Frustrations Of An Oldie

Senility is definitely taking a toll on a retired Supreme Court judge. The negative cognitive challenge the retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Francis Y. Kpegah, now suffers started soon after he exited the highest segment of the bench a few years ago. At the time he dangled his NDC membership card and got close to mounting campaign platforms, his action passed for a little prank from a frustrated oldie. Having gone into, as it were, a political lull, he bounces back in an unproductive effort to smear one of the greatest names in local legal practice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. His claim that Nana Akufo-Addo, the man credited with over 50 mentions in the Ghana Law Reports, is impersonating a certain lawyer has understandably attracted one of the vilest reactions across a broad spectrum of local politics. How else should Ghanaians react to this piece of rubbish when someone who once presided over justice administration in the country, albeit briefly, and even touted himself as a deputy chief justice, if that position even existed, open his mouth without his head on? Mr Justice Kpegah�s ethnocentric remarks have not gone unnoticed, but the latest from his arsenal of nonsense and vitriolic have opened his underbelly for appropriate attack from a cross-section of Ghanaians as evidenced from what transpired on the airwaves yesterday. Having donned the garb of a typical local politician, he is a fair game in the �shoot him down syndrome� of Ghanaian politics. It is on this basis that we are proceeding to address this fault-line of our politics which has painfully denied us the many advantages of good governance and democracy. If such a character once sat on the highest segment of the bench, it can only be conjectured how negatively his presence impacted on justice delivery in this country. Little wonder the late President Mills had genuine cause to ignore his many counsels, something which compelled him to complain plaintively about being shunned by the deceased. Having recognised Kpegah�s shortcomings, he could not have acted otherwise. For someone who continues to occupy a government bungalow, No. 15, 5th Avenue, Edward Nasser Street, Ridge, Accra, many years after exiting public service, we wonder what morality he seeks to exact on society with his gibberish utterances. When politics of hatred overflows a cauldron, as it is surely doing in the case of Mr Kpegah making such surreal claims about a man like Nana Akufo-Addo, then it can be a relishing pastime. Mr Kpegah has long ceased to be a worthy role model for the young ones who are eyeing a future career in law. For those making their way on the ladder of the bench, they can only pray not to degenerate into the ilk of Kpegah in the future.