Justice Sophia Akuffo, the immediate past Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, is in the news of late. She has severely been criticising the Akufo-Addo government for deciding to add bonds being held by pensioners to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). She joined the pensioners who were picketing at the Ministry of Finance last week and questioned the usage of  the billions of cedis the government had so far borrowed.
She demanded accountability for how these monies were utilised, and also the need for the government to show commitment towards the resolution of the current economic crisis.
She contended that though the government had not shown any commitment towards cutting down of its expenditure, it wants to force a bitter pill down the throat of pension bond holders who had sacrificed towards the sustenance of our economy.
She admitted that she had not purchased any bonds issued by the government, but decided to join the protest in solidarity with the pension bond holders.
Just yesterday, Justice Sophia Akuffo was again at the premises of the Finance Ministry, where she severely criticised the government for refusing to listen to the cry of the pensioners and going ahead to include them in the DDEP.
The public criticism by the former Chief Justice who was appointed by the current government tells a story of gains being made in our democratic journey. As she herself pointed out, she is no more a CJ and that her mouth has been un-gagged. Indeed, nobody can take the right to criticise the government from her.
Her courageous public criticisms of the Akufo-Addo government have, in our opinion, defeated the argument that any Chief Justice appointed by the government in power owes allegiance to that appointing authority and would not dare criticise it.
Yes, we admit that the former CJ is openly criticising the government because she is no more in office, but if the argument that she was appointed because she is a supporter of the government that appointed her, we do not think she would have descended heavily on the government. What we want to put on record is that CJs and appointments to the Supreme Court generally are done on merit, and not because the personality holds allegiance to the appointing authority.
Indeed, a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Appau, was tagged as a National Democratic Congress (NDC) sympathiser, but he was the one who gave one of our best legal luminaries in the country, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikaka, a tough time during the hearing of the election 2020 petition case. His incisive questions sometimes got Mr. Tsatsu Tsikaka irritated. If this justice was indeed an NDC man, why did he then rule against the petitioners at the end of the day?
What we are driving home is that those appointed to hold CJ positions and to the Supreme Court are men and women of integrity and not political apologies to the party that has formed the government. Indeed, if this is the situation, Sophia Akuffo, though no more in office, wouldn’t have gone public with her criticisms of the government. She would have kept quiet, whether she disagrees with what is going on or not.
It is the hope of The Chronicle that next time she or any of her retired Supreme Court colleagues take on the opposition, especially from the NDC, they would not be called names, but rather their opinions on the issues they will be addressing will be respected.
