Look up petition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer.

In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some official and signed by numerous individuals. A petition may be oral rather than written, and in this era may be transmitted via the Internet.

Legal[link]

Petition can also be the title of a legal pleading that initiates a legal case. The initial pleading in a civil lawsuit that seeks only money (damages) might be called (in most U.S. courts) a complaint. An initial pleading in a lawsuit that seeks non-monetary or "equitable" relief, such as a request for a writ of mandamus or habeas corpus, custody of a child, or probate of a will, is instead called a petition.

Early history[link]

In pre-modern Imperial China petitions were always sent to an Office of Transmission (Tongzheng si or 通政司) where court secretaries read petitions aloud to the emperor.^[1] Petitions could be sent by anybody, from a scholar-official to a common farmer, although the petitions were more likely read to the emperor if they were persuasive enough to impeach questionable and corrupt local officials from office.^[1] When petitions arrived to the throne, multiple copies were made of the original and stored with the Office of Supervising Secretaries before the original written petition was sent to the emperor.^[1]

Petitions were a common form of protest and request to the British House of Commons in the 18th and 19th centuries, the largest being the Great/People's Charter, or petition of the Chartists. They are still presented in small numbers.

The Petition Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of the people "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The right to petition has been held to include the right to file lawsuits against the government.

Modern use[link]

Petitions are commonly used in the U.S. to qualify candidates for public office to appear on a ballot; while anyone can be a write-in candidate, a candidate desiring that his or her name appear on printed ballots and other official election materials must gather a certain number of valid signatures from registered voters. In jurisdictions whose laws allow for ballot initiatives, the gathering of a sufficient number of voter signatures qualilfies a proposed initiative to be placed on the ballot. The 2003 California recall election, which culminated in the recall of Governor Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger, began when U.S. Representative Darrell Issa employed paid signature gatherers who obtained millions of signatures at a cost to Issa of millions of dollars. Once the requisite number of signatures was obtained on the recall petition, other petitions were circulated by would-be candidates who wanted to appear on the ballot as possible replacements for Davis. After that step, a vote on the recall was scheduled.

Other types of petitions include those that sought to free Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment by the former apartheid government of South Africa. The petitions had no legal effect, but the signatures of millions of people on the petitions represented a moral force that may have helped free Mandela and end apartheid. Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International often use petitions in an attempt to exert moral authority in support of various causes. Other nongovernmental subjects of petition drives include corporate personnel decisions.^[2] Internet petition is a new form of a petition becoming commonplace in the 21st century.

See also[link]

• Motion (legal)
• Motion for leave
• Internet Petition

References[link]

External links[link]

•  "Petition". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. 

Tsatsu Tsikata (born 1 October 1950) is a Ghanaian academic and lawyer. He is also a former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

Early life and education[link]

Tsikata was born at Keta in the south of the Volta Region of Ghana.^[1] He was however brought up at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra, the capital of Ghana. He started school at an early age because he wanted to follow his older brother Fui to school. He first attended Additrom Preparatory School and then Mrs Sam’s Preparatory School, a school also attended by Jerry Rawlings. He was again moved to Accra Newtown Experimental School where he was jumped from Year 2 to Year 3, catching up with his older brother Fui.^[2] He won a United Africa Company (UAC) scholarship in 1960 to start his secondary education at the age of 9 years at the Mfantsipim School.^[2][3] On completion of his 5 year course, he gained admission into the University of Ghana, Legon at the age of 16, where he obtained an LL.B First Class degree at the age of 18 years. Only one other 18 year old had completed a degree programme at that time. His lecturers included Professor Ofosu Amaah and Dr. Obed Asamoah, a former foreign minister and Attorney General of Ghana.^[2] He then won a post-graduate scholarship from the University of Ghana to Oxford University where he again obtained first class honours in Bachelor of Civil Law which is equivalent to a master's degree at other British universities.

Academic career[link]

Tsikata held a Junior Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he also served as a tutor.^[4] On his return to Ghana in 1974, he was appointed a lecturer at the law faculty of the University of Ghana. Some of his students included Kwamena Ahwoi, Alban Bagbin, former majority leader in the Parliament of Ghana and Freddie Blay, former first deputy speaker in the Parliament of Ghana, a former first deputy speaker in parliament.^[2]

Barrister[link]

Tsikata has served as counsel to a number of notable personalities over the years. These include Captain Kojo Tsikata, his cousin and Kofi Awoonor. During the era of the National Redemption Council/Supreme Military Council military regimes of Acheampong, he defended Samuel Okudjeto and William Ofori Atta who stood trial for political reasons. After the May 15 uprising in 1979, he was counsel for Jerry Rawlings during the treason trial that came to an abrupt end when the SMC military government led by Fred Akuffo was overthrown on 4 June 1979.^[4]

Ghana National Petroleum Company[link]

Tsikata was appointed the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) from October 1988 to December 2000 by the PNDC led by Jerry Rawlings.

Trial jail and pardon[link]

Tsikata was tried for causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state after a trial through the Accra Fast Track Tribunal, one of many set up by the Kufuor government to try such cases. The trial lasted for six years. He was pronounced guilty on 18 June 2008 by Mrs. Justice Hernrietta Abban.^[5] The length of the trial is reputed to be the longest ever involving a former government official in the history of the country. Those loyal to President Kufuor's New Patriotic Party government hailed this as a triumph for the judicial system while Tsikata's sympathisers and National Democratic Congress supporters saw the trial as politically motivated.^[6] This led to the formation of the 'Free Tsatsu Movement'.^[7] He was granted an unconditional pardon by the then President John Kufuor on his last day of office after his party, the New Patriotic Party lost the Ghanaian presidential election, 2008. At the time, he was on admission at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital under prison guard following a severe bout of asthma.^[8] Tsatsu Tsikata rejected the presidential pardon and announced at a forum later that he felt the pardon was not in good faith and that he would fight through the court system to clear his name.^[9][10]

Family[link]

Tsikata is one of seven siblings.^[11] His father was Godwin Kwaku-Sru Tsikata, a retired Textiles Sales Manager with the UAC. He is married to Esther Cobbah^[12] and they have three children.

Personal and social life[link]

Tsikata is Christian and an elder of the Asbury Dunwell Church in Accra.^[4] He is a known asthmatic and this appears to have limited his extracurricular activities and school attendance as a child. After he was jailed in 2008, he had an acute asthmatic attack that took him from the Nsawam prisons to intensive care.

References[link]

External links[link]

• DOSSIER: Tsikata-GNPC Case on Ghanaweb