Most of us can loosely be referred to as African timers by virtue of the fact that we’re Africans or we live in Africa and that we hardly ever keep time. It is not uncommon to hear meetings being set at about an hour or half before the actual commencing time so as to allow attendees to arrive late but still be early enough. Heck, even musicians all over Africa have found it a viable topic for song writing. Does African timer by Boomba Clan ring a bell? I however think that the new constitution has given us reason to believe that we can be punctual, thanks to the institution of the Judiciary and I think we should take cue.
There were many things that impressed about how the judiciary delivered its judgment on Saturday, 30th April 2013. First, I loved how they kept promises. On Saturday morning, a judicial press briefing indicated that the judiciary would inform the media about an hour before the final sitting to deliver the judgment to the public was made. True to their word, a press briefing was held at a few minutes 4pm to confirm that the Chief Justice would deliver the judgment at 5pm.
Next was the punctuality and time consciousness that was exhibited by all present. I was really glad that they did not keep us waiting once the clock ticked 5. The media personalities around were allowed only one minute to take photos and they were already being asked out once that minute passed. Immediately the photographers made their exit, the Chief Justice was introduced and he passed the verdict that the Supreme Court judges had unanimously reached. A short vote of thanks from the Attorney general followed and after about 20 minutes from the start of the address, there was not much left but to resume our other activities.
I bet many people must have felt short-changed by length of time the Chief Justice took to deliver his judgments. After waiting for a whole day (and a whole 2 weeks by extension), the CJ only addressed the public for about five minutes. That was most definitely a new phenomena in a country where politicians or anyone in power takes as much time as they possibly can to pass a message across.