Those days, we hear their war cry: “People! Revolution!!!, People! Revolution,” and later it became “People! Hormor, ye wor!!!” when the revolution was not bringing food and the people started getting hungry. That was in the early days of the PNDC era.
Those were the days, when we were told by semi-literates that the degree holders know nothing. These school drop-outs would say they were more brilliant in class than those in higher positions, like doctors, managers and lecturers. Unfortunately, their parents could not afford to pay school fees for them to advance in education, that was how they ended up where they were.
These academically weak students, we were told,had rich parents who bought exams questions for them, that was how come they got to where they were. So, any highly educated Ghanaian was brainless and corrupt and must be disregarded.
Yearslater, the leader of the revolution, J.J Rawlings, acquired two honorary doctorate degrees and oh, how proud he felt to wear the same academic gowns, he had earlier mocked. He grabbed the opportunity to use the easiest way to acquire a degree, he once condemned as useless.
Meanwhile, some of his disciples, devoted time to go through the hard way to acquire degrees and how proud and honoured they feelwith the title, “Doctor.” How they could afford the courses, is another question.
People! Revolution!!!, and the beat went on. Yes, those were the days when anyone close to the corridors of power, could descend on Ghanaians and command as law any stupid thing that would comefrom his mouth.
Ghanaians were told not to water their lawn or wash their car, because they would waste precious water. We were told not to construct fence walls with concrete, because blocks and cements are meant only for constructing buildings. We were told not to harvest fresh maize but let them dry on the stalk so that there will be enough for corn flour and dough. So, no more boiled or roasted corn.
This was what came from the mouths of the disciples of the revolution, who would gather vulnerable people to demonstrate against management and take over the operations of the workplace.
Ghana Textiles Printing Corporation (GTP), once had its management taken over by a gang of semi-literates belonging to the Workers Defense Committee (WDC). Things took a deep downturn and Rawlings had to restore sanity to save GTP.
In fact, some of the things that came out from the minds and mouths of these revolutionary were too lethal to comprehend. A university student and revolutionary told me, while we were walking the streets of Labone, that our agriculturists were useless, because they should be able cultivate corn on the tarred streets but they could not. I quietly said to myself, “Ghana, we have arrived!”
Unfortunately, it was these people who composed the majority of the members on the Consultative Assembly which drafted our 1992 Constitution. Even though, it is the longest constitution spanning over thirty years and counting, it is the one that people have more problems with. Because when it comes to understanding some of its articles, confusion always erupt.Sometimes, even most of those who sat down and wrote the Constitution, do not understand what they wrote.
Recently, a simple self-explanatory, article in the Constitution, about the minimum number of justices to be appointed on the Supreme Court, created confusion in the House of Parliament.
Article 128 (1) states: “The Supreme court shall consist of the Chief Justice and not less than nine other Justices of the Supreme Court.” There is nothing here that suggests that there must be a limit for justices on the Supreme Court. The mathematical proponent here is “not-less-than (<∕)” and nothing else. It had nothing to do with upper limits. So, nothingin Article 128, mandates that there should be an upper limitof justices on the Supreme Court.
As to whether this issue was debated on the floor of the Consultative Assembly, Ghanaians were never told and even if it was, who cares? One is only interested in buying cassava and not what went into its production.
Hon. Mahama Ayiriga of the NDC who raised this nonexistent clause of upper limit of justices on the Supreme Court, might have been inspired by the propaganda on social media comparing the nine justices on US Supreme Court to the fifteen in Ghana’s.
If he had done his research, he would know that the USA has one federal supreme court, with nine justices and fifty-two state supreme courts for the fifty states, with a total of three hundred and forty-four justices.
The state supreme courts’ rulings on state laws are final, but their rulings on federal laws can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. There are 353 supreme court justices in the US.
Currently, we have fifteen justices on our Supreme Court. At one point in time there were sixteen sitting justices during NDC 1 and 2 regimes, under Rawlings.
If the law is silent on the upper limit of appointees, why should the issue be raised? This habit of just opening one’s mouth during the days of the revolution, and what came out should be law, has entered this current constitutional era.
So, now we can safely say, “People! Constilution!!!”And keep being disillusioned about things around us.
By Hon. Daniel Dugan
Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle
