Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP)
• Benjamin Boakye has asserted that some persons get away easily when they commit a crime
• He is of the view it is the reasons some figures act with impunity
• He expects rules to be applied without fear nor favour
Benjamin Boakye, executive director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has stated that the country’s laws do not work when it comes to ‘prominent’ people in the society.
He said some privileges which those in authority have, compel them to breach the laws sometimes and that is an issue that must be checked.
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, June 26, 2021, on an Accra-based JoyNews closely monitored by GhanaWeb, Mr Boakye said the manner in which those in authority blatantly breach laws they impose on the entire populace, is worrying.
“So I think morally, beyond the law, all of us; leaders, citizens, have to take that responsibility to ensure that we don’t unnecessarily endanger our people. And perhaps that is what is missing because you can get away with the law when you’re a leader. The laws don’t function against the mighty in our context and that makes it easy for them to evade the law,” he said.
He said the duty for care by the leaders must be revived.
“We need to keep asking and pushing them [leaders] to revive their duty for care,” he added.
He stressed that the president needs to be watchful of his leadership style since he will be in the books of history of the country someday.
“This is his tenure, his time, that will be counted and I think once that conversation is had, I’m sure he’ll start processing that. In this information age, you can’t easily get away with these kinds of violations when history is recalled,” he said.
“I think those who perhaps may be advising the president at this point, he needs somebody who loves him to go to him and say to him that when history is recalled, the people who mobilize for him to do the greetings, the people who encourage him to participate in the violation of the law, their names will not be mentioned,” Mr. Boakye added.