RE: UNJUST RULING BY SUPREME COURT

RE: UNJUST RULING BY SUPREME COURT
My friends, widespread comments by many on the above authored by me has compelled me to address some issues raised.
I don’t know a lot about law but I know a lot about justice and injustice.
I looked at the Supreme Court ruling against the background of an election that had been accompanied by violence and loss of lives.
Indeed, the EC’s handling could have led to more serious violence and even a war.
I believe that the Supreme Court should have considered, not just the litigants but our broad national interest. This wasn’t a case involving private litigants. It was an election in which millions voted and some died.
The Supreme court– any Supreme Court, is not just a legal body– it is also a political body. It delivered a legal judgment. But it could and should have done more.
It is not just the prerogative of the Supreme Court to over-rule precedents– it is a duty when such action is in the national interest. That is what the US Supreme Court was doing when it abandoned Plessy v Ferguson in Brown v Board of Education. It has done the same in abortion and voting rights cases. In 1981, the Canada Supreme Court ruled that the Federal government had the right to seek repatriation of the constitution but some consultation with the provinces and consensus would be better.
I am amazed at the many who have conceded privately to me that there needs to “be accountability from/by the E.C. but the court is not the right forum”. They may be right but then which is the right forum?
While I believe, on the balance of probabilities that the NPP won this election, process matters, for the EC’s credibility and our national cohesion. A pregnant woman is pregnant but the circumstances matter a lot in how she and society look at the pregnancy!
Furthermore, courts, including ours, are not infallible. They gave us re:Akoto. Then in 1996, after Amo disputed his defeat of Ayawaso-Wugon Parliamentary election, they sat on the case for 4 years before ruling that he won! And they didn’t even apologize.
Finally, I urge that we tame the jingoism and partisan righteousness that is taking over our politics. If you were upset in 2013 but jubilant now, look in the mirror. If you were jubilant then and upset now, look in the mirror. You are probably looking at hypocrisy.
My friends, Ghana could use a little more tolerance and nationalism and a little less partisanship.
May God bless Ghana and bring us together.
On this Valentines day, let us love, for love is of God.
Arthur Kobina Kennedy (February 14, 2021)