Justice in the open

 

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice has held a series of press briefings to inform Ghanaians about the corruption cases his office is investigating. It’s a novelty that has drawn considerable attention—both from those who applaud it and those who question its intent.

Supporters of this approach argue that it offers a rare opportunity for citizens to be informed and to follow the cases the state is prosecuting. Such openness is seldom seen in our democracy. For once, the public can see the machinery of justice at work, not hidden behind closed doors.

To others, however, this is nothing more than a well-schemed political gimmick designed to court public goodwill. They argue that the Attorney-General has no business discussing investigations his office and other anti-corruption bodies are pursuing. According to them, such matters should remain tightly guarded secrets. The only time Ghanaians should hear about these cases, they say, is when reporters ambush lawyers at the courthouse for a few words. Anything beyond that, in their view, is an attempt to “try the cases in the court of public opinion.”

Well, be that as it may, we need this court of public opinion if our democracy is to grow robust. Nothing is more antithetical to the principles of democracy than opacity. When the Attorney-General informs citizens about what his office is doing, we know how to set our expectations and hold him accountable. If he fails to follow these cases to their logical conclusions, we can measure that failure against his own words.

If we all agree that democracy is good for us, then we must be prepared to practice it—warts and all. When we prune away the aspects that make us uncomfortable, we risk being left with a caricature of democracy.

Yes, we want these cases tried in courts of competent jurisdiction. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to know what they entail. We expect the Attorney-General to prove every allegation beyond reasonable doubt, but we also have a right to know what he is proving.

We cannot claim to love democracy while seeking to chip away at the very tenets that sustain it. If anything, these press briefings have given suspects ample time and information to prepare their defenses—hardly the mark of political persecution.

We must be courageous enough to consolidate the gains of our democratic experiment, rather than picking and choosing the parts that serve our personal interests.

To the Attorney-General: you are beating a path that has rarely been charted in our history. People of goodwill are behind you. You have the righteous wind at your back. If you keep this up, prosecute these cases diligently, and make the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice and ORAL work as it should, you will be remembered for it.

It is your duty—an earnest one at that—as it is your government’s duty, to recover the loot that Ghana has lost in recent years. The nation holds its breath and sets its sights on you.