Kwame Gyan September 23, 2015

Ace Kojo Anan Ankomah asked me this evening (September 23) what I thought about all that I saw in the now very very famous #anas videos:

First off I wasn’t shocked too much. May be because of the transcripts and trailer that we saw it didn’t hit me as much.

But I was suprised at how little it takes to bribe some judges – all Ivy Heward-Mills required was 800 cedis. Yes. Eight Hundred. One 8 with 2 zeros. That was a shocker.

I wasn’t suprised that there were power brokers like Gabriel and Dzata and numerous court clerks and secretaries who yield so much power and make things happen. They are the Olivia Popes of our courts – they fix things.

We all use such persons in our lives. We just have become so used to the little acts of corruption that they now tend to feel and look like ‘it’s normal’. Think of the many abnormal and corrupt things that you consistently do that now appear normal to you……I bet it’s a pretty tall list.

I think also that our laws grant judges way too much power. It isn’t captured in this video but I read a newspaper story where Ajet Nassam ordered someone who had stolen say 100K to pay 4K or in default go to prison for a 100 years. The judge rules and almost nothing is done. We have seen and heard of judgments that simply do not make sense but yet we are almost powerless because a man entrusted with power by our laws has ruled.

I am suprised at how corruption like the type Anas Aremeyaw Anas captured can be justified in any way by these judges, their friends, lawyers and families. You can’t justify why a murderer gets freed and how a rapist escapes punishment or how the rules of natural justice are thrown to the pigs. If you have to enrich yourself through dubious means must you do so endangering society by unleashing murderers and rapists and thieves and drug traffickers on us?

Anas and his team have done an awesome job. I feel embarrassed that whiles practicing as a journalist I couldn’t make a fraction of the impact he has made already. Get a few more Anas, add a little more Manasseh Azure Awuni, top it up with some hard hitting radio show hosts like Benard Koku Avle and not only would you have a truly useful media whose work will be geared towards making this nation better, but the fear of God will be so deeply entrenched in our society that we will get better as a people and as a nation.

God bless Anas.
God bless Tiger Eye PI

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