- Tells them to stop threatening critics and do self-introspection
A former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Betty Mould Iddrisu, has shot back at Chief Justice Kwesi Anin-Yeboah and his team of infallible-minded judges in the judiciary, over what she describes as a failure to reform to address widespread negative public perception, but rather adopting threats to silence critics.
Mrs Iddrisu, who is Ghana’s first female Attorney General, describes attacks on the former President, John Dramani Mahama, as unfortunate, undemocratic, and a slap in the face of Ghanaians demanding fairness from an institution bestowed with powers to protect dictates of the 1992 Constitution.
Judges and Magistrates in Ghana, have reacted to the recent criticisms against them by some persons in the Ghanaian society, including former President John Dramani Mahama.
The judges say they welcome constructive criticisms, but not needless attacks which seek to undermine the integrity of the Judiciary.
Speaking at the annual conference for Judges and Magistrates in Accra, President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges, Justice Henry Kwofie, said “You all recognise that the Judiciary as an institution and Judges, in general, have been the subject of quite a lot of rhetoric, attacks and judgement of our courts even judgements of the highest court of the land have been attacked and the Judges who delivered the same judgements have not been swerved either.
“In my view, impugning the motives of Judges is actually undermining the integrity of the Judiciary. As a result of these unnecessary and incessant attacks, the Association in the first for about three to four terms has come out to issue statements to correct the erroneous impression and deliberate misinformation and falsehood churned out against the Judiciary.”
But Mrs Iddrisu, condemned attacks on the former President during the recent Bar conference and said as a former AG, she can only forgive Godfred Dame for abusing the platform.
“Very unfortunate for a young Attorney General, Godfred Dame to come out with such statements about our former President. He was disrespectful and very upsetting to me, having held that position before. I forgive him because I am a Christian and it’s an act of charity.”…she told Eric Ahianyo on IDEAS Exchange, a current Affairs program on TV XYZ.
Mrs Iddrisu, who could not hide her emotions emphasized…… “Article 125 of the Constitution says quite clearly that the administration of Justice is vested in the people of the Republic of Ghana and it is the judiciary who is to administer that. If you did listen to the people how on earth can you administer justice for us? They need to listen to us. This should be a wake-up call”
She added ……“I chaired that conference of NDC lawyers, which John Mahama addressed. And all of us enthusiastically support his remarks about the perception of Ghanaians’ waning confidence in the judiciary.”
Explaining her position, she said being a leader of the Bar as Attorney General, does not give anyone the right to use a GBA meeting to create such chaos.
She disclosed that she has not paid her dues as a lawyer for the past 10yrs because of the partisan actions by such persons who lead the Ghana Bar Association.
“Our lawyers were extremely upset”… “I have never had much faith in the Ghana Bar Association because it lost its capacity to withstand external influences. We saw them at critical times during the previous regime because its obvious they are favouring one political party or the other. ..I will pay my dues when I feel the GBA will be fair, a true arbiter of the interest of all lawyers in Ghana”… she emphasized.
She said the development must be a wakeup call to the Judiciary. She argued that several public surveys, observations by renowned lawyers and Civil Society organizations have drawn similar conclusions in the recent past.
“John Mahama was just asking them to look within, assess what various persons are saying, step out and speak to ordinary Ghanaians themselves and find out what their perception of the Judiciary is.
It is sad to see and hear the barrage of unjustifiable attacks leveled against the former President. Hundreds of lawyers present at the conference supported the President not because they are NDC but because 99% of them practice at the bar. They go to the Courts daily and they know what is happening in the courts, yet many may be afraid to talk because they will be victimized”…she bluntly said in the interview.
The President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges stated “the Association must not be misunderstood to be against criticisms of Judges or the Judiciary. Criticism, if it is constructive, helps to improve any sitting and makes the various actors sit up but that is not what we are seeing lately in the press and the various social media,” he added.
“The Judiciary is not perfect and infallible. However, the proper tools and methods for improving and correcting the work of the Judiciary are through constructive criticisms and superior arguments not acts that targets their personality, undermine their independence, being dishonor to the administration of justice and endanger their security and safety. I pledge the support of the Ghana Bar Association to uphold the noble profession and the honour and dignity that Judiciary deserves,” he said.
Recently, Former President Mahama indicated the brand image of Ghana’s judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, has been badly damaged.
In his view, the judiciary is lately subjected to public mockery because the people no longer feel they can get justice.
Mr Mahama whose election petition was unanimously dismissed by the highest court of the land after the 2020 general elections intimated that the time has come for the judiciary to undergo self-cleansing but, he added, the current Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, cannot lead that process.
He said these while opening the 2nd Annual Lawyers Conference of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday August 28.
“Recently, so badly has the image of our judiciary deteriorated that many of our citizenry openly make mockery of our justice system and of our justices. The phrase ‘go to court’ is these days met with derisive laughter instead of hope that one will truly get justice if he went to the court.
“If people are not poking fun about politics and inducement being used to sway the hand of justice in the Lower Courts then it is poking fun and making statements about the 7:0 of the the unanimous FC, verdicts which mostly involve cases of a political nature in our Supreme court, this is an unfortunate but serious development.
“One of the scariest existential threats to any democracy is when citizens think their judiciary holds no value for them or no use to them, this is the security threat that the National Security apparatus tried to draw the attention of the nation to recently but was poorly received by the President and his party.
“It is scary because it threatens the peace and stability of our democracy and we must quickly correct this fast spreading notion. If care is not taken, we will get to a state where people will have no qualms about taking the law into their own hands because they do not have the confidence that they can get any justice in the system
‘There is therefore, the urgent need for the Ghanaian judiciary to work to win the trust and confidence of the citizenry and erase the widely-held perception of hostility and political bias in legal proceedings at the highest court of the land.
“Unfortunately, we have no hope that the current leadership of our judiciary can lead such a process of change, we can only hope that the new Chief Justice will lead the process to repair the broken image that our judiciary has acquired over the last few years.”
