The former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on President John Dramani Mahama to hold on with assenting to the bill to reintroduce tribunals into the judicial system of the country.
That act, he explained, has the potential to reshape the justice delivery system, the confidence in the judiciary and also the future of the country’s democracy.
“I have one respectful request of President Mahama.
Mr President – Do not sign this bill. Pause, and let the nation talk.
“This is not a partisan request.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the voice of millions of Ghanaian workers, has called for the bill to be withdrawn altogether, warning that, in its current form, it could become a potent tool for weaponising justice delivery.
Those are the words of Ghanaian workers, not of any political party, he added.
Dr Bawumia, who is also the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was sharing his thoughts on the passage of the Tribunal bill in a video broadcast.
He also asked President Mahama to convene a genuine national engagement by inviting the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), other lawyers’ groups, organised labour, civil society, political parties, including the NPP, and also consult the Judiciary.
While calling on the President to withhold the assent to the bill, Dr Bawumia further urged him to consider the government’s own Constitution Review Committee and its report.
That Committee, according to Dr Bawumia, recommended removing regional Tribunals from the Constitution, because the High Court has long carried their caseload.
He said the report had not been published, and even before the nation reads it, “Parliament has rushed through and legislated in the opposite direction.”
He, therefore, urged President Mahama to first publish the report of the Constitution Review Committee.
“Consider, finally, history. Under this bill, panels that include persons who are not lawyers may sit in judgment over criminal matters. Ghanaians remember tribunals, and we remember what was done in their name.
“Our courts are congested, yes; but the answer to congested courts is to strengthen the courts: more judges, more courtrooms and digitised processes. It is not to build a second system of justice beside the one the Constitution already gives us,” the NPP Flagbearer emphasised.
Dr Bawumia told President Mahama that: “Your government commands one of the largest majorities in the history of the fourth republic and with such numbers, Parliament can pass almost any bill it wishes.”
He, however, cautioned that not everything that could be passed should be passed, saying, “The larger the majority, the greater the duty of restraint, since history would not ask how many votes a law received.
He said history would ask whether the law reflected the best desires of a broad section of the Ghanaian society.
“My call is, therefore, simple and constructive.
Withhold your assent. Justice belongs to no government and no party. It belongs to the Ghanaian people, and a law that reshapes the architecture of justice should rest on national consensus, not on a headcount,” Dr Bawumia stated, adding that “Mr President, the pen is in your hand.
Use it, not to sign this bill, but to write an invitation to the nation through the Council of State, in accordance with Articles 90 and 106 of the 1992 Constitution.”
Background
The Parliament of Ghana last week passed the Public Tribunal Bill, 2026.
The mandatory one-day interval between the consideration stage and the third reading was waived, so that the bill could be passed the same day.
The Minority’s objections were voted down while organised labour objected loudly and publicly.
The bill will soon be transmitted to President Mahama for his assent.
