Opinions of Thursday, 15 September 2022
Columnist: Yentik Gariba
This is not only a worrying development but also raises serious matters of national security concerns
The nation is saddened to note that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces has been living in oblivion in relation to the whereabouts of the Chinese galamsey Kingpin, popularly known as Aisha Huang, following her involvement in illegal galamsey activities in the country.
This should be a great source of worry to every citizen of this country, and indeed, to the national security chiefs and government of the day as it is done in better jurisdictions.
It is an obvious fact that the general public is highly appalled at the news, especially at a time when our neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso and Togo are struggling with terrorist attacks in their neighbourhoods.
How on earth could the president, the father of the nation, have claimed to be lavishing in limbo as to the whereabouts of the woman in question? The assertion by the president, to the effect, that he is not in the know about Aisha Huang's deportation amply justifies the level of state-sponsored systemic corruption that has become the most remarkable feature of this government, and indeed, a lucrative venture in the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration.
This government, by this development, has given us more than enough to be worried over, as responsible citizens conscious of the governance crisis that bedevils them, and not spectators!
In any case, if you have a head of state, who is supposed to be briefed every morning by his security chiefs, on matters of security and national interest, claiming to be totally oblivious about the fact that the much talked about Aisha Huang was deported or not, raises another magnitude of the level of governance quagmire and crisis that has bedeviled the clueless, reckless and incompetent Nana Akufo-Addo administration.
In the light of the president's recent comments, in better jurisdictions, he should have been impeached by Parliament or made to be prosecuted by the Courts, unconditionally. But we have a system that glorifies hero-worship to the total disregard for the rule of law and the constitution from which the president sources its powers.
It is against this despotism that the call by the former president needs to be rallied behind. The former president John Dramani Mahama, in the midst of dictatorial administration like we have now, has made calls to the effect that if given the chance to rule this country once again, he intends to trigger a review of the constitution of 1992 to ensure that the powers of the president should be reviewed to make him less powerful to not violate the constitution that guarantees him those powers.
This is a move in the right direction because the powers arrogated to the president make him somewhat irresponsible in the discharge of his duties. The constitution allocates so much power to the presidency that dictators take advantage of it to misbehave as despots.
The review, therefore, is a call in the right direction!