Just when you thought there won’t be any more controversy surrounding the creation of the special prosecutor’s office, here comes the appointment of the most cantankerous and odious self promoter in the country, Mr. Martin Amidu, to head that office.
I wonder what the President, Mr. Akuffo Addo was thinking when he decided on the highly opinionated Mr. Amidu to lead the prosecution of those alleged to have stolen from the public coffers.
Perhaps, Mr. Addo hasn’t read the memo, so let me acquaint him. Mr. Amidu is widely perceived in some circles as a rabblerouser, highly temperamental and a loose canon who is undeniably and steadfastly bent on a political vendetta against his former party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
While some have praised the government’s selection of Mr. Amidu — there seem to a national delirium at the announcement —- I, like many others, have grave misgivings about elevating Mr. Amidu to such a high profile position.
Of course, nobody disputes Mr. Amidu’s legal acumen; he is, after all, an astute lawyer who speaks eloquently and writes brilliantly. He once was our nation’s attorney general in the Mills administration, remember.
However, assigning him the huge responsibility of prosecuting corrupt ex government officials amounts to letting the hyena into the sheep lair. It is literally a dream job for the pugnacious Mr. Amidu who I can imagine is salivating at the prospect of finally getting a long awaited opportunity to take the long political knife to his opponents in the NDC.
Mr. Amidu has a long and bitter history of acrimony and hostility with a section of the NDC. His falling out with the party is legendary. In fact, for a better part of 2016, he engaged in pitched verbal slugfests with his former colleagues. His primary target was former president Mr. John Mahama who he accused variously of being unscrupulously corrupt and unfit to lead the country.
He viciously and relentlessly savaged Mr. Mahama at every opportunity, culminating in his call to Ghanaians on the eve of the 2016 elections to vote Mr. Mahama out of office. Along the way, Mr. Amidu carefully cultivated this pristine image of a man untainted by corruption. And, sadly, Ghanaians bought into that facade.
But now that he has been appointed the special prosecutor, one wonders if Mr. Amidu’s memorable battles with his former NDC colleagues were dress rehearsals for a job with the NPP? Whatever it is, Mr. Amidu comes into the job of special prosecutor with a baggage; the opposition will place less faith in a man sworn to their destruction as a political entity, and decisions or judgements he reaches will be dismissed as paens to the NPP.
Anyway, I will grudgingly admit it. Mr Amidu’s appointment was a carefully crafted and brilliant political calculus by Mr. Akuffo Addo and his advisers; it was a move designed to promote the notion that the prosecution of former corrupt NDC officials by a former high ranking NDC capo is a non-partisan effort to weed out financial malfeasance. But Ghanaians see through all that deception.
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