Fighting judicial corruption the Ghanaian way

Early this year, 12 high senior and 22 minor court justices of Ghana’s judiciary were shoved out of their hallowed benches. It made global headlines during our hosanna moment when the fossil we exhumed to help us fight the ghost of corruption was at the peak of his political honeymoon.  The Ghanaian judges had no […]

Early this year, 12 high senior and 22 minor court justices of Ghana’s judiciary were shoved out of their hallowed benches. It made global headlines during our hosanna moment when the fossil we exhumed to help us fight the ghost of corruption was at the peak of his political honeymoon.  The Ghanaian judges had no chance in video heaven of escaping the real arm of justice because the evidence against them was incontrovertible. They were all caught pants down, some going low to accept goats to subvert the course of justice. This reality sting operation was carried out using a Ghanaian Lagbaja (a masked) journalist, by the uncommon moniker of Anas Arimiyaw Anas. For two years, he posed as a friend to several accused persons standing before courts and in all instances; he had video evidence of money or other goods changing hands. This led to cows of crime passing through the needle eye of justice.
Aremeyaw claims to be a journalist and if he is not, he couldn’t have asked for a better alibi. He obviously has the eminent support of Ghanaian authorities. Armed with a hidden camera, he visits the homes of corrupt judges to buy freedom from the courts. His sting operation was packaged into a Ghaniwood documentary and Ghanaians were scrambling to viewing centres to watch evidence of judicial corruption premiere. He was on talk shows and media houses talking about his works including ones in which he documents the murder of disabled children, corruption in the prisons and in Tanzania where he documented evidence of the ritual murder of albinos.
Ghanaians were particularly shocked to find how quickly people forget hard lessons. Three decades earlier, Flight Lieutenant Jerry J Rawlings inflicted mortal wounds on political corruption in high places. Aremeyaw did not feature in this year’s edition of CNN African Journalist of the Year, but as a result of his investigation, if a Ghanaian judge gets a ‘friendly’ visit from someone purporting to buy justice for a criminal, chances are that they would remember Aremeyaw and do the right thing.
So is Ghana getting it right? It’s not in Naija character to accept being beaten by other nations. Ghana has learnt some good things from us in the same way it has taken some bad lessons and improved on the propriety of our scams. Take 419 for instance, it is as Naija as the code from which it was named, but Ghanaians have taken it and are beating us to it. Recently, my good friend, Ladebey reported the activities of a phoney American Embassy in Accra. Situated near the real deal, this fake embassy was a bold and ingenious parody of the real one. It comes with an office flying the American flag, has its own ambassador; a functional consulate that charges upwards of $5,000 for fake visas that looked nowhere near the lemon that it is. This is a bold improvement on the infamous Oluwole from where some of our politicians bought their Toronto certificates before becoming godfathers of the ruling elite.
We have installed a government that fights cartoon corruption. We are perhaps too proud to learn how to nail corruption with hard-core evidence, Aremeyaw-style. We select a few victims to appeal to people susceptible to public gullibility; we spread a few unsubstantiated rumours about them and beat our chests that we are fighting corruption. When we get to the courts, we suddenly realise that we have grabbed our suspects by the elbow, not the wrist and they slip back to hold thanksgiving services. Salacious stories of asset seizure mean nothing because we have heard them in the past where their owners, born again like Saint Timipre Silva, got their assets back – its just a question of time.
Want to fight corruption with tangible evidence that sends shock waves down the spines of the sleazy? Sai Baba should talk to his Ghanaian counterpart for the Aremeyaw code of dealing with real corrupt judges. While working on that, he should occupy our impressionable minds with tangible plans to get us out of recession, ritual killing, kidnapping, fake drugs, sliding value of the Naira and all the other ills he claimed to have found the magic wand to cure. Then, as we are taunting America for its claim to fame, he could then invite the American ambassador and us, his citizens to the premiere of Nollywood version of the Anas Aremeyaw story. Until then, he and his EFCC and DSS should spare the tales by moonlight told by the deceitful to impress the gullible hosanna singers. We’re too grown up to be entertained by the tomfoolery of the circus.

On US elections
It finally looks like America is ready to demystify itself. With the evidence rallied against both its major candidates and emerging from the campaign trail at this year’s election, America is just about to lose its moral capacity to call erring global rulers to question on anything without being told to pick the mote from their own eyes before excising the logs lodged in others. We’re watching!