Supreme Court doesn’t need more Judges but Image Cleansing – Gyampo to Chief Justice

Political Science lecturer, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has asked Ghana’s Chief Justice to focus on working to restore the lost trust in Ghana’s Judiciary rather than increasing the number of Supreme Court Judges.

Ghana’s Chief Justice has recommended five persons to be elevated to Judges of the Supreme Court.

But in a post shared via social media, Prof. Gyampo indicated that Ghana does not need 20 Supreme Court judges.

What he believes that Judiciary needs is to better its tattered image.

Read His Post Below

The population of US is over 300 million people. It is a highly litigious country with lawyers always advertising and encouraging people who have experienced even the minutest human rights abuse to make use of the the courts and legal processes. But they have only 9 Supreme Court Judges. We are only 32 million people in Ghana and not that litigious. Many of us won’t go to the courts because of our belief in God as the Supreme Judge, hence our constant refrain “Fa ma Nyame”.

But our Chief Justice is strangely proposing we increase the number Supreme Court Judges from currently 15 to 20. What were her right or wrong motives? Putting motives aside, how has a country of over 300 million litigious people dispensed justice at their apex court with only 9 judges.? Why will a country of only 32 million largely “fa ma Nyame” people need 20 Supreme Court Judges?

It is to be admitted that, the US is a Federal case and that their context may be different from that of Ghana, as every State may have its own apex court. But there definitely is something to be learnt from what pertains there, so we don’t subvert justice by packing our courts. For the avoidance of doubt, it is to be stated emphatically that, the courts aren’t packed in the US, even at the State level.

Operating under the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) that audited Ghana’s governance system, way back in 2005, expressed concern about the number of judges we had at the Supreme Court and the general consensus was that we shouldn’t have more than 14 judges at the Supreme Court. Indeed, when confronted on this issue in court, this is what Justice Atugubah, one celebrated Supreme Court Judge said “… as to whether the President is bound to appoint any number of justices duly qualified and recommended to him by the Judicial Council, it is quite clear that there is here contemporanea expositio whereun-der the number of Supreme Court Justices has never exceeded 14. A radical departure from this situation is therefore not within contemplation…”

Also, an extensive research work commissioned by the Institute of Economic Affairs-Ghana Political Parties Programme (IEA-GPPP) and undertaken by seasoned scholars like Prof Yaw Twumasi, Prof Reginald Austin, Prof Kofi Kumado, Dr William Ahadzie and Prof Kwamena Ahwoi, which culminated in a document called Democracy Consolidation Strategy Paper (DCSP), also advocated for a ceiling on the number of judges we can appoint to our Supreme Courts to check packing of the courts, manipulation and bring finality to cases adjudicated at our apex court.

Is our Chief Justice not privy to all the above? Is there something about Akufo Addo that makes decent and independent-mind appointees behave out of character and crave to be subservient to him? Has our Chief Justice not travelled before? Has she not studied what pertains elsewhere about the composition of apex courts? Has the Chief Justice not read about the recurring negative public perception of the entire judicial arm of government? Will her procedurally wrong and unconstitutional proposal not deepen the derogatory perception and popular trust deficit in the courts?

Respectfully, I think the Chief Justice must read the various survey reports and Afrobarometer works on the Judiciary and devote much time to fixing the trust deficit of the Courts, rather than deepening the problem by inviting the “Political King-Kong” who has been accused of packing the courts with his favorites and loyalists, to appoint five more judges to the Supreme Court.

Yaw Gyampo
A31, Prabiw
P.A.V. Ansah Street
Saltpond
&
Suro Nipa House
Behind Old Post Office
Larteh-Akuapim

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