Opinion: Martin Amidu’s Appointment Must Stand! – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Mr. Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, Ghana’s designated Special Prosecutor

Calls for the withdrawal of the nomination of Mr. Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu as Independent Special Prosecutor by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are grossly misguided and must be promptly and roundly rejected with all the contempt that they deserve. In particular, the decision by former Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Dominic Ayine to sue at the Supreme Court for the withdrawal of Mr. Amidu’s appointment, primarily on grounds of age, is absolutely without merit, even if it may be envisaged to have constitutional and/or statutory validity. From day one, Dr. Ayine has more than amply demonstrated that he has a vested partisan interest and a personal vendetta against the nominee, which makes the plaintiff’s credibility irredeemably suspect.

Asia 728x90

For instance, the National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga-East has intransigently maintained since the nomination of the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, that Mr. Amidu is highly unlikely to be fair in the execution of his portfolio to the members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have served in government, especially as cabinet appointees, almost as if the post of Independent Special Prosecutor was established with the express purpose of witch-hunting appointees of the erstwhile Mahama regime, of which Dr. Ayine was a Deputy Attorney-General. But that Dr. Ayine has yet to credibly substantiate his accusations against Mr. Amidu, ought to give all patriotic Ghanaians grave cause for concern. And his lawsuit is almost certain to be roundly rejected and dismissed by the Sophia Akuffo-presided Supreme Court of Ghana.

Even more significant must be highlighted the fact that a Constitution that is decidedly hobbled by Indemnity Clauses expressly and exclusively aimed at providing protection for political criminals, largely key operatives of the erstwhile Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), the political and ideological antecedent of the present-day National Democratic Congress, can be promptly and readily amended, if the sole deficiency preventing Mr. Amidu from constitutionally and statutorily performing his job is the fact of him merely being 66 years old. You see, none of the critics calling for his withdrawal, including the plaintiff himself, has put forth a credible argument indicating that Mr. Amidu is either woefully underqualified or grossly incapable of effectively and efficiently delivering on his mandate as Independent Special Prosecutor.

To be certain, the diametrically opposite has been the case, with nearly every legally and judicially competent Ghanaian citizen, across the proverbial ideological divide, heartily welcoming Mr. Amidu’s nomination as, perhaps, the most objectively astute and constructive appointment ever made by President Akufo-Addo. It is also all to be expected that Dr. Ayine would desperately sue to have the all-too-meritorious appointment of Mr. Amidu summarily revoked by the Supreme Court which, by the way, is only mandated to interpret both the letter and the spirit of the law, for the plaintiff is neck-deep mired in the AMERI-Deal Scam in which the Ghanaian taxpayer was bilked to the tune of tens of millions of US Dollars.

Simply put, Dr. Ayine knows, as well as everybody else, that he is destined to do time at Nsawam. Averting the latter is clearly the primary objective of his suit. But that ought not to be one of our major sources of worries. The plaintiff has absolutely no right to corrupt the appointment of the Independent Special Prosecutor for his own parochial and selfish ends.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com  Ghanaffairs

The views expressed by this author remain solely their own and are not to be taken as the view of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com,  www.zongonews.com and ZongoNews Radio & TV