With the historically unprecedented suspension of substantive Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey-Torkornoo by President John Dramani Mahama, on thus far forensically unproven charges of gross professional misconduct and the flagrant misappropriation of public funds, among several other charges that, presumably, have yet to be officially and definitively established and disclosed to the general Ghanaian public, it comes as absolutely nothing short of seriously disconcerting and morally capricious for the President to cavalierly, albeit characteristically, reference Article 144(2) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution as a strategically convenient pretext for nominating and calling on Parliament to begin vetting some 7 current judges on the Ghana Court of Appeals for what is likely to be a pro-forma rubber-stamping approval and promotion of these Appeals Court Jurists to the august Supreme Court of Ghana (SCOG) – (See “Vetting of 7 Supreme Court Nominees to Begin June 16” Modernghana.com 6/13/25).
The contention here is absolutely in no way to question or impugn the academic qualifications, the individual professional experience or the credentials of these 7 nominees by the President; neither is this brief conversation and open public discussion aimed at either impugning the authority and/or the credibility of a legitimately elected President Mahama – the ballot-snatching act treasonable criminality by Sammy Gyamfi at the behest of the Mahama and the Johnson “The Mosquito” Asiedu-Nketia Posse, notwithstanding – to cull these 7 Appeals Court Judges for elevation or promotion to the Apex Court.
Rather, the argument here is that procedurally speaking, that is, “On Point of Order” – as the immortalized genius and prolific Ghanaian Hilife Maestro, Daasebre Nana Kwame Ampadu, I, says in one of his classic pieces titled “Ebi Te Yiye Na Ebi Nso Nteyiye Koraa,” to wit, “Some of Us Are Better Seated Than Others,” there seems to be something obviously egregious about the decision by the former Arch-Lieutenant of the late President John Evans “Atta-Woyome” Mills to be so hurriedly calling for the vetting of a critical mass of the aforementioned 7 Appeals Court Judges who would shortly constitute approximately a moiety of the entire membership of the august Supreme Bench in the offing.
I bet my bottom-dollar that historically speaking, there has been absolutely no moment in time when so many Appeals Court Judges have been so curiously, promiscuously and hurriedly presented to the Parliamentary Appointments Committee for vetting and elevation to membership of the Highest Court of the Land, while the very Substantive Leader and President of the Supreme Court of Ghana was under the disciplinary or the punitive subjection of “Indefinite Suspension,” with a putative “Yes-Man” temporarily albeit seemingly permanently appointed by a self-confessed payola-addicted President of Our Republic to literally pinch-hit for the arbitrarily Suspended Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo, namely, Acting Chief Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie.
Now, our unreserved and unflappable contention here is that if after nearly two months on suspension, the Mahama-established Presidential Committee probing the administrative and the judicial conduct of Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo, largely based on a handful of grievances by some nondescript civil society capos and individuals, has still not been able to return a verdict of “Guilty” or “Not Guilty” – or Criminally Culpable or Not Culpable – then it unreservedly goes without saying that it is imperatively about time that Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo got fully restored to her legitimately earned post and rank of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (SCOG).
Nobody is here demanding any apologies – qualified or unqualified – from the Mahama Presidency, although the target and victim of such unprecedented vilification may very well be deserving of such common courtesy, not merely because any of us avid observers and students of National Democratic Congress’ political culture anticipate any such gesture of unimpeachable behavioral refinement. You see, what we clearly see here is a Constitutional Crisis which, unless promptly, constructively and definitively resoled, is apt to seriously fester and further aggravate or erode the moral authority and the institutional credibility of Ghana’s Judicial Establishment as a whole but, especially, the perennially buffeted and politically antagonized Supreme Court of Ghana.
If President Mahama is really serious about “resetting” the cultural, political and the socioeconomic compass and agenda of Our Beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana, then it is well past time that the Sackey-Torkornoo National Contretemps got promptly and expeditiously resolved in toto. In clear, simple and practical terms, the Mahama 2.0 Presidency needs to first and foremost learn to crawl on all fours comfortably, literally speaking, before beginning to walk with confidence and pride. Playing cheap and tawdry politics with the country’s judicial system, such as is clearly being done by some key operatives of the present Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress, is highly unlikely to redound to the benefit of any leader who is really serious about leaving a lasting and a memorable legacy for the present generation of Ghanaian citizens and their children and grandchildren.
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
June 13, 2025
E-mail: [email protected]
