I won’t derail arms of democracy - Rawlings
Former President, Jerry Rawlings on Friday made
it clear that he will not, at any cost, do or say anything to undermine the
democratic institution, which he has helped to establish.
He said he would rather do everything within
his means to ensure the integrity and growth of those structures. Reacting to
the caution to him last Tuesday by Mr Justice Kwame Dixon Afreh, an Appeal
Court Judge, who sits an additional High Court Judge in the ongoing Quality
Grains case, the former President said: “I have a lot of respect for Justice
Afreh. What he said the other day, including the comments he made, are not
inappropriate.”
Flt-Lt Rawlings, who was speaking in an interview
at his residence in Accra, said freedom and justice are the very components for
ensuring the growth of democracy, “and I would rather contribute to their
maintenance.” He described as unfortunate the present “trend of politics” in
the country, saying it is based on “how successful you can keep the people
anaesthetic from the truth, by disinformation, and the use of intimidation and
lies.”
Asked about the way forward, the former
President said that will depend on how the NPP government could appreciate the
“value of the culture of democracy that we practised, and which made it
possible for them to come into office.”
According to Flt-Lt Rawlings, “a sizeable
section of the international community, who were looking up to Ghana to once
again become one of the role models in Africa, to demonstrate our respect for
democracy,” is already expressing concern about what is happening on the
political front in the country.
Asked why he refused to comment on President
Kufour’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday, the former President said he
knew Ghanaians were capable of seeing “the truth” for themselves, and that he
wanted the public to first discuss the address thoroughly.
According to him, the airport, roads,
telecommunications, “and in fact 90 per cent of the projects that the President
promised the nation in his address were things already initiated by the
previous government. “They don’t even want to give credit where it is due,” he
said.
Flt Lt Rawlings said after 12 months of NPP’s
administration, “Ghanaians are suffering the dejection of NPP’s campaign
promises. “They can see things for themselves, and do not need Rawlings to
comment on the President’s speeches for them,” he added.
The former President denied that he often
turned down invitations to state functions, saying since he left office, he has
only been invited to a function in connection with the visit by the Ivorian
President, Mr Laurent Gbagbo, and the President’s State of the Nation Address
last Thursday.
Asked if he also considers President Kufour as
a friend, with regard to President Kufour’s assurance at the People’s Assembly
in Accra last month that, relations between them were normal and cordial, Flt.
Lt. Rawlings said, “no comment.”
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Man steals cash from God but the ‘Oldman’ was
not asleep
For Anthony Akorli, a 45-year-old resident of
Abeka Lapaz in Accra, the announcement by the Tesano Baptist Church in Accra
that Sunday, December 9, 2001, had been set aside as a tithe-collection day was
an ideal opportunity for him to steal and make some money.
So he hatched a plan. He must have his share of
the tithe; fair or foul all must not go into the work of God. On that fateful
Sunday, Akorli dressed nicely, joined the congregation and pretended to be
worshipping with them. He walked straight into the church hall and chose a
strategic position beside the tithe collection box.
A few minutes later, the resident pastor led by
the choir also entered the church hall to begin the day’s service. The pastor
began the sermon but Akorli had his eyes firmly set on the money box, finding
ways and means to steal the money.
The opportunity came when the time for praises
was announced. The congregation stood up, sang, danced and threw their hands
into the air in praise of the Lord. Akorli joined in the praise and worship and
in the midst of the frenzy, he thought all eyes were off the collection box.
But he was wrong.
Besides God’s invisible eye, there was another
eye - the eye of another member of the congregation. Akorli danced stylishly
around the bowl and smartly picked one of the envelopes, which he hid under his
armpit. He went back to his seat. No one noticed him, or so he thought.
But the other eye was determined to make sure
God was not robbed. So the member walked from behind and whispered what he saw
to the pastor. The pastor brought proceedings immediately, to a halt.
Akorli was confronted, but he denied taking the
money from the tithe box. He was asked to raise his hands. He did it obediently
and lo and behold the envelope fell on the floor.
For some of the people, it shows God is great.
While some shouted “thief, thief, thief,” others used similar exclamations in
different languages in response to the exposure. The envelope was examined and
it was found to contain ¢40,000. Mr Abu Mohammed, a member of the church,
indicated having dropped that envelope in the box as his tithe for that month.
Ashamed of himself, Akorli took refuge in one
of the church’s rooms. He was however, pursued by the congregation. He then
decided on one thing as a means of escape. He eased himself, made a ball out of
it and splashed it on the walls. This was enough to give him a breathing space.
The crowd went wild into a stampede. At this
point, it was everybody to himself and God for us all as they took to their
heels. His intention was to desecrate the House of the Lord with the faeces and
get away. But this angered some of the worshippers who defied the consequences
of his action and charged on him. They eventually overpowered him but not
without being baptized with the faeces. The escorted him to the Tesano Police
Station amidst shouts of “thief, thief, thief…” from the congregation.
But when he appeared before the Amasaman
Community Tribunal on December 20, 2001, he said he had done nothing criminal.
He pleaded not guilty to a charge of stealing. The chairman of the tribunal, Mr
W.K. Owusu told the accused that he was shocked about his behaviour. The case
was adjourned while Akorli has been granted ¢1 million bail.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
We’re
not aiding drug traffickers
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice E.K. Wiredu, has denied that the courts have been aiding drug put escape punishment. He said that delays in narcotics cases were caused by frequent adjournments sometimes by prosecutors.
The
Chief Justice said that prosecutors often asked for adjournments to acquire
more evidence, thereby leading to the granting of bail to the suspects. Mr
Justice Wiredu said these on Friday in reaction to the Ghanaian Times front
page story of Thursday, January 31, under the heading “Courts Aiding Pushers”.
He
said that since a person was presumed innocent until proven guilty, the courts
could not tell at once that the drug suspects were guilty and jail them. He
said that every judge would have wished to start and finish a case that same
day, if the prosecution proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt.
On
the claim by an official of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) that they had
sent the Chief Justice several petitions on issue of granting bail to such
suspects. Mr Justice Wiredu said he had not received any petition.
“If
it was my predecessor, or if any such petition is on the way I can’t tell, but
I have not received any,” he stated. He said that if it were true at all, it
would not be proper since no one could tell him to grant bail to a particular
suspect or not. Mr Justice Wiredu asked for patience for such cases to pass
through the due processes of the law.
It
is recalled that the Times published the GNA story in which the Deputy
Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board, Mr Emmanuel Agyarko, blamed
the judiciary for the increase in illicit drug trafficking and substance abuse
in the country. He alleged that none of the suspects arrested by the police and
officials of the various drug abuses last year were convicted by the
courts.
GRi.../
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com