Which court, Richard Quarshigah?

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

He is dead-on-target in his criticism that the creation of the non-gazetted new ministries by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo contravenes the 1992 Constitution and therefore lacks legality. The problem here, though, is that Mr. Richard Quarshigah, the former Propaganda Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress, who presently serves as Member of Parliament for Keta, could not have gone to court and easily won his case, as he so facilely seems to think (See “Akufo-Addo’s Creation of New Ministries Illegal – Richard Quarshigah” MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 2/26/17).

It is rather ironic for these NDC-MPs who have absolutely no respect for the country’s laws and the judicial system to presume that they can be taken seriously by any conscientious and deep-thinking members of the bench or the judiciary. In this instance, however, Mr. Quarshigah would be confronted by the practical reality of his case’s being summarily dismissed, because each and every one of the ministerial designees of these allegedly illegal ministries have been confirmed by the bi-partisan Parliamentary Appointments Committee (PAC). In short, if he had wanted to challenge the legality of these newly created portfolios, the Keta NDC-MP ought to have done so prior to the appearance of the nominees before the PAC.

It was equally lame and decidedly counterproductive for Mr. Patrick Yaw Boamah, the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Okaikoi-Central, to have attempted to put up a foolhardy argument against the clearly irrefutable contention of Mr. Quarshigah. Now, what the Flagstaff House needs to do is to unreservedly apologize to Mr. Quarshigah and the members of the House, as well as the general Ghanaian public at large and promptly do the right thing by having the ministerial portfolios at issue gazetted and taken through the requisite procedural processes. President Akufo-Addo says that he is a man in a hurry, and so it is quite conceivable to chalk this down as a genuine oversight. He is 8 years behind schedule, as I have observed in at least a couple of previous columns.

Such procedural protocol must be promptly observed because we are a nation of laws; and not only that, the Akufo-Addo-led ruling New Patriotic Party has creditably demonstrated time and again that unlike the main opposition National Democratic Congress’ key operatives, it is a party of law-abiding and responsible citizens. The tainted political track-record of the key players of the National Democratic Congress notwithstanding, it is rather embarrassing for a government so chock-full of a disproportionate percentage of the best and the brightest legal minds of the land to allow itself to be called out on such an elementary matter of constitutional protocol.

It is well past time for the government to have put its crackerjack legal team of advisors together and to work for positive effect. But, of course, it is not the least bit too late, nonetheless. Time for serious business!

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, York
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

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