 There has been a lot of talk in many circles about economic and productivity loss to this country due to the live broadcast of the election petition brought by the NPP against the Electoral Commission and President John Mahama.
According to a Joy FM report, the stations that carry the show live may be losing as much as GHc50,000 daily of advertising revenue they could have gained.
Although how that assessment could be close to the fact is a matter for people to believe, but as every economics student would attest, there is an opportunity cost to every decision made and therefore the decision to show the proceedings live means something has to give.
However, in my humble view, if there is any benefit to gain from the decision by the court to allow live broadcast and the concomitant acquiescence by the likes of GTV, TV3 and Metro TV to carry it, then it has to be the fact that some of us for the first time have had the privilege to see Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata perform in a courtroom setting.
For over three decades and for as long as I can remember, it had been said again and over again that Tsatsu Tsikata is one of the brightest (if not the brightest) lawyers Ghana has ever produced.
It had been said he was a delight to watch when he is prowling the courtroom making an argument or cross-examining a witness.
Thus many, including my humble self, were curious to see this man and to know if the legend of his legal astuteness was real or contrived to make him look bigger, brighter and above all else an immortal in dark art of the law.
Thus when on Monday morning the lead counsel of the Electoral Commission, Mr. Quarshie-Idun had completed his cross-examination of the NPP’s witness-in-chief Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Tsatsu Tsikata stood up it was an opportunity to break that three-decade-long myth.
Then the NPP’s lead counsel Mr. Addison stood up to object to Tsatsu Tsikata’s cross-examination of their witness arguing that since the NDC had joined President Mahama in the case the cross-examination by his lead counsel Mr Tony Lithur was for both parties.
At that point, you could feel a lot of people groaning about the thought of missing the opportunity to see Tsatsu at work. Indeed I was of the hope that the Lord Justices of the Supreme Court would overrule the objection just for the fact that this generation has to see Tsatsu once and for all.
Thankfully Mr. Justice Atugubah spoke for his colleague judges to overrule the objection and gave Mr. Tsikata the floor to display his legal prowess not only to the judges and the others in the courtroom but most importantly to the many Ghanaians watching from their homes and offices.
There was a lot of hype preceding this “Tsatsu Show” as some of the people on the NDC side had purported that Tsatsu would tear Bawumia to pieces and some on the NPP side said he was going to meet his match in their star witness. The neutral had hoped for a good show!
So it was that for most part of the day this top lawyer and the top economist engaged in a battle of wits and lot more than that. For me it was important that young people watching would know and appreciate the need for education. Those two gentlemen distinguished themselves very well because they had a grasp of their respective areas of specialty and a good testimony for good education. |
