Justice William Atuguba, a former Justice of the Supreme Court says political corruption has corrupted Ghana’s governance institutions. He believes the loss of hope in the Judiciary is the cause of many youth across the country and continent giving their support for coup d’etats.
This, he says is a development that needs a critical attention before things get out hand.
According to the retired Justice, the youth’s disappointment with the democratic experiment can be blamed on the Judiciary’s failure to discharge justice devoid of impartiality and independence.
Speaking at the Solidaire Ghana and the University of Ghana’s public lecture on the theme: ‘Protecting our democracy; the role of the judiciary’, Tuesday, October 24, 2023, he said “where Ghana stands now is a cause for grave lamentation.”
During his lecture, he noted the control of the Executive over the Judiciary, particularly in Ghana, has rendered the latter ineffective in discharging its role objectively, waning the trust of the citizenry in it.
He has therefore suggested a “realistic auditing and restructuring of the Judiciary and indeed all other governmental institutions because just as the cyanide of illegal mining galamsey has devastated our forest lands and poisoned our water bodies so also has the cyanide of Political Corruption poisoned our Governance Institutions.”
The man who presided over the 9-member panel of the famous 2012 presidential election petition reiterated the need to make appointments “based on nothing but merit and not on things like protocol, cronyism, ethnicity, or other improper considerations.”
He added that the judiciary must be realistically insulated against presidential and other political pressures and service conditions must be reasonably attractive while security of tenure of office is enshrined.
“The Executive Powers of the President and his functionaries must be drastically curtailed. There must be real separation of Parliament from the Executive branch. The emphasis should be on good and sincere governance in the interest of the people and not on hollow over exaggerated notions of electoral conferment of power on anybody or group of persons,” he said.
He stressed the need to commit to the recent political revival in reforming Ghana’s political landscape.
“No meaningful political reforms can be reasonably expected even under a regime change without sustaining the Political Renaissance which has started and is growing well in Ghana,” