Elections have consequences – Judd Gregg
This year’s (2024/25) Ghana Bar Conference (pursuant to Article 19 of the GBA Constitution) took off amidst great pomp at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Great Hall Kumasi on Monday, the 9th day of September, 2024. The theme was: “Peaceful, Fair and Transparent Elections: The Key to Sustainable Democracy”.
It was a great day that saw the first major outing of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II after joining his brother, the Oguaamanhen to celebrate the Fetu Afahye at Cape Coast. Otumfuo, as Chancellor of KNUST, together with the Vice-Chancellor Professor Rita Akosua Dickson was hosting the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Chief Justice, Mrs. Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, the Attorney General Mr. Godfred Dame, Members of the Council of State, Ministers of State, Chiefs and Queens of the country, and prominent Christian and Muslim clergy.
The welcome address by the Vice-Chancellor, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General were terse and laconic just like Kofi Annan’s at the U.N. In an insightful valedictory address, the affable outgoing President of the Ghana Bar Association called for a review of the government’s free SHS Policy since as “(a) nation our security is threatened when a chasm develops between the rich and the poor…”
The Bar President highlighted the importance of prioritizing the improvement of basic education, for example, by eliminating schools under trees and providing sanitary products for girls. He thought there was the need to take a second look at “over-subsiding secondary education for those who could afford it”.
He added that he found it “immoral and troubling that government scholarships are given or awarded to persons with political connections and who are already from privileged and rich backgrounds at the expense of brilliant, truly needy individuals and students”.
There was suspicion of corruption, sheer abuse, nepotism and political patronage in the award of scholarship so that “multiple scholarships could be given to one person for study abroad while another person who needed a fraction of the amount to study at local universities was denied the opportunity”.
The Bar President’s call was quickly rebutted by President Nana Akufo-Addo who stated: “Let me express before I sit down, my difference with the President of the Bar on one critical issue. People who can afford to pay fees for the education of their wards should send them to fee-paying private schools. One could hear the ho-ho, ho-ho (murmurs), perhaps the majority not satisfied with being sidelined for one person to DICTATE to us.
One could not see why they, as middle class, want to “help” with their own earnings, and the President will not accept any voluntary assistance! On the ‘galamsey’ question, the Bar President advocated the repeal of the standing L.I. 2462 granting permission to mine in Forest Reserves the ovation given the Bar President said it all!
That night, the Dinner at Otumfuo’s Manhyia Palace was par excellence. That was a real dinner, because there were waiters all over the place, one did not have to carry his/her plate.
Tuesday: the day for a discussion of the Conference theme and Dr. Afari – Gyan, former Chairman of the Electoral Commission was the toast for a brilliant speech, declaring the “pink sheets” as the be-all and the end-all.
The evening was for carousing at the Rattray Park at the invitation of the Kumasi Mayor, Sam Pyne; it was a booze-night.
Wednesday: Health Walk and lectures on health. Participants took turns to go for health check-ups. The election saw the participants put “Affirmative Action Gender Equality Bill (2024)”: into action for the first time in the Bar Association’s 66-year history, two ladies were elected President and Vice-President.
Mrs. Efua Ghartey (President) and Victoria Barth (Vice-President) were duly rewarded by the members for their past roles in the activities of the Bar. We could espy Hon. Joe Ghartey, Minister for Railways (himself a lawyer) hovering around to give his wife the needed fillip to action. Efua Ghartey had won by beating Kodzo Agbesi Dzuhpusu 1278 to 1060.
Thursday was reserved for a visit to the Manhyia Museum.
Friday was a day for gormandizing at the Food Bazaar – not for long speeches. Eat, masticate, ingest. Some of the lawyers departed for various places after filling their bellies: Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Tamale, Bolga, Ho… There was sufficient time on Saturday to reflect on the theme of this year’s conference. Who does not want peace?
The main function of the Electoral Commission is to “conduct and supervise all public elections and referenda’. But before this, the Electoral Commission is expected to “compile the register of voters and revise it at such regular periods as may be determined by law”.
Do we need a demo dubbed “Enough is Enough” to insist: “We want an independent forensic audit of the register. “Why would the NDC not complain when the Director of Electoral Services, Benjamin Bano-Bio says the 2016 register had “plants and animals as people’s images”?
The night was the Ghana Bar’s own dinner, Food a-plenty, laced with all kinds of drinks: whisky, beer, Guinness… for the men and of course, Fanta, Malt, Coke… for the ladies.
Sunday was a day for us to thank Otumfuo by attending the Akwasidae. It was lovely seeing the lawyers in Kente cloths of variegated colours. Like many other attendees, we had some gifts for the King and we recalled the song. ‘We three Kings of Orient are Bearing gifts. We traverse afar, field and fountain moor and mountain following yonder star…’
We lined up to ‘greet’ the King. We were so numerous, so we were advised to just bow and resume our seats. But if anyone saw us beckoned to by the King to the dais, it was to console each other over the passing off of our father-in-law and the King’s son Oheneba Adusei-Poku, Akyempimhene and if you have the King as an in-law, you could relax and savor the observance of the grand funeral – call it expensive funeral and we shall be all for it.
Reflecting on the conference, we recall a previous conference at which we were supplied with bags with our names embossed on them, ready with note pads, pens, laminated identification cards, and copies of all the speeches…. Now, everything has been digitized or digitilized.
So, you go to a conference and return to your home, paper-less, pen-less, and you remember T.S. Eliot’s ‘Journey of the magi’’ and repeat. “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease here in the old dispensation …” We believe that Bar members will storm Wa like ‘Kakai’ next year and have the opportunity to see fiili-fiili Abdul-Salam Abdul Rafiq, shortened on Joy Fm as Rafiq Salam, Wa-a-a-a.
