When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, appeared before the August House earlier this year to present the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in which he said among other things that, his government are good protectors of the Public Purse, he was very much aware of the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) case and yet went on to deceive Ghanaians. Recently, a criminal court in London has refused to allow Ghana to bring a belated challenge to a UNCITRAL award worth over US$134 million in favour of a power contractor. This was because the state represented by the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice failed to meet a 28-day deadline. 

The reasons cited by the office of the Attorney General for a no show was as a result of the 2020 general elections and the CoVID-19 pandemic. 

As a newspaper, we agree with Mr Justice Butcher, who ruled that national elections and COVID-19 pandemic did not make the state's delay reasonable. 

To put in proper perspective, Ghana has over the years paid dubious judgement debts, which to all intent and purposes, could have been avoided, it was the reason why the former president, John Dramani Mahama, set up a commission of enquiry into judgement debt and appointed Justice aw Appau, as a sole commissioner. The purpose of the work of the sole commissioner was to end the litany of judgment debts that the country was embroiled in, but unfortunately, we have not learnt any lessons in the past. 

As a newspaper, in our opinion, the attorney general's office has performed poorly and if anyone should be held liable, it is the head of that ministry, because as we posed the question in our headline, that office is not the Electoral Commission, that supervised the 2020 general election. 

The argument that because of elections and Covid-19, was the reason why the country chickened out, does not hold water. 

The attorney general's office is made up of over 300 State Attorneys, whose salaries and allowances run into millions of Ghana cedis drawn from tax payers money. And all that Ghanaians get in return is excuses upon excuses. 

Candidly, it is our opinion that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, has a lot to do to redeem himself from the self-inflicted image crisis. 

It is pertinent to stress the importance of that office, he is the chief legal advisor to the Ghanaian government, that explains this newspaper's reservations about the near lackadaisical disposition of Godfred Dame, who is out there accusing everyone, except himself. 

---theheraldghana.com