Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has called for greater judicial independence, urging Supreme Court Justices to prioritise their allegiance to the Constitution implicit loyalty to the governmental figures who name them.
He besides criticised what helium described arsenic an expanding inclination of governmental favouritism successful judicial appointments.
“The mode things hap successful Ghana, we thin to overly fulfill our followers. So, if determination is an NPP authorities successful power, past they volition look for judges who are sympathetic to their governmental aspirations,” helium stated during an interrogation connected TV3 connected May 7, 2025.
He continued, “Once a justice has been appointed, whether by the NPP, NDC, oregon immoderate different party, that justice becomes a justness of the Court of Ghana. Therefore, if you are a justness of the Supreme Court, your loyalty indispensable ever beryllium to the Constitution and not to the idiosyncratic who appoints you.”
Ansa-Asare further cited the bequest of Sir Arku Korsah, Ghana’s archetypal Chief Justice, who famously resisted governmental unit from President Kwame Nkrumah.
“Sir Arku Korsah, I’m told, reminded Nkrumah to his face; ‘You appointed me, but my loyalty is not to your personality, it is to the Constitution of Ghana,’” helium said.
He urged existent and aboriginal justices to emulate specified courageousness and integrity.
“If we tin travel those examples, determination volition beryllium nary occupation for this country,” Ansa-Asare stated.
His remarks travel successful the aftermath of heightened tensions pursuing the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
RAD/MA