I always tell my friends who for the first time are visiting Ghana this; “Ghana is like a jungle when it comes to the law—chiefly unregulated and unenforced. Someone can walk to you, slap you for free and you wouldn’t find justice anywhere.” Intimidation and ‘Bullshitting’ the law are the two main survival mechanisms writes Chris-Vincent on BrutallyUncensored.Com.
The above may be a simple illustration of a bigger problem which Ghana has as a country, well practiced by the citizens and even the many law enforcement agencies, but it’s a good picture of the sort of society we live in out there.
When such low and high level of lawlessness backed by corruption and a rule by the affluent is the order of the day—those who can never find justice and to some extent become daily punching bags are those with no money, no connections and cannot place a phone call to any ‘big man’.
The fountainhead of justice is the principle of the rule of law; mainly, equality before the law and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Perhaps, Sir Ivor Jennings was talking about Ghana when he said; A.V Dicey’s call for equality before the law only meant that among equals, there should be equality. When it comes to “innocent until proven guilty,” it’s rather “guilty until proven innocent” in Ghana, unofficially backed by the law and many years of societal mindset.
The problem of increasing mob justice in the country rests on the misconception; “guilty until proven innocent” and the fact that many do not hold faith in the law due the ease at which the poles can be moved with money and connections.
Over the weekend, a young journalist working with GhanaCelebrities.Com (where I serve as the founding Editor) was arrested and detained for ‘no apparent’ wrong doing or reasonable suspicion and all attempts to reason with the police failed.