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Opinions of Monday, 29 April 2013

Columnist: Hagan, Ebenezer

Tsikata:overrated,sucks on bar ethics!

I see someone has been talking about ethics of the Bar lately and I see
that person is Mr. Tsikata. Of all the wonders in the world, that is the
most shocking. I would have been less shocked hearing that the Head of the
Boko Haram group has convicted to Christianity and enrolled at Havard or
Oxford for a degree in theology,less shocked, than hearing Tsikata speak
about the ethics of the Bar. If there is one lawyer alive, who has shown
contempt and disregard for the ethics of the Bar, it is Tsikata. Being a
right thinking human being I believe I share some similar views with
Tsikata on the ethics of the Bar. What I wonder at, though, is why his
conclusion is so perverted by failing to see that, indeed,it is he who
needs some lectures and assessment on ethics of the Bar and not any other
person.I am confident in saying that with regards to Bar ethics, even
Kpegah,at his mischievous best does better dignity to the Bar than Tsikata.
It is not my view, and I believe his too, that it was an adherence to the
ethics of the Bar that saw him in prison for misappropriation of public
funds and causing financial loss. I do not think too, and I believe he does
not think too, that it was the ethics of the Bar that motivated his lot of
rabid supporters to send those life threatening text messages to Her
Ladyships Justice Helena Inkumsah-Abban and Henrietta Abban, because they
unintelligently couldn’t distinguish between the two. I do not think, and I
am most sure that Mr. Tsikata agrees with me, that the ethics of the Bar do
not include inspiring and taking active part in a ‘Free Tsatsu Movement’
when a case is still before the court and Tsatsu is the accused. I do not
think, and I know Mr. Tsikata does not think so too, that the ethics of the
Bar include insulting and attacking the persons of judges who sit on cases,
just because you disagree with the verdicts they pass. I know that in all,
anyone with any knowledge of the ethics of the Bar, like Mr. Tsikata, who
so willfully and at their convenience flout its dictates, has no business
whatsoever preaching to others on the ethics of the Bar. If the ethics of
the Bar, favor what Mr. Tsikata has done in the past, then it is indeed
very low. If it deprecates it, as I believe it does, then Tsikata is low
and must not insult the intelligence of others by pretending to be a friend
of the ethics of the Bar. Mr. Tsikata, as a walking definition of hypocrisy
has no business lecturing anyone on anything other than how to
misappropriate public funds and get away with it by feigning death. I do
not insult Tsikata when I call him a hypocrite, I only point out his
current position.The very fact at Tsikata is today walking the free streets
of Ghana and taking the byways of it, shows how hypocritical he is. Having
rejected the offer of the Presidential Pardon in the most vitriolic terms,
one would have expected the so-called legal wizard to have stayed in jail
and fight his case as he promised to do. The height of hypocrisy, years
after,it has been revealed, is not the offer of presidential pardon H.E.
Kuffour gave to a convicted criminal called Tsatsu Tsikata, but rather the
rejection of that offer in public while taking it and making benefit out of
it in private. I think the most unethical thing of recent, has been the
attempt by Tsikata and his Ndc to delay as long as possible the
determination of the NPP's petition before the Supreme Court. There is
nothing more unethical with at the Bar than this blatant abuse of the court
processes that Tsikata has engineered from the smoke filled rooms of his
Ndc and which is meant at delaying the speedy adjudication of what promises
to be Ghana's most important constitutional case. I am however happy that
things are turning out against him. In his indecent haste he forgot that
what people laud him for, is actually mythical and that he is not as good a
lawyer as the members of the Ndc would have Ghanaians believe. He forgot
that indeed the last and only time he met Nana Addo in court, sometime in
1973, he got an ugly thrashing, a 9-0 verdict against him. He forgot that
the very few times he has been mentioned in the Ghana Law Reports, he has
always been mentioned as a junior lawyer, assisting a more learned lawyer
and that his contribution to such cases have only been nominal and not as
tremendous as he claims. But then who can blame Tsikata? I think his end is
near and as the famous saying goes,those who the gods want to destroy they
first make mad. The gods seem to have struck him with a madness that makes
him assume he is the best thing that ever happened to the legal fraternity
in Ghana.The gods are actually ensuring that he is stripped of all the
propaganda merits he has sponsored in the minds of his supporters.It is
more like fate's way of correcting a mistake she made some years back.
Tsikata, now a victim of lies, propaganda, self serving praise believes
that he is an exceptional lawyer even though all the facts even available
to himself shows the otherwise. I daresay it isn't natural that even when
he was about to retire on all these praises which could never have been
authenticated fate throws into our country a most novel case and he,
without much thought or consideration applies to be joined. I have always
known fate to be crafty but this time her cunning is most impressive. Her
game plan is better than any chess strategist can ever dream of. She
watched patiently as members of the Ndc, against all facts, against all
truth and against all honesty, lauded Mr. Tsikata as an exceptional lawyer.
She watched patiently as those lies and flattery got to the head of Mr.
Tsikata, till he himself begun to believe same and believing it, turned
arrogant, proud and utterly as well as indecently excessive in his claims
to legal ability. Crafty fate has now led Tsikata to the point of disgrace,
for that is what he experiences each day the Supreme Court sits and that is
more of what he would experience if he begins his cross-examination of
Dr.Bawumia. That indeed would also be what he would experience, when in the
full glare of Ghanaians he is exposed to be no less than any average
lawyer. When it is shown that the book of life of lawyers,the Ghana Law
Reports,knows very little about this man called Tsikata(except the few
diplomatic mentions he gets). As one can see Mr. Tsikata is frustrated. One
can however understand his source of frustration. After enjoying those
false and undeserved accolades as an exceptional lawyer , he is now being
put to the test and as expected he is failing to impress.He is now faced
with a real legal challenge, that requires more than just sarcasm and
insults to address. His so-called brilliance has been belittled to the
point where even his followers wonder if he has some unknown game plan that
he is working on. His contribution to the whole process,they have also
noted, has been nothing but the tantrums and useless objections he raises,
much of which the court has depreciated in the strongest manner. Mr.
Tsikata seems troubled by the high hopes that his flock of Ndc supporters
have of him, hopes that were built during his trial when he failed to
acknowledge the excellent work his lawyers, two lawyers who unlike him are
no strangers to mentions in the Ghana Law Reports and can safely assume the
merit of being called good lawyers, Prof. E.V.O. Dankwa and R.S. Agbenoto.
The Ndc can continue to believe their own lies. But everyone knows, that
Tsikata is merely overrated and awfully sucks on Bar ethics.