Appointment of New Chief Justice Amidst Minority Agitation: Time To Amend Article 144?

The rather reputationally injurious saccharine, hyperbolic mawkishness, and the sudden annoying adoration, and the outright hagiographic tendencies for the rule of law and judicial independence which the Minority in Parliament wants to display as far as the removal of former Chief Justice Torkornoo and the appointment of Paul Baffoe Bonnie, is indeed perplexing and eyebrow-raising to many observers.

All of a sudden, the Minority has suddenly realized appointment of a new Chief Justice by the president per Article 144 (1) tantamount to breach of judicial independence. Or what baby is the New Patriotic Party crying about?

The problem is that, this exaggerated melodrama by the Minority when they boycotted the vetting, has confused so many Ghanaians about the current judiciary hullabaloo surrounding the appointment of the new Chief Justice.

Is president Mahama really seeking to "break the eight" by going for a third term in office for staging what the opposition may regard as a judicial coup d'etat against the former Chief Justice whose office, as Chief Justice, was literally an extension of the New Patriotic Party's legal representation; or, is the president aspiring to become Ghana's first ever Kim Jong Un (Supreme Ruler) as he's been referred to by some spineless political wannabes?

From a clinical point of view, I personally believe it's none of the above. Instead, as part of the "Reset Agenda" by the ruling party led by the president, the aim has been to marshall the country in the right direction even if that means unceremoniously sacking a Chief Justice whose every move and action was biased upon arrival. You recal that "gbanyo" face with contempt and disgust she stared at the then former president, Mahama?

The question is, what justice and impartial look was that on her face at Mahama as a Chief Justice who was ready to be unbiased?

For those Ghanaians who are in the state of genuine pandemonium regarding the removal of this woman who thinks the judiciary arm of government is her personal property because some undesirable elements appointed her to frustrate attempts to bring very bad economic mismanagement criminals in the erstwhile government to book, let me walk you down memory lane.

What is happening today is as a result of the Supreme Court's Election Petition Hearing after the 2012 general elections when the current Chief Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie was tasked to preside over that fraudulent but ticking time bomb case which sought to annul or overturn the presidential results in favor of former president Akufo Addo.

We all remember this vividly but let me clear the minds of brothers and sisters further. You recall that Chief Justice Theodora Wood decided to step aside from the case for citing issues of conflict of interest because she played an evangelical role in the Christianization of John Dramani Mahama. As a result, Justice Baffoe Bonnie was called upon to preside on her behalf.

For more than eight months in the Court, the witness, Dr. Bawumia who was fighting to become Ghana's next vice president, which he eventually became as a result of which Ghana is in this current mess clean up exercise, could not justify and substantiate his claims.

The so-called irregularities, over voting, duplicated polling stations, were all turned out to be wickedly manufactured lies. The NPP couldn't prove any over voting, duplicate serial numbers of polling stations, or any irregularities as every election is fraught with them including the one Akufo Addo won in 2016. Because all their polling agents agreed there was none when they signed the pink sheets.

Consequently, this supreme Court's hearing led by Paul Baffoe Bonnie ruled after eight months that those claims were untrue.

The fact that a particular polling station had long queues and had to be divided by the EC, allowing voters to queue some locations in order to expedite the voting process didn't amount to duplication of polling stations. The fact that there were many unexpected voter turnout at certain polling stations, didn't mean all the excess voters voted for the NDC if the NDC had won in those polling stations. Because, perhaps, had it not been the excess voters, the NPP will never have gotten any votes in those polling stations.

The irregularities such as some polling stations agents of the NPP couldn't sign yet without any form of protest before and after the election results were certified, didn't also mean irregularities. Of all the 10000 polling stations results the NPP went to the Supreme Court to challenge, turned out to be unnecessary case either borne out of severe delusion and figment of the petitioners' imagination, or they sought to frustrate that embryonic government at the time.

The claims by the NPP were debunked and refuted by the Supreme Court led by the current Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie. The most intriguing aspect of this whole verdict by Baffoe Bonnie-led election petition hearing was that, he was a Supreme Court Justice appointed by the NPP. And that said it all about the impartiality, just, honest and truthfulness of the verdict.

Nevertheless, Akufo Addo and his supporting political vultures and leeches expected Baffoe Bonnie to overturn the victory in his favor or at least, annulled the election results and called for fresh elections. Yet, the man stood by his valuas and proved to these warmongers and trouble brewers that they had no case and was only seeking to create electoral tensions and possible civil war in the country.

And indeed, the only thing that was true in the petitioning of the supreme Court by the NPP led by Akufo Addo, was to find a way to keep investors away from the Mahama administration and kept the country boiling on the brink.

In fact, the case could have been thrown out for being complete BS (Bull Shit) but that would have readily given these political gladiators what they wanted: political upheavals. Hence, the need to painstakingly taken them through their own false case and holy crap, to prove to them they had no case.

I heard some idiotic and rather infantile arguments such as the question that, “if the the NPP didn't have a case, why did it last for good eight months?”

The concoction and fabrication they crafted and brought needed time to distill and unpack one-by-one for the whole world to see how a group of political cannibals and vampires among us decided to hold their own country by the jugular. And we were all witnesses when the chief witness, Dr. Bawumia, couldn't admit he faulted in his witness when he kept saying, "my Lord, you and I were not there". Such a crap! Yes, “you and I were not there” he insisted throughout the hearing, but he had the audacity to petition as the witness when he wasn't there.

