Kissi Agyebeng, the special prosecutor, has come under fire from Professor Ransford Gyampo, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, for referring to himself as the conscience and soul of the nation.
The Special Prosecutor stated that he is the public’s conscience when they consecrate their saints and heroes in a media interview given following the arrest of Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the former Chairman of the disbanded Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
He continued by saying that the position represents him as the soul of the country. There are no saints nor heroes in the eyes of the office, he declared.
Kissi Agyebeng has claimed that he is the conscience and soul of Ghana, but Prof. Gyampo responded that this is “religiously and politically heretical and problematic” because it is made by a mortal human being who is not a saint himself.
Agyebeng’s assertion, he said, is “difficult” since he is not impartial with respect to the Attorney General, a partisan appointee.
Read details of Prof. Gyampo’s full statement
You are not the conscience and soul of Ghana- Prof Gyampo tells Kissi Agyabeng
I have been pondering over the responses of the Special Prosecutor on Newsfile over the weekend. Though I initially thought the interview brought out some useful information, reflecting on the responses again in more sobriety, makes me a bit worried. Kissi Agyabeng says he doesn’t consecrate saints, and that he is the conscience and soul of Ghana. Not consecrating saints can be interpreted to mean every suspect is a criminal ab initio. But in his own law that he studied, there is a principle that, all are innocent or “consecrated saints” until proven guilty. So, where from this new alien legal maxim being propounded and must we allow Kissi Agyabeng to impose it on us as a people?
Even though he admits and applauds the achievements and contributions of Prof Frimpong Boateng to Ghana, some of his comments surreptitiously rubbishes such heroic contributions. We must guillotine this attitude of ingratitude and prevent it from festering, else no one will die for Ghana, like the Special Prosecutor wants us to believe he’s currently doing, but which I honestly doubt.
Kissi’s claim that he, an individual, and a mortal human being, who isn’t a saint himself, is the conscience and soul of Ghana, sounds religiously and politically blasphemous and problematic, as he suddenly attempts to play God in Ghana. Per his own enabling act, he walks in the shadows of the Attorney General who is a partisan appointee. He can be directed and dictated to, by the Attorney General in the conduct of his work.
Such a dependent Special Prosecutor, cannot arrogate to himself the role of an Independent Public Prosecutor. You cannot walk in the shadows of a partisan appointee and still describe yourself as the conscience and soul of the nation. Even the Citizen Vigilante, Martin Amidu, in spite of all that he did prior to his appointment and during his appointment as Special Prosecutor, never described himself as the conscience and soul of the nation.
It may be possible for someone or an institution to emerge one day, as the soul and conscience of the nation. But even if this may be possible, trust for such institutions created by partisan executive presidents in Ghana, can only be built over time, not at once, as aptly argued by Kofi Bentil on Newsfile over the weekend.
If politicians have succeeded in bastardizing and making even constitutionally created independent institutions nearly dependent, even to the point of ordering their staff to submit their CVs to them for scrutiny, then Kissi Agyabeng cannot force Ghanaians to trust him all of a sudden as being independent.
Back in school, he wasn’t a tough person. But of course, he may have built his psyche and grown to become a strong willed person over the years, and this may be a positive attribute required to head the office he occupies. But granted this, mere talk, and display of a certain body language (that I do not want to describe as arrogance), cannot suddenly force all Ghanaians to believe that the Special Prosecutor is independent.
Let him truly go after all who are culpable in this galamsey menace; let him look into the faces of his friends and political appointees and refuse to favor them in his quest to help the fight against galamsey; and let him do these over a period of time, and he will surely win the hearts of all Ghanaians.
Yaw Gyampo
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