Features
My Lords: Reject Muntaka’s apology
On 10th January, 2021, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka openly and blatantly scandalised and bastardised the Supreme Court Justices of the 4th Republic of Ghana over an unproven allegation of attempted bribery by one of them.
And who is Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka? He is a seasoned Member of Parliament for Asawase constituency in the Ashanti Region, who has won that parliamentary seat a number of times. He is said to be a devout moslem, so he has “earned” the title, ‘Alhaji’.
As a Member of Parliament, Alhaji Muntaka has “acquired” the title “Honourable” also, so he is an honourable man. Significantly, Honourable Alhaji Muntaka is the Minority Chief Whip, thus, whipping his NDC minority members in Parliament to tow certain lines of actions in the august House.
How did he scandalise and bastardise the Justices of the Supreme Court? Alhaji Muntaka loudly claimed on Joy Television News, on 10th January, 2021, that a female NDC Member of Parliament had been invited by a Supreme Court Judge, with the express intent to bribe her to vote for Professor Mike Oquaye, during the contest for the Speakership position of Parliament.
Indeed, Honourable Muntaka insisted that he has evidence to prove that the un-named Supreme Court Judge really attempted to bribe a female NDC Member of Parliament and that at the appropriate time he would lead evidence to that effect.
Alhaji Muntaka assured on Joy Television News, that he would raise the bribery allegation against the Judge on the floor of Parliament and would as well, call for the establishment of a committee to investigate it.
Additionally, Mr Muntaka said some NPP Majority Members in Parliament also approached some NDC MPs and attempted bribing them to vote for Professor Oquaye.
Curiously, Muntaka did not name any Supreme Court Judge but claimed that he trusted his nameless NDC female MP colleague who broke the bribery allegation to him.
Readers, the Supreme Court Judges are not earthly saints, and so if one or two or all of them misconduct themselves, they must be investigated through the appropriate channels and where necessary, sanctioned.
But for a seasoned parliamentarian to carry unproven bribery allegation against a Supreme Court Judge onto a television station, it will be difficult to comprehend by rational beings.
Is it the case that Alhaji Muntaka has no knowledge of any appropriate political, legal or constitutional forum to channel his so-called bribery allegation against the Supreme Court Judge for redress?
What was his motive then? Just to bad-mouth the institution of Supreme Court and the entire accomplished Justices? No, I think his real motive is still hidden.
It is, however, instructive that the Judicial Service encouraged Mr. Muntaka to assist it to get to the bottom of his bribery allegation.
Instead of grasping such opportunity with both hands, Mr. Muntaka is rather dispelling it with half-hearted apology.
In a press statement announcing his apology, Mr. Muntaka said: “Admittedly, because I did not specifically name any Judge, this may have had the effect of scandalising the judiciary in its entirety. This unintended consequence is deeply regretted.”
Paragraph four of the apology said:” I, therefore, wish to respectfully retract same and apologise for the harm done to the image and reputation of my Lord Justices of the Supreme Court and the judiciary as a whole.”
Paragraph five of Muntaka’s apology, however, makes his whole intent suspicious. He said:” Based upon good counsel, I have also decided to let sleeping dogs lie and will consequently refrain from any further commentary on the matter …”
From my understanding of paragraph five of Muntaka’s apology, he has not retracted anything from his bribery allegation made against a Judge of the Supreme Court.
He still stands by the unproven allegation and with this kind of attitude, I will urge the Supreme Court Judges to reject Muntaka’s apology and spite it with a pinch of salt.
In my view, Alhaji Muntaka must seek ” proper” good counsel and do “proper” consultations. Following that, he must properly retract the bribery allegation he made against the Justices of the Supreme Court and apologise to them unconditionally.
Otherwise, I will urge Honourable Muntaka to wake his sleeping dogs up and whip them to bark and bite until we get to the bottom of this matter.
Already, a list of all the female NDC Members of Parliament has been compiled and some people are pointing accusing fingers at the “culprit” likely to have told Muntaka that a Supreme Court Judge attempted bribing her.
This matter must not be swept under the carpet. So, if Muntaka is not ready to do the needful, a full-scale enquiry must be instituted to arrive at the truth. After all, nobody compelled him to render his half-hearted apology.
As leading lights of society, we must learn to respect our institutions of state and assist them to right the wrongs through the appropriate channels, when need be, instead of scandalising and bastardising them from the rooftops.
G. Frank Asmah
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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