MARTIN AMIDU: CITIZEN VIGILANTE

I make time today to commend Mr. Martin Amidu; former Attorney-General, former Minister of Justice and self-christened ‘Citizen Vigilante’ as a true son of our dear nation Ghana. As a then member of government, facing the possibility of losing his office as Attorney-General and close political allies too, he still chose truth and ensured that it stood to the very end in the ‘Judgement Debt’ cases that had emerged.

News of alleged fraudulent payments made by government in the name of Judgement Debts surfaced around 2010, with payments to companies such as Waterville, Isofoton and one individual Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome being the more prevalent ones. Knowing our political system, it was quite normal to hear government officials defending the payments against all arguments raised; but the shocker was when we heard Mr Amidu, the then Attorney-General come out to condemn the payments, claiming they were made without his knowledge and that all involved were going to be prosecuted accordingly.

The average Ghanaian could not help but wonder what exactly had led to Mr Amidu taking a stand against his own government? For in Ghana, even when a colour is evident to be black, government officials would aggressively deny it to be so; that is if it is not in the governments favour for it to be black. In fact, many thought him sick (in the head) to put his job on the line like that with a statement which was contrary to the governments stand.

It was true the man was sick! Yes!! Sick of all the corruption going on and how the government was trying to cover it up any way possible. It’s sad to say though, that our predictions of him losing his position in government did come true. For news of his dismissal soon reached the public with an accompanying press release stating that Mr Amidu had been sacked for misconducting himself at a meeting with the then President John E. Mills.

All hope was not lost though as Mr Amidu, or Citizen Vigilante as he had come to be known, continued to pursue the case at the Supreme Court of the land even after being unfairly sacked (that’s what I think) from office.First with wins against both Waterville and Isofoton, Martin Amidu eventually went on with his patriotic crusade, continuing further to recently (this week actually) win his final battle in the Judgement Debt war. The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Woyome had defrauded the state in his claims made and was asked to return money paid to him by government.

Honestly speaking, what Mr Amidu has done should not have been anything extraordinary only if every citizen was doing the right thing and truly seeking the prosperity of our dear nation. But as with our country at the moment, the actions taken by the Citizen Vigilante and the praises being sang in his honour are summed up in a proverb that ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is the king’.

I therefore ignore your request not to be hailed and acknowledge you with this article true patriot, for you have become a role model for every Ghanaian citizen, young or old. I, in my own small way salute you with a gargantuan ‘Ayekoo’ Citizen Vigilante, I say well done.

MR. MARTIN AMIDU
picture from www.graphic.com.gh/blog/isaac-yeboah/Page-133.html