Valedictory Word To Jones

“I promised my family I was not going to cry, so I'll soldier on” – Jones Dotse (Acting Chief Justice)

Jones Vector Mawulorm Dotse goes into history as a Ghanaian who has “played” with the law for forty-five (45) years; and there have been others who have done same for more or less years, but he retires chest out, and Ghanaians will remember him for the significant words: “…create, loot and share” in the Woyome scandal.

And did Jones want to cry? Why not! He cannot forget the noble words of Charles Dickens: “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth overlying our hard hearts”, or the sobering words of immortal William Shakespeare: “What I should say my tears gainsay; for every word I speak, Ye see, I drink the water of mine eyes”.

Thus, when you suppress tears, you miss out a whole range of benefits-tears help to regulate your own distress. Or to sound hyper-scientific, tears activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), helping you to relax; they relieve pain when the oxytocin and endorphins are released-to reduce pain and release stress… so much for the emotional outbursts.

Jones tells a bitter tale of losing his father in 1969 when he was in Secondary School form 3 (and that was the time a student took O levels at form 5) and he did two years at Accra Academy to sit the A levels. So, you can assess the “agony” of a single mother…that was the time PNDC Law III (Intestate Succession Law of 1985) had not come into being. Then you get to understand Jones's input in Mensah v Mensah (2011) J4/20/2011 (2012 GHASC 8 22^nd February 2012).

He prefaces the judgement with a quote from Lord Denning in his 1954 book: Landmarks in the Law: on charge in attitude of the British people to divorce: “There is only a loose piece of string which the parties can untie at will. Divorce is not a stigma. It has become respectable. One parent family abound”.

In the judgement, Jones stated, “…We believe that common sense, and principle of general fundamental human rights require that a person who is married to another, and performs various household chores for the other partner like keeping the home, washing and keeping the laundry generally clean, cooking and taking care of the partner's catering needs as well as those of the visitors, raising up of the children in a congenial atmosphere and generally supervising the home such that the other partner has a free hand to engage in economic activities must not be discriminated against in the distribution of properties acquired during the marriage when the marriage is dissolved…”

That was the time our laws were insisting on” substantial contribution” of a wife to the acquisition of property before a wife had a share as in Abebrese v Kaah and others (1976) 2 GLR 46. It is argued that though the couple may understand each other, the influence of family relations, friends and acquaintances cannot be discounted.

Jones, born on 8^th June, 1953 a native of Kpando schooled at Kpando Secondary School and Accra Academy, then went to the University of Ghana to study law. Called to the Bar in 1978 it was in 1976 when he met the outgone Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, at Commonwealth Hall where they both adopted the Hall's Motto: “Truth Stands” as a guiding principle. John Donne had written, “And what the hills suddenness resists, winne so, Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night”.

One would recount Jones's stint at the Attorney General's Department from 1979 to 1981 and his private practice at Mawulorm Chambers as a private practitioner and his role as President of the Ghana Bar then being recommended by the Bar Council as a High Court Judge in 2002 together with Anin Yeboah, Marful Sau, Francis Korbieh and others. In 2003, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal, under the Kufour's NPP government.

On 24^th May, 2023, with the exit of Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, Jones became the Acting Chief Justice in accordance with Article 144(6) of the 1992 Constitution which states: “Where the office of Chief Justice is vacant, or where the Chief Justice is for any reason unable to perform the functions of his office (a) until a person has been appointed to, and has assumed the functions of that office; or (b) until the person, holding that office; has resumed the function of that office; as the case may be, those functions shall be performed by the most senior of the Justices of the Supreme Court”.

One can say Jones is a veteran, having undertaken legal courses in places like the United States of America, Canada, Nigeria, Liberia and, of course, Ghana. He was Chairman of the Governing Board of the Judicial Training Institute in Accra, Chairman of the University Council of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho.

Yonny Kulendi who left a thriving private practice to take an oath of “poverty and service” at the Bench upon the command of “Jones says: “I feel really orphaned” with Jones's exit. Yonny Kulendi will miss (Jones's) guidance. Yonny discloses: “You must each find in your life and space, a man or woman who can command you on major decisions of your life.

For those who have been wondering and still wondering why l left, by the Grace of God, a reasonably – thriving life at the Bar, and took what I call an oath of poverty and service that reason is my Lord Justice Dotse. He commanded me and l do not have an iota of regret that l obeyed. My Lord, thank you for commanding me, and today, in private conversations, I still address him as 'Papa', but he addresses me as “my brother”.

Enlogising the Acting C.J., the Attorney General and Minister of Justice said Jones was “a Judge's Judge, a lawyer's judge, and a litigant's judge all rolled into one” The Attorney-General averred that Jones had gravity and patience for all expect the pompous and disrespectful.

The Chief Justice nominee Gertrude Araba Torkono had this to say about Jones: “One only has to encounter his desperate quest to overcome abuse with justice in decisions such as Board of Governors Achimota School v Nii Aku Nortey II, Platinum Equity Limited and Land Commission, Martin Alamisi Amidu v The Attorney General, Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited and Alfred Agbesi Woyomoe to understand the Fighter for justice for the deprived in the nation in Jones Dotse”.Jones was full of praise for his family his mother and his wife for their roles in making him what he is.

As he retires home to rest from his sojourn, we wish Jones a warm welcome to the Retirees'Club and say with Fred Rogers: “Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else”

Africanus Owusu Ansah
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