About three years ago, I made the statement that a former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, was not eligible to contest to become President again.
I made a constitutional argument, and on two occasions, I filed the matter in the Supreme Court of Ghana.
The first attempt at putting this constitutional argument before the Supreme Court failed. It was dismissed on a technicality.
The second case is still with Ghana’s Supreme Court. All the necessary documentations, legal arguments and whatever needs to be filed, has been filed. Sometime in 2024, the Supreme Court adjourned the matter, and since then, no date has been set for the delivery of a judgment or for any decision to be taken on the matter.
The case is in limbo in some netherworld of the making of Ghana’s Supreme Court, a kind of purgatory, where cases that the court finds too unpleasant to deal with, are shelved with shaking hands.
The Supreme Court, a solid phalanx of nine judges, could not find the rationalized legal arguments that would definitively support the argument that my case before the court was unfounded.
Which leads me to the conclusion that my case had a basis, that Mr. John Mahama was not eligible to be President, and that he is a President who is in a constitutional lacuna all of his own making and the making of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
In recent times, a veritable siege has been mounted against the Chief Justice of Ghana. I have no doubt at all and a belief, that back in 2024, if we had known that Mrs Torkonoo would come under the siege she is coming under now, the handling of my matter before the Supreme Court would have been much, much different.
But the opportunity is gone; gone with the wind and the passage of time. Even if the Supreme Court were to make the declaration today, what would happen is a constitutional crisis, an unnecessary constitutional crisis, wholly avoidable. So, in all probability, my case that John Mahama is not eligible to be President, would continue to suffer in the netherworld it is currently laboring under.
A similar argument can be made with regard to Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Back in 2021 to 2024, I argued, ceaselessly, that John Dramani Mahama was not eligible to be President. Either I was wrong, or I was right, but at least, I deserved a listening to. The duo, that is Bawumia and the NPP, with an astonishing sense and attitude of blasé, evinced absolutely no interest in the matter. It was as if they believed that I am some kind of crank, or that they were so convinced that Bawumia was winning, that there was no need to investigate an allegation that somebody who was unqualified, is getting onto the ballot paper.
As it is, the man I said is unqualified, managed to get onto the ballot paper, and managed to whip Bawumia in his home region. Some even state that Mahama whipped him at his polling station, and even in Bawumia’s home town.
In the light of his dismal showing at the ballot box and in the light of his inability to mount a credible campaign, I am sure, that at certain points in time, Bawumia would ask himself about the opportunities he missed. And one of the opportunities, was whether he would have been wiser, smarter, to find out for himself if Mahama was eligible to contest to become President.
It is something that would occur to more people beyond Bawumia in the NPP, particularly those whose homes are being raided by Jakpa and those who are being forced to enjoy the hospitality of the National Investigations Bureau (NIB).
Indeed, if we could rewind the clock, go back in time to 2024 and beyond, and against the light of current events, many people would not make the decisions they made then.
The scary thing, beyond the case of Torkornoo and the NPP, is whether John Mahama would be a truly democratic President. So far, the indications are that we have cause to worry. His alliances with the coup regimes in West Africa, the fact that he has a soft spot in his heart for countries like Russia and China, all of which have strong-man leaders, should be indicative to Ghanaians that he would not shy away from certain decisions and actions.
Certainly, the days of Torkornoo in office are limited. And so are the days of Jean Mensah at the Electoral Commission. I have even heard that he has proposed Charlotte Osei for the Supreme Court.
Hah!
I am certainly certain, that if some people had the opportunity, they would have acted differently indeed!
(PERISCOPE DEPTH of Monday, 14th April, 2025. PERISCOPE DEPTH is published every Monday in the Daily Searchlight).
