BETTY’S HOT CAKE AND DESSERT

Whether Ms Betty-Mould Iddrisu was captured on tape as having said ‘kangaroo courts’ in answer to a question during the ministerial vetting recently to depict that the judiciary in the Kufuor Administration was fraught with malfeasance and other negative instances is now no big news. To her, may be, it was her headache and that if she succeeded in ‘passing’ the vetting, she would transform the judiciary into the kind that perhaps, obtains in the advanced democracies and never before has been introduced here. She has bamboozled her into becoming the first woman Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Republic. Now readers, please read on. What really matters most to probably, all Ghanaians now is that, before the NDC swept the polls back to power, some of the big guns for which she has close association and direct intimacy, claimed to have clues and the wherewithal to locate and bring out the murderers of the late Ya-Na and the over 40 subjects and attendants who sadly lost their dear lives in bizarre circum -stances. Also on the list is the late Issa Molbila, the Northern Regional CPP stalwart.

ONE TURN DESERVES ANOTHER

Before and during the NDC congress many were those who thought that Betty was going to be lucky to be made the running mate to the law professor, now HE President John Atta Mills. Her protagonists tried all their best and the Asomdwoehene never budged. When the time came, madam was sidelined and lucky John the ‘Holy Ghost’, H.E John Mahama won the bid. In trying to sing his master’s voice, it is hopeful that readers would certainly know whose voice it is. However, madam has been compensated with one of the most vital positions that rather accord her special recognition. Incidentally, as the first lucky lady to occupy this position in Ghana, she would not let her boss down because he has made the world understand that his government would be 40% filled with women. That is splendid news indeed. But whether the women would collectively perform to the satisfaction of their boss and the entire populace of the country is another million dollar question. The general perception involving women all over the world has been that when women occupy certain vital positions that ought be filled by men, they first and foremost tend to arrogate pride unto themselves; secondly, they try to be bossy over their men counterparts and thirdly, whether this assertion could be true or false, they disrespect the males and their fellow subordinate females always become door-mats for them to rub off the dust under their shoes. ‘Asem beba dabi’, to wit, time will tell as it looks we’re sitting on a time-bomb.

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT

A very special assignment that would probably benefit all decent and discerning minds of Ghana would be to pre-empt Madam Betty before the first 100 days honey-moon of the government that expire on Thursday, April 16, ’09 would be to, one of these days to come out and say, and I quote, ‘Fellow Ghanaians, please hold on to your horses, since coming into office, it has dawned on me to institute an enquiry to delve into the serious circumstances that led to the gruesome murder of the three High Court Judges – Justices Fred Poku Sarkodie, Joseph Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, Mrs. Justice Koranteng-Addow and the Army Major, Sam Acquah of blessed memory’. Madam, believe you me that when you’re able to muster courage to do this bit for Ghanaians and the world at large, you would score the political marks that you never dreamt about. Luckily, the murderers of this heinous act, L?Cpl. Kwame Amedeka, Cpl. Johnny Dzando and Hekli Tekpor are all alive and not until their death, their dockets with the law courts cannot be swept under the carpet. Another lucky aspect about this is that the learned jurist of the Supreme Court of Ghana, Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, in his S.I.B. Report (Special Investigation Board) that dealt into the strange and unheard of killings in Ghana in 1983 since the creation of Adam, is also alive and kicking. The point the writer wants to make here is that Madam Betty should, hypothetically, put herself in the shoes of the then nursing mother who was tricked into believing that her colleague male judge had had his vehicle involved in a break-down and therefore needed her assistance. She could have been a freer person today because of the mobile phone facility, but, as fate would have it, death blinded her and straight away, she went to meet her death as she followed her assassins like a sheep tied for the slaughter. This, to me, is a test case for you before the expiry of the NDC Chapter 2’s first 100 days into office. Should you be unable to arrive at the logical conclusion of this serious matter, the author would perhaps, give a further grace period of 6 weeks that should also elapse a couple of days before the celebration of the 27th anniversary of their untimely death. For ease of reference, they were murdered on Wednesday, June 30, 1982 at Bundase, near Ada – and the spot, the military firing range, if you care to know. Information going round town is that the murderers’ accomplices are also alive as free men and women enjoying life, drinking and wining despite their glaring complicit, nobody has managed to hold them culpable. After the expiry of the grace period by the close of June this year, if nothing is heard of from the high office of the ‘hot madam’, some interested Europeans who have gathered volumes of this particular case will lead some locals to challenge you at the law courts to know whether the NDC stands up to genuine democracy or a fallacy that has always been preached.

HERCULEAN TASK

The last but not the least, Ghanaians would score you with 100% performance for your functions as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice if you’re again able to unravel the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the missing ‘Page 28’ document that miraculously vanished from the famous docket involving the late K.A. Gbedema, the late Prof. Albert Adu Boahen and Others versus the Republic that once became a household name and a centre of national controversy in our political history. Before the curtain is drawn down, please do well to help your compatriots to repose the confidence they have in you otherwise, your rise to fame will quickly and easily erode to the pit. Another focal point here is that once a Ghanaian, you must have heard of the other mysterious circumstances that led to the death of the once ace herbalist in the HIV/AIDS panorama, the late Nana Drobo from Brong Ahafo. However, the above tasks seem to be very yeoman type; as a very talented legal luminary, perhaps, you could pull the strings with the charm that helped you secure job with the Commonwealth to put to rest the enumera -ted cases that tend to boggle and puzzle the minds of almost all decent-minded Ghanaians. For the purposes of brevity, may be, the honourable madam does not know that her party’s antecedence, some –what characterized by violence and bullying, was the initiator and incubator of the ‘kangaroo courts’ that did not practice judicial sanity but went ahead to pronounce death sentences on the eight (8) Army Generals who died by firing squad between June 4, and 26, 1979. Hopefully, madam would let Ghanaians know where she was then and whether she could have been of assistance in the said trials or have stood tall to be heard and counted amongst the saints. For ease of reference, the eight slain Generals were the late Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Amankwaa Afrifa, Yaw Boakye, Robert Kotei, E.K. Utuka, Joy Amedume, Col. Roger Felli and others. The offences committed by the slain men that must have infuriated the junior officers and the other ranks were so negligible – using their offices and positions to raise the present day Gh¢5.00; helping Ghanaian women to get more money, using money lavishly, et cetera. The junior officers and their supporters claimed that their minutest fringe benefits and other allowances were trampled upon including not being helped to pass in their promotional examinations. Huh? Was that all? What have Ghanaians learnt after their demise? Don’t we have other Ghanaians who have stashed suitcases with the US Dollars and send their children and wards to schools abroad; while others also have their wards fees paid for them by their friends in foreign currency for no favour(s). One would agree with the writer that it was nothing but jealousy and pettiness. The rest also travel to and fro Europe, the Americas, Dubai in the Middle East, Hong King and China in the Far East for shopping almost every week. Don’t we have some Ghanaian women who, as a result of fashion craze, have elongated finger nails that could hinder their eating?

WHEREABOUTS

Many readers would like to first ask about the location of the madam in those heady days of the revolution. If she were then a student, what role did she play? Did she ever behave as a student leader? Did some people recognize her voice at any particular day on campus? If not, why not, but now? For Ghanaians to pacify her for not being an active member of the above revelations, what Ghanaians would probably forgive you would be to tell us whether Mr. Frank Benneh some of us knew as a former diplomat with the Ghana Embassy in Switzerland, and who was one time entangled in cocaine business while there and the Government of Ghana intervened for his extradition to Ghana to continue his prison term is still serving the jail term? The writer stands for correction but if, by default, he had finished his sentence and did not know, he renders his undeserved apology. The author is not a beautician but from all indications, intents and purposes, Madam Betty would be the most lovable lady if she tried to visit the salon soonest one of these days to get rid of her ten elongated finger nails. One wonders how she takes traditional meals without the help of a set of cutlery. This is just an admonition madam. Some little children around d my vicinity admire you except for your supposedly ‘draculan’ nails. Finally, the above are but a few of the unfolding events that the humble writer would want the ‘hot madam’ to pre-occupy herself with before the going gets tough and is taken aback. Please, accept, Madam, the sincere assurances and felicitations from the obedient citizen and promise to give you any help that may from time to time come to help with the discharge of your onerous duties. May you be guided and guarded by the angelic hosts all along.

CASE STUDY

Madam, there is a funny saying that ‘when Accra is getting ready for lunch, New York is preparing to rise up while Tokyo is also preparing for another night’. This humour is akin to the NDC’s subtle and discreet actions to prop Alhaji Mumuni to fight tooth and nail his current legal battle he finds himself entangled in. However, try as the Kumbungu MP would do, the odds will not favour him. Incidentally, when the NPP/AFAG try to use every available legal mechanism to punch the embattled Mumuni, the NDc also devise some devilish means that have no bearing at all with the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to request him to stay on and fight on. By the way, did this gentleman have any constitutional power(s) at all to action on the Bawku curfew hours and on what constitutional grounds did he pursue that delicate issue? This must be a very good case study for the NDC and wonder whether the A-G and Minister of Justice would be able to untie the knot the Alhaji has mistakenly bound himself with. IF the NDC should be bent on keeping him at post, the author and a couple others would do everything possible to knock at the doors of the International Court of Justice at The Hague for interpretation and settlement. If the ‘swollen-headed’, obstinate, power-drunk, and the NDC stake-holder minister refuses to budge, I would urge some legal scholars to commence with the impeachment processes against the president for allowing a branch of his government for violating the breach of the constitution. At certain hot spots and other drinking areas in town, the obvious question on the lips of many have been whether he the minster does wash his face from bottom to the top i.e. from the chin towards the eye-brow or vice versa. But the writer doubts that since he is a natural being, he normally would wash his face downwards. Before Madam is left off the hook, however, please do some hectic rehearsal about the docket of Ms. Cotton’s $25,000.00 ‘Quality Grain Rice that she never pursued in Aveyime since you could be taken unawares in a legal tussle on this matter. KOFI APPIAH - 0277 122 909 email:kofiappiah2002@hotmail.com