We are all lawyers now in Ghana.
We use courtroom language in communicating with each other.
We suggest to each other, we put it to each other and we ask each other for further and better particulars.
Children object with the greatest respect to
being asked to turn off the television and mothers overrule or sustain
the objections as the mood takes them.
After three weeks of live broadcast of hearings at the
Supreme Court of an election petition, it is fair to say that Ghana is
in the grip of a one-item conversation subject.
Almost five months after we had parliamentary and
presidential elections and almost four months after a president was
inaugurated, the petition challenging the validity of the election of
the president is now being heard at the Supreme Court.
We are in a lot of unchartered waters and it is doubtful we have ever watched so much television.
Television cameras are not normally allowed in Ghanaian
courts and to most of us the entire judicial process is shrouded in
mystery.
We tend to treat judges, lawyers and courtrooms with a lot of deference, verging on fear.
Traffic jams clear
The live transmission of the Supreme Court proceedings has therefore gripped the public imagination and exploded a few myths.
There have been loud complaints that the live transmissions are wreaking havoc on the economy.
Ghanaians are learning to use legal language thanks to the Supreme Court petition