The Speaker of Parliament is enjoined under the 1992 Constitution to obey and enforce the decisions and orders of the Supreme Court following the Court’s unanimous dismissal of his application on 30 October 2024 to set aside the processes and proceedings in the suit brought by Alexander Afenyo Markin (the Majority Leader) against him and the Attorney-General, and further to vacate the orders of the Court dated 18th October 2024 staying the execution of the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament dated 17th October 2024 declaring vacant the seats of four named Members of Parliament pending the final determination of the suit, as unmeritorious.
The Supreme Court has by its decision dismissing the Speaker’s application thrown out all the jurisdictional objections raised by the Speaker to the competence of the Supreme Court to hear the Writ and Statement of Case filed by the plaintiff against the defendants. The full reasons for the Court’s decision are to be filed in the registry of the Court by Friday, 8 November 2024. We can then temperately criticize or applaud the decision without scandalizing the Court.
The Supreme Court has in its latest ruling again given the Speaker and the Attorney-General the opportunity to submit their Statements of Case and to argue their case against the Majority Leader’s Writ and Statement of Case after filing their joint Memorandum of Issues. In the interim, the work of Parliament must go on smoothly within the status quo ante the Speaker’s ruling of 17 October 2024. The Supreme Court is the final repository of the judicial power in the determination of controversies affecting the citizen and the state, and vice-versa and ensuring compliance with the orders and directives of the Supreme Court is a mandatory requirement of the Constitution, and the rule of law as distinct from the rule of the jungle.
The Kabuki dance of writing a letter numbered PS/DC/24/234 dated 18 October 2024 to the Registrar of the Supreme Court returning Court processes to the Registrar and applying to the same Court to set aside its ruling and orders is over. Every mature and reasonable person knows that when a writ and statement of case and/or their service are defective the proper thing to do is to apply to set them aside and not to write letters returning them.
I found it interesting that in Ghana, the Speaker of Parliament with a well-known political affiliation who presided over the approval of members of the Supreme Court and recommended them for appointment will turn around to question the competence or integrity of any of the justices merely on the grounds of former political party affiliation without further proof of real likelihood of bias after the assumption of office of the justice.
It is one thing criticizing the nomination of a person to the Supreme Court so that Parliament may consider the criticism in the approval process and another thing after Parliament has in a bi-partisan manner approved and recommended the person for appointment and the appointment has been consummated to allege bias in a pending case without any shred of evidence. Once the appointment has been consummated through the constitutionally approved process the sanctity of the institution of the judiciary demands that every citizen gives the appointees the presumption of impartiality until there is concrete proof to the contrary.
The Speaker has no authority to hold the nation to ransom by obstructing the functioning of the constitutional system or any of the arms of government during the pendency of a constitutional matter before the Supreme Court. The Speaker and Parliament have to learn to accept the decisions and orders of the Supreme Court they co-created with the Executive branch for Ghanaians in this epoch of the nation’s history. The wheels of government must move smoothly while the judiciary exercises the judicial power apportioned to it under the Constitution to resolve the pending constitutional impasse. The Speaker should file his Statement of Case as directed by the Court and let the Court resolve the controversy between the plaintiff and the defendants.
Between now and 7 December 2024 everything must be done by the legislature and the executive branch particularly to lower political tensions and to ensure free, fair and transparent elections instead of resorting to political party gamesmanship and point scoring which can be disastrous for the general well-being of the citizen and the survival of the 1992 Constitution from which all the arms of government derive their powers. The Speaker needs to show cognitive maturity now! Parliaments and Governments may come and go but the Republic of Ghana shall always endure.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
30 October 2024