1 July 2009
editorial
President Mills yesterday directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, to allow the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) to go ahead with their demonstration which the pressure group has scheduled for July 5, this year. The President believes the constitution guarantees every citizen the right to demonstrate; hence no impediment should be put in the way of AFAG to hit the streets.
On the same day that the President gave this directive, the police had also gone to court and succeeded in getting a restraining order against the organizers of the demonstration.
The police went to court because of the reason that they were hard pressed for personnel, since they were preparing for the arrival into Ghana of the United States President, Barrack Obama. They also argued among other obligations that they had increased their patrol to stem the armed robbery menace in the country, and cannot therefore raise personnel to protect the demonstrators.
Though the President had good intention, his decision has raised the question as to whether he consulted the IGP before issuing the directive. We are of the view that if the President had consulted the IGP, the latter would have informed him that the police had already gone to court over the matter.
The Chronicle also thinks that those managing information for the President must take some of the blame. The Minister for Communication, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu alleged on Metro TV yesterday that the decision to ask the IGP to allow the demonstration to go on was taken by the President last week Friday. If this information from the Minister is true, then what prevented his information managers from releasing it immediately, but waited till Monday?
There is no doubt that the action of the President is a laudable one because it confirms that he really believes in the tenets of democracy, however, because the information was released at the wrong time, it has destroyed the objective that he wanted to achieve.
We support the position of AFAG that if the police obey the President's directive, it would amount to judicial reviewing. The Judiciary does not take instructions from the executive, therefore cancelling their decision would amount to interference of their work.
It is the hope of The Chronicle that this mishap would be a lesson to both the President and his communication directors, to know when to release similar information next time round.
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