The Chairman of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament, Mahama Shaibu, has argued that Ghana’s challenge is not a deficiency of legislation but a lack of “willpower” to execute existing laws.
Commenting on the relationship between the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Attorney-General on Starr Today on Starr FM on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the MP for Daboya-Mankarigu questioned the feasibility of a “fully independent” prosecutor within the current governance framework.
According to him, the term “independent” is often used loosely without a concrete definition in a practical political sense.
To him, the notion of absolute independence will remain elusive so far as an individual or body is appointed by the government.
“Who appoints that so-called independent public prosecutor? It will still be government.
“Any public prosecutor that you appoint is going to be an appointee of government. At the end of the day, somebody appoints that public prosecutor… its independence actually is neither here nor there,” Shaibu remarked.
He further argued that Ghana already possesses a robust array of institutions including the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) which were created to investigate and prosecute crime hence the creation of new bodies may not be the solution to the country’s legal bottlenecks.
He instead pointed toward a need for commitment within the existing governance system.
“In this country, we don’t lack laws; we just lack the willpower to execute those laws. I want to believe that we have existing institutions that can do the job and do it better if we have a committed governance system that will make it work,” he stated.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
