Bad image of Judiciary has nothing to do with the Chief Justice; it’s a systematic problem – Prof. Duah

Co-founder of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah has waded into the conversation on calls for a new Chief Justice.

Addressing lawyers at the 2nd Annual Lawyers Conference of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday, August 28, former President John Dramani Mahama said the image of the judiciary has deteriorated.

In his view, a new Chief Justice is needed to save the bad image of the Judiciary.

“Unfortunately, we have no hope that the current leadership of our judiciary can lead such a process of change. We can only hope that the new Chief Justice will lead the process to repair the broken image that our judiciary has acquired over the last few years,” the former president said.

Reacting to these comments while speaking to TV3 in an interview, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah says Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah is not the problem of the country’s judiciary system.

According to him, getting rid of the Chief Justice and not addressing the real problems will not lead to the change the former president is seeking.

“As you do know, [John Mahama] did point out or rather he singled out the Chief Justice, suggesting that perhaps a new Chief Justice can make things better.

“That in itself for me is not very true because the issues is an institutional problem. It is right from the ground to the upstairs,” Prof Agyeman-Duah indicated.

He further explained, “That is to say magistrates in districts all the way through the various levels of the justice system, all the way to the Supreme Court.

“So, changing the Chief Justice by itself will not necessarily make for a better perception unless we assume that another Chief Justice will have the courage to initiate reforms to make it dynamic.”

Prof. Agyemang Duah proposes that stakeholders take major initiatives that will address the systematic deficiencies.