Attorney General who Fears Criminals

There is a fable of a man who owned a portion of a land within a big land. The man was troubled many times by other land owners within the land, even tenants and neighbours. He knew the trouble-makers. And he attested that some of them were criminals. The man had the power to make these 'criminals' face the law, but mysteriously enough, he would neither send them to court or name and shame. This man, I do not know what to call him. But he must have his reasons no matter how ludicrous and asinine his reasons may seem to us.

Why the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Martin A.B.K Amidu, would pull out his own tooth, in the attempt to tell the world that the mouths of others smell, is very revealing. The AG position is fast registering as a notorious one, a hotbed and a politicised office. Its previous occupants have come under all kinds of attacks. The predecessor of Martin Amidu, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, was hounded out of the office by the current government's party loyalists. The apparent reason was that she was not prosecuting cases against members of the Kufour administration or the New Patriotic Party. She made the law argument: you just don't go to court with hearsay! When the president finally moved her out of office, she was never the same as before. Today, Martin Amidu is in the same pot he helped fan and stir.

The AG released a press statement this morning accusing an unnamed colleague Minister of State of sabotaging him because he [Amidu] "as a lawyer was a threat to the concealment of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana in which they might be implicated.” According to the AG, the colleague Minister instigated a negative media blitz intended to tarnish his image as a lawyer and a professional with the aim of making him appear as not doing his job as Attorney General. Mr. Amidu described the pro-NDC media as a "perverse section of a rented NDC press " and "gullible section of the NDC press." 


In what seemed like a treatise, the AG has clearly stated that he's away of crimes committed by some members of his party. He has asserted that "...the legal profession and the Bar, of which I am the leader, are more sacred to me than that of young and inexperienced members of a communication team of the NDC..." which indicates a perceived machination coming from his own party to oust him as AG. What is interesting is that the AG lists the pro-NDC press as the culprits. The AG has said he "never begged to be appointed Attorney-General: I opposed it on four separate occasions." So why? That is my question.

Why is the AG not prosecuting cases against the "criminals" he so loathes? Why has he chosen the media although he says he is experienced enough to know that legal battles are not fought in the media? And if he so bravely admits that he knows of criminals hiding behind political parties to avoid prosecution, why is he not prosecuting them? If he cannot file cases against these 'criminals' because he cannot go against the grain, should not he resign instead of wasting our time?
But this is Ghana, where political suicide does not kill. People do not resign because they say things that compromise their position. Martin Amidu is not the first to have gone in this suicidal path. The current Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Mrs. Georgina Wood, alleged corruption in the Judiciary. Her adventure lives on still.

But why the AG says he does not fear for his life still is befuddling. The anecdotes. Who wants to kill him? And why would he choose to tell his "imaginary" assailants that he does not fear their "murderous" intents? His allusions to 1979 and 1981 is most interesting. Ghana has a history of murdered judges who were said to have died in the line of duty on 30 June 1982. But why Mr. Minister of Justice and Attorney General?