It was such a rancorous vetting session which, by the time it ended, left many bruises on both the nominee and the Speaker.
The Chief Justice (CJ) nominee, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, fielded questions from committee members, answers to some of which got Ghanaians thinking.
The rancor which enveloped the process was not unexpected; the Minority posited that since there were procedures to be exhausted before the court on the issue of the dismissed former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, the vetting should not be held until the cases were disposed of.
The Minority, which should have had its say, was vociferously being denied same, prompting many to ask whether the Majority Leader was not being mischievous as he led the charge in this direction.
The rancorous session had many segments, perhaps the most worrying being the nominee’s jailing of Ataa Ayi to 70 years.
If it was intended to be a side joke, it was not; the nominee said he slapped the convict with a seventy-year jail term so he does not come out to meet him alive and to harass his family. He would have been long gone by the time the hardened criminal walked out of the correctional facility.
A day after the disclosure, it provided an interesting yet worrying content for media discourses.
Was the convict slapped with the punishing and corrective jail term to protect the nominee’s family or it was purely a standard procedure for persons who commit the kind of criminal offences Ataa Ayi committed?
Perhaps the nominee should have handled the subject differently, his answer offering curious Ghanaians with ample ammo to puncture his underbelly.
Ghanaians, always recalling occurrences with the aid of the internet, which as it is said never forgets, could not afford discoursing about how a rival National Democratic Congress (NDC)-leaning bar grouping, when it called on the nominee to congratulate him upon his becoming an Acting CJ, spoke about the formation of a rival body to the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
The group wants a Supreme Court interpretation about whether the GBA should be the only umbrella association for the legal fraternity. Many expressed concern about how he, as it were, advised the bourgeoning grouping on the way to go.
His body language during the visit with the learned gentlemen pointed at how he would be supportive of the monopoly of the GBA being broken.
A professional body as it is, the GBA was tagged a pro- New Patriotic Party (NPP) organisation by NDC elements, and so whatever should be done to establish a rival body must be provided with the necessary impetus. And with a willing CJ wielding the gavel, it would not be long before we see such a rival organisation being launched.
As for the Speaker, we are surprised that he found something wrong with the manner the Minority handled the session until it decided to walk out.
Here is a Speaker who when Justice Gertrude Torkornoo was CJ and made certain rulings, expressed dismay and clearly said that the Judiciary was colluding with the Executive to deny the Legislature its authority.
Today, he has decided to apologise to a CJ nominee because the Minority expressed their opinion as allowed by the procedures of Parliament. Things have changed.