That statement alone was a testament that the witness was not different from the common criminal and that, the NPP actually knew they had no case but merely wanted the whole country on the brink, to justify how bad political turncoats, traitors, who were mere office seekers without having the country at heart.

And the results speaks volumes for itself when they eventually came to power like the “Yaajuju wa Maajuju” (the biblical Gog and Magog) and took over office: the gigantic debt they left behind; the unprecedented number of ministers they appointed; the fraudulent policies they introduced with the most meaningless slogans purposely to milk dry our national kitty through humongous kickbacks, etc.

For Paul Baffoe Bonnie to have refused to steal the 2012 election for Akufo Addo, Akufo Addo decided never to appoint him as the Chief Justice when he has remained the senior most at the Bench. And this also explained Akufo Addo's appointing spree of Justices to the High and Supreme Courts, and the Chief Justices.

Aside seeking to instigate travesty of justice, he was also to psychologically torment Justice Baffoe Bonnie by appointing junior Justices to that sanctimonious office while he, Baffoe Bonnie, the most qualified was ignored.

Akufo Addo alone appointed three Chief Justices over the two terms as president, unbelievably. Sophie Akuffu, the alleged five million dollars bribe taker who was called something Anin, and the current sacked entitled former Chief Justice, “Get Rude Araba “Sacked” "Tecno" (Gertrude Araba Sackey Torkorno) who has been very rude and entitled to the office of the Chief Justice.

So President Mahama has decided to reset the Judiciary as well, and that brings me to my most humble recommendation in solving this crisis of Chief Justices appointment.

As part of our constitutional reforms in the country, I suppose the appointment of the Supreme Court's justices and particularly the Chief Justice by the president ought to be reconsidered and changed to suite the winner takes all ideology in forming new government by a political party.

That is, the Constitution should allow room for any incoming new government by different political party to come with its own Chief Justice and other judicial apparatus. Period!

Judiciary independence, I believe, exists and embedded in the rule of law and not in by mere appointment of the Chief Justice by the president led by a political party. The fact that a Chief Justice is appointed by the president doesn't necessarily take away the independence of the judiciary. And the current Chief Justice Baffoe Bonnie proved it when he was appointed by the NPP yet he delivered justice without fear or favor in favor of a political party that didn’t appoint him.

Clearly, the biggest fear for the appointment of the Chief Justice by the president is stemming from the African proverb that, "a man does not bite the finger that feeds him".

As a result, there has been pocket of scepticism among various opposition political parties in respect of fairness and deliverance of justice on the part of the judiciary that is being led by a Chief Justice appointed by a sitting president. And that's okay: these are legitimate fears and doubts.

Nonetheless, won't it be nicer, brighter and better, if it’s the incumbent president appointing a new Chief Justice to the fears and doubts of opposition political parties than the opposition imposing their Chief Justice on the new government it can’t also trust to work with?

Thus, in as much as it's unacceptable to work with a seemingly biased judiciary led by a Chief Justice appointed by an incumbent president as an opposition, it is most unacceptable to work with a Chief Justice that was appointed by the opposition and Minority which is equally going to be seemingly biased in favor of the opposition.

The same reason why an opposition wouldn't be happy with an incumbent president removing a Chief Justice who was appointed by them, is why the new government can't work with that Chief Justice.

The question is, who needs the Chief Justice the most after a new government takes over political power of the country, opposition or the government?

It is a legitimate concern that we have an independent judiciary with utmost integrity that is free from political or executive interference. But do we ideally have that in our justice system and other state institutions which are clearly doing the bidding of the ruling political party, in government? Can we have another Paul Baffoe Bonnie who delivered justice in favor of a political party that never appointed him? It's rare if it does exist.

Meanwhile, every new government must work and deliver upon their version of justice; they should be able to achieve their ambition and campaign message.

As a country what can we do to ensure a new government doesn't come to power and very worried about legal or judiciary hiccups simply because a previous government decided to create those judiciary hiccups in order to impede the new government's ability to go after former government officials who abused their offices and trust?

It is therefore imperative, in my humble opinion, that every incoming government should decide the Chief Justice, and probably other Justices they want to work with for "convenience".

Just as every new government appoints individuals into political and public offices who share in their vision, the Constitution should be amended to ensure new governments that wish to work with new set of justices led by a person they trust can do the job for them as new government, be allowed to be appointed.

Mostly, previous governments led by different political ideologies usually left behind their remnants like the sacked Chief Justice simply to frustrate the incoming government.

Torkorno Araba's demeanor and the way she has been litigating left, right, and center suggests acting in bad fate. It suggests she was appointed to frustrate the new government, and if the president didn't take swift action to "dethrone" her, she will have frustrated the administration's goal to achieve the social contract entrusted them by Ghanaians.

The NDC must therefore use its numbers to make a constitutional provision that would allow any new government to work with any Chief Justice they wish. Which means, duration of the office of the Chief Justice should also be limited to two terms. And that doesn't mean a less than two terms Chief Justice can't be removed if there should be new government particularly.