Yes, not even the President can act like a slave master with whips over those who, for whatever reasons, refuse to join a clean-up exercise he announces. That’s basic constitutionalism.

If that were a problem, then here is the bigger problem. When you explain the plain, unvarnished Constitution to protect citizens from being whipped and coerced like slaves on the streets, the headlines scream. A mob, fueled by a grave lack of basic legal knowledge and a selective reading of a newscard, rushes to point fingers at the "lawyer defending indiscipline."

It is the tragic irony of public discourse in Ghana when those who know the law and fully understand the context choose to give oxygen to the ignorance that so badly needs a cure. Why? Because curing that ignorance would damage their influence and dismantle the deceit they rely on for ugly partisan political propaganda.

While it may be tolerable for some professionals to shy away from speaking uncomfortable truths to protect contracts and favours, it is an absolute anathema, and outright nation-wrecking, to elevate public ignorance for undignified, ungodly, and parochial interests.

This is unfortunately familiar terrain. But iconoclasts cast in the mold of advocates like Bright Simons, Kofi Bentil, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Kwaku Antwi-Boasiako, Manasseh Azure Awuni, and Kay Codjoe must never cede the public square to unprincipled, incurable partisans. I vividly recall the torrent of insults, rather than intellectual debate, when I wrote and spoke about the unconstitutionality of the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 (Act 1012) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just yesterday, the JoyFm Super Morning Show called me out of a busy international assignment. Frankly, I did not have the time, but I was deeply disturbed to hear reports of citizens being dragged off motorbikes, banks being attacked despite having already cleaned their premises, and pharmacies being shut down - all without a single shred of legal backing. That is not law enforcement; it is state-sponsored lawlessness.

In our democracy, the word of the President is not law. If we allow state actors to bypass the Constitution "for a good cause" today, we grant them a license to abuse us for any cause tomorrow. This is the exact reason I joined Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua and others as a plaintiff in the Supreme Court to successfully annul the Imposition of Restrictions law - because emergency powers must never become an open checkbook for constitutional overreach. That law did not even have a sunset clause. Ha!

The reality: a failure of leadership, not a shortage of law

Let those of us who care about the soul of this nation be crystal clear: our sanitation crisis and the ritual flooding disasters are, first and foremost, a catastrophic failure of leadership and law enforcement.

We do not have a shortage of laws. I have repeatedly educated the public on how littering, building on waterways, ramsar sites, and environmental degradation are strictly prohibited under a legion of legislations, including the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925). What we have is a shortage of political spine.

As I warned in my previous piece, "Blood on Your Hands," when leadership fails to enforce these existing laws, the preventable deaths that follow are not natural disasters - they are administrative manslaughter.

Enforcement vs. Coercion

There is a world of difference between enforcing the law and acting above it. In my interview, I expressed surprise at why some refused to join the cleanup exercise; it is a civic duty we should champion. However, while these exercises may continue for whatever they are worth and against Bentil’s caution, we must rely on persuasion, not the illegal, physical force reported to have been deployed on occasions.

Resorting to physical coercion is flatly unconstitutional. Even where a local assembly invokes a valid by-law to make participation mandatory, individuals who refuse to comply can only be dealt with through due process. This means administrative fines or prosecution - never street justice or physical assault.

Historically, we have seen the dangerous consequences of ignoring this boundary. I have repeatedly condemned instances where local taskforces have assumed the roles of complainant, prosecutor, and judge in forcing citizens to kneel in the scorching sun and sweep dusty roads as instant punishment for bypassing a footbridge, despite clear laws prescribing specific fines for that infraction. Over the years, this lawless conduct has manifested in deeply dehumanizing ways: taskforces, police, and soldiers wielding canes to assault hawkers and destroy their wares, dragging citizens from trotros to whip them over littering or mask mandates, and burning excavators on sight. In each case, under the guise of enforcing the law, state actors have instead trampled upon the very statutory frameworks and constitutional protections that anchor our democracy, and I have never shied from stating the wrong as bluntly as they come, as a google search will confirm for any stranger in Jerusalem.

By the clear dictates of Article 19(11) of the 1992 Constitution, nothing is a crime unless so prohibited in a written law prescribing the associated punishment.

Article 16 strictly prohibits slavery, servitude, and forced labour. The word of the President cannot bypass these protections. It is not law unless translated into an Executive Instrument (where legally permissible, though even these are limited and cannot arbitrarily criminalize behaviour) or enacted into legislation by the people’s representatives in Parliament.

Even if a law makes a cleanup exercise mandatory, it will never pass constitutional muster if it empowers security agencies or task forces to act like slave masters wielding whips over citizens. Forced labour is dead and buried. And when law enforcers arrest, detain or restrict a person over whatever suspicion of an offence, they are prohibited from subjecting them to any treatment that detracts or is likely to detract from their worth as human.

A strategic path forward: two actionable proposals

Instead of sporadic, lawless crackdowns, the State must deploy aggressive, lawful enforcement and implement a systematic, institutional framework. While moderating newsfile on Saturday, I proposed two immediate interventions:

Deploy the "almost-recruited" youth

Every year, thousands of highly disciplined, physically fit young Ghanaians pass every single stage of our security services' recruitment processes, only to be left out due to limited quotas. During the recent centralized e-recruitment drive, a staggering 500,000 qualified applicants competed for a mere 5,000 available slots across the police, immigration, prisons, and fire services. This severe imbalance has triggered massive controversy and national outcry. I propose that we pool these vetted, patriotic young citizens, who have already cleared rigorous state security and physical screenings, into a dedicated, 5-year Sanitation and Spatial Planning Enforcement Corps. Give them the mandate and the boots on the ground that our dormant local assemblies desperately lack under.

Stop buying more machines and start investing in people. A review of the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project financial records (2019-2026) reveals that over GHS 362.33 million has been spent exclusively on "assets" (machinery, trucks, and high-tech early warning servers). Yet, we have no human capital to keep the very drains leading to those systems clear. Redirect a fraction of this massive asset budget to sustainably fund this Enforcement Corps. Machines do not enforce laws; trained human beings do. Let us work at forcing a culture of responsible building and cleanliness, not beating people on the streets.

Activate the Community Service law

I called for immediate assent and operationalisation of the Community Service Bill (Non-Custodial Sentencing Bill). Our prisons are heavily congested, and taxpayers are needlessly feeding minor offenders. Let’s operationalise the Secretariat for this law. Instead of handing down jail time for minor infractions, sentence sanitation and environmental offenders to supervised, mandatory public cleanup under the direct supervision of the newly formed Enforcement Corps.

My verdict

Organised development and national sanitation cannot be achieved through sporadic, voluntary monthly cleanup days, reactive post-disaster mourning, or security officers wielding whips on the streets.

It is achieved only when we have leaders who find the political backbone to enforce the laws of the land systematically, daily, and strictly within the boundaries of the Constitution.

The tools, the money, and the youth are all available. The only question left is: does our leadership have the courage to use them? They must find the resolve to build an orderly, decent society - one where Ghanaians are no longer swept away, injured, rendered homeless, or left to die of preventable diseases in the aftermath of avoidable ritual floods.

Join me on my weekly legal clinic THE LAW every Sunday @ 2pm on Joynews