Justices ought to speak the truth, and the Chief Justice spoke the truth

Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie did what justices are supposed to do he spoke the truth as he saw it. On September 2, 2026, during working visits to state institutions including SSNIT and the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), the Chief Justice did not read from a partisan script. He reacted to facts presented to him.

“I must congratulate you. I mean, you have done marvellously well. Sometimes, when we hear about the things that you have done and the things that some organisations are doing now, we wonder. Some of us keep wondering what we really have been doing in the past eight years,” he said.

At SSNIT, he made the comparison even more pointed: “If you compare that to the fact that not too long ago, SSNIT was preparing to sell its prized assets like the Labadi Beach Hotel, you wonder how Ghana could have sunk so low.”

That is not propaganda. That is a matter of public record. Ghanaians remember when SSNIT was preparing to offload hotels including Labadi Beach Hotel under the previous Akufo-Addo Bawumia administration. Today, the same institutions are reporting recovery and improved performance under the NDC government.

The reaction was swift and predictable. On September 3, the NPP issued a statement saying it watched the video with “profound shock and disgust” and accused the Chief Justice of sounding like “a party propagandist”, demanding he resign and “formally take up membership of the NDC”.

They cited Articles 125 and 127 and the judicial oath, and took issue with the Chief Justice's reported vow that everything must be done to ensure the President's agenda succeeds.

But, what kind of citizen, let alone a Chief Justice, would want the President of Ghana to fail? The Chief Justice as an eminent statesman has every right to call on all of us to support the national agenda to succeed.

The NPP's call for apology and early retirement, echoed by some commentators like Oliver Barker-Vormawor who said “Some truths are not for Judges to say”, misses the point of judicial leadership.

Judges are not supposed to be blind to reality. The Constitution guarantees judicial independence, but independence does not mean silence in the face of progress. When state institutions that were once sinking are now performing, acknowledging that is not partisan it is factual.

The Chief Justice did not say "NDC must win 2028." He said Ghana can do better, and now is doing better. That is the truth, and he spoke it.