyer and Parliamentarian- Ata Achea.  Fact: Atta Achea’s marriage to her current wife predates any of them rising to their current positions. What has this got to do with the integrity of the Chief Justice? Atta Mills is married to Naadu Mills- anything wrong with this- especially if both of them happen to belong to the same profession or industry? Is something wrong here?

The NDC government’s real beef is that they are losing high profile cases (initiated by the government against NPP Ministers and appointees) in the courts. And it could be for no other reason than the courts being wired against them.

However, under the NPP regime, so many NDC officials also won their cases in the same courts. Nana Kunadu’s company- CARIDERM won a case against Kufour’s government that grossed the company 

$5 million.
Tsatsu Tsikata won and lost several mini-appeals during his six-year trial under Kufour.
Interestingly, in spite of the accusations against the judges, several NDC operatives are suing people at the courts.
E. T. Mensah has sued some officials of the Civil Service for defamation.
Government officials like Tony Aidoo want everybody to know that they will resort to the courts to seek remedies for any harm aimed at him.
There is also the fact that currently some of the NPP functionaries have lost some of the legal arguments they have raised at some stages of their trials- presided over by the same judges.

You see that the name of President Mills is conspicuously out of the above discussion? The reason is that what he said about the issue amounted to ‘nothing’. On his return from a visit to the USA, all what he said was: “I uphold the independence of the judiciary”. Please note that he is not only the President, but also the Leader of the NDC. His statement was completely ignored by the Party. A day after his statement, all the Regional NDC Chairmen held a meeting and declared their support for their National Chairman, as against the President. This President is a Master of the Art of Double-Speak- I have used three weeks to prove that. The fact is that: “The President, his government and his NDC Party have vowed to reduce the Judiciary to a Rubber-Stamp. That if they pronounced anybody guilty, the Courts must endorse that. And they will not relent until they achieve this goal- Period!”

The Prophet’s Counsel
I want to appeal to the Judges to be strong, uphold and apply the Law without any form of fear and discrimination. God is with them; our ancestors are with them; all the good people of the world are with them. Even the NDC will need them, especially when they become an opposition party. The NDC’s position now is unacceptable and mischievous.  It is a short-sighted and dangerous position; and must be rejected by all fair and just minded people- especially members of the Christian church, committed Christians; and practitioners of religions that uphold the dignity of the human person!

Prophet Micaiah
prophetmicaiah@gmail.com ;
http://prophetmicaiah.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001686510117

THE DANGERS OF PRESIDENTIAL DOUBLE –SPEAK III

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself
( Ezekiel 3 : 17-19 NIV)

This is the third and final part of the subject. In our two previous write-ups, we outlined some of the speeches and actions of the President that send confusing signals to the generality of the Ghanaian public, because of their inherent contradictions and divisive ends. Some of these are so serious that they even threaten our efforts at harnessing and managing our rich heterogeneous ethnic orientations and histories; into our fifty-three year old experiment at forging ourselves into a unitary state called Ghana.  

The President is the Number-One Citizen of the land. He embodies our collective sovereignty, aspirations and honor. His thoughts, utterances, actions and inactions impinge directly on us all; irrespective of whether we are in his team or not, agree with him or not, love him or hate him. The same laws that give him such a high honor also mandate us to criticize him, offer suggestions and alternatives to his policies, and organize ourselves to vote him out when his immediate term of office expires- if so desired. And this we shall do in service to God and country!

Thus in service to country, this Prophet continues with his cataloging of the diatribes of the President, with the end that he will improve his serve.

Our President embarked on trips to Japan and China recently. Obviously there were some good things that came out of the trip. But the following fall-outs were rather confusing and troubling; to say the least:

It was widely publicized both in the Ghanaian and in the international media that bilateral agreements had been signed that was bringing loans totaling about $30 Billion to Ghana. In fact Alex Segbefia on one of the FM stations even stated that the loans could grow to multiples of the above ‘if Ghana played the good boy’ (or something to that end). Both the IMF and the World Bank raised some concerns about these ‘huge loans’. Later on, one of the Deputy Minister’s of Finance, Fiifi Kwettey, explained that the actual loans signed were up to about $450 million; and that the ‘huge ones’ alluded to, were only very loose ‘Intents’ and Memoranda of Understanding the two nations entered into.

Friend, what he said amounted to either  you or I (or any Kofi, Abdulai or Naadu) entering into any shopping mall or factory and collecting Pro-Forma invoices totaling millions of Cedis/Dollars/Pounds; and going back home to tell our family and friends that we have so much money coming ‘very soon’- just because of the invoices. How does this sound to you? And because of this propaganda and ‘spin’ over whatever transactions took place in China; several Ghanaians were mobilized to go to the airport to welcome the President when he finally arrived from China.
“Uncle Atta has done what even Kwame Nkrumah could not do” (obviously one of the songs that run through the hearts and minds of the gullible and hungry Ghanaians)

The interesting aspect of this whole ‘concert’ is that; on a similar visit by President Kufour somewhere in 2006, he had succeeded in brokering a $600 million deal with the Chinese for the construction of the Bui Dam. In fact this was the highest amount given to any other African country on that particular Chinese-African Conference.  I believe the Kufour delegation may have also been offered such billions of dollars of loans- ‘whenever they had what it took to access them’.  Indeed friend, you are I can get such undertakings even from our regular ‘Waakyi and Woley’ sellers!
Question: Why should an elderly Law Professor- who also wants to be seen as an excellent Christian- without any moral spot; stoop so low in political propaganda and pretensions?

The second leg of the President’s trip was to take him to Japan. However the President came home from China on 26/09/2010. His reason was to participate in the launch of Ghana’s Population and Housing Census on the eve of same day. This according to him was to demonstrate the importance he attached to the program and also to be amongst the first to be counted. The census itself was going to last for two weeks. He could have therefore gone to Japan and come back home early enough to be enumerated- without the fanfare of breaking his trip. This is a man who refuses to take per-diems on his trips- because he wants to be frugal. I hope coming back to Ghana from China and then going back to Japan truly saved Ghana lots of money- right?

President Mills and the NDC government embarked on a policy to rezone portions of government lands for redevelopment in Accra. A law to this effect was passed in 1999 or thereabout. But even before this law came into effect several government lands had been sold out to private individuals and companies for the purpose. Several NDC operatives and companies belonging to some of them benefited from this program. PNDC/NDC operatives also bought several of the over 300 divested government-owned companies from 1983 till the NDC left office. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and the 31^st December Revolution Women’s Movement and its offspring- Cariderm-  benefited immensely from these programs.

President Kufour’s government- so unwisely decided also to exploit this terrain created by the NDC to sell several of the government lands to themselves.
Atta Mills in his characteristic double-speak fashion- is drawing all kinds of strings and instigating his officers to drag this issue as far as they can gain political mileage on. He does not care a hoot about the ethnocentric dimensions of the discussions and the threat this poses to national cohesion and peace.

Personally I am shocked at the insatiable propensity of our politicians to acquire wealth once in office. It is a complete disgrace. Any politician who has already done this; or is planning to do so, must bow down his/her head in shame. I am worried especially that President Kufour who was quite elderly and an experienced politician- and who lived through the political trauma of the mid seventies and the eighties could descend this low in handling State property. Do people not care any longer about their reputations? I weep for my country. And I shall definitely revisit this subject!

The Prophet’s Advice:
Gentlemen and Ladies, we are building a country. We are still very young and fragile. Let us make sure the laws of this country are not selectively applied. The law is what binds us together. If we will use the law to criminalize one person and free another for the same offence- friends we are not doing well. We are undermining our stability. Mr. President, please sit up and pull the plugs on some of your actions and inactions that are driving us to the precipice.

Prophet Micaiah
prophetmicaiah@gmail.com ;
http://prophetmicaiah.blogspot.com/ 
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001686510117