“Where a person is restricted or detained by virtue of a law made pursuant to a declaration of a state of emergency, the following provisions shall apply --
(a) he shall as soon as practicable, and in any case not later than twenty-four hours after the commencement of the restriction or detention, be furnished with a statement in writing specifying in details the grounds upon which he is restricted or detained and the statement shall be read or interpreted to the person restricted or detained.”
Mr Speaker, these things did not happen to the late J. B. Danquah, but today lessons have incorporated the experience, which led to the death of this famous citizen of Ghana, into our national Constitution. Ghana is still learning and Ghana has indeed learnt useful lessons.
Mr Speaker, one other person, the late Obetsebi-Lamptey was arrested and detained under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) for living under suspicious circumstances. Mr Speaker, could anybody imagine this in modern day Ghana? The man was living at Kanda and went on to live at Bawleshie, but he was arrested for living under suspicious circumstances. This nation has lived under oppression, subjugation and pulverisation before. The nation has learnt.
Protection of the rights by the Courts -- the Court would make a ruling and it would be overturned by the Executive the next day. Today, our Constitution provides that, Parliament cannot make any law that would affect the judgment of the Court. It ensues from what happened to the late J. B. Danquah, yet, in those days, nobody could raise a voice that what had happened at the time was unconscionable. Today, Parliament, by article 107 (a) and (b), cannot make retrospective laws, and this ensues from our days in the past.
Mr Speaker, one would want to believe, as Hon Ayariga said, that those events should mark a watershed in our national life, never again shall we return to such stone age practices. Mr Speaker, unfortunately, we have had to go back in all the coup regimes that had followed after the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah's era. We have been made to live in circumstances that could be described simply as inhumane; yet when it mattered, people lost their voices.
Mr Speaker, I am happy with the conclusion of Dr Kwabena Donkor when he said that, we should bind ourselves with our collective resolve to develop this country. Happily, today, the Directive Principles of State Policy puts all of us in
one plane. Today, there are no extreme political parties in this country - In fact, we are all centrist parties as proposed by the Directive Principle of State Policy. The New Patriotic Party (NPP), which is the ruling party of today, is just a little to the right of the centre, just like the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it is just a little to the left of the centre. We are all centrist parties so why can we not just come together to develop?
We resort to haranguing, attacking personalities and not being truthful to ourselves. Mr Speaker, propaganda would not take this nation anywhere whereas truthfulness would ferry this nation to its cherished destination. After all, as the late Acheampong used to say, “we are one people in one nation with a common destiny”.
Mr Speaker, may we continue to learn useful lessons from what happened to the late J. B. Danquah and move our nation forward, ever prepare to indeed resist the oppressors'' rule. God bless our homeland Ghana.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
