Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Department of Political Science, Dr Joshua Ebuntie Zaato, has criticised Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie over his comments on the performance of some State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), warning that the remarks could undermine the independence and credibility of the Judiciary.
The comments follow public criticism of comments made by the Chief Justice during an outreach engagement with state institutions, including the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).
During the visits, the Chief Justice questioned how some state institutions had been managed over the past eight years and pointed to what he described as improvements in their performance.
The remarks attracted criticism from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which described them as political and called on the Chief Justice to retract the comments or resign.
Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue on Saturday, September 5, Dr Zaato said the Judiciary must remain separate from political discourse to preserve public confidence in the institution.
Dr Zaato argued that the Chief Justice’s comments amounted to an attempt to bring the Judiciary into the political arena.
“If you need somebody to protect and prevent citizens from tyranny, we are running to the Judiciary…This statement and these actions of this Chief Justice alone have debased that.
“This action, this statement by the Chief Justice, is an attempt to cannibalise the judicial arm of government and now to add it to the Executive,” he said.
He questioned why the Chief Justice would engage in what he described as political commentary when government already had officials responsible for defending its record.
“The government has a budget of about GH¢78 million to sing its own praises. There is a full Cabinet-level minister created just to sing the hosannas of government. They don’t need help from the Chief Justice,” he said.
Dr Zaato also challenged the Chief Justice’s assessment of SSNIT, arguing that restricting the assessment to the past eight years amounted to cherry-picking.
“Why are you talking about the health of SSNIT and you are only talking about it in the last eight years?” he asked.
He argued that a proper assessment should consider the institution’s performance over a much longer period rather than focusing only on the tenure of the previous NPP administration.
“In 2015, there was SSNIT. In 2016, there was SSNIT. Why don’t you take it back to the first John Dramani Mahama? SSNIT was worse. Why did you do that?” he said.
According to Dr Zaato, limiting the comparison to the Akufo-Addo administration created the impression of partisanship.
“That is the partisanship of this case. Why are you limited only to the Akufo-Addo regime? If you only limited to the Akufo-Addo regime, you are being partisan,” he said.
He further questioned the basis for comparing the performance of institutions under an eight-year administration with only two years of the current government.
“If you’re trying to use eight years and two years, it’s wrong,” he said.
