President John Dramani Mahama made Ghana’s second history on Monday when he removed Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office.
The record was set by the country’s first President Kwame Nkrumah when he sacked Sir Arku Korsah.
Expectedly, varied commentaries have been stoked by the action. Learned ladies and gentlemen are not alone in airing opinions about the action. Be it as it may, the action will definitely have repercussions on the administration of justice in the country today and the future.
A section of Ghanaians hold the opinion that the removal of the Chief Justice is a negative precedent, which has paved the way for a new standard of: new government, new Chief Justice.
Should this come to stay, we think that the administration of justice would have suffered a bad fallout.
The ‘it is a premeditated action’ remark from Lawyer Ayikoi Otoo has especially provoked a mind-boggling recall of what the then flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said about the judiciary during an engagement with NDC aligned lawyers.
He was reported to have expressed misgivings about justice administration and why the judiciary needs a balancing act, if you like, a resetting when he assumes the presidency.
He asked lawyers aligned to the NDC to make themselves available for appointments to the bench should he win the polls.
The ‘unanimous SC’ remark attributed to him and in his opinion the need to change the architecture of the judiciary popped up when word about the petitions he received about Justice Torkornoo was announced.
The intention of the NDC as a party to remove the Chief Justice was aired by the Chairman of the political grouping long before now.
Little wonder when the story hit social media, many said it was no noise because it was expected.
Has the balancing of the judiciary been achieved, which as the NDC claimed was tilted more towards the New Patriotic Party (NPP)?
Perhaps more movements would be noticed in the not too distant future now that the Chief Justice has been removed.
Some scholars are worried that the separation of powers has been wantonly abused by the executive’s action in removing the head of another arm of government – the judiciary.
Montesquieu, the French philosopher and jurist, should be turning in his grave watching how his theory has been thrown overboard the way it has in Ghana.
When news about the presentation of the initial report by the judicial committee to the President was announced, many expected that he would wait for the outstanding two before taking a plunge. The speed with which the action was taken prompted another premise to support the premeditation claim.
A question such as whether or not the Chief Justice determines the allowances for travels would provide us with an appropriate answer to one of the charges against the sacked head of the judiciary.
Her lawyer has said that this is determined by the institution and not the head.
Interesting times in this country, history has a way of repeating itself. We shall return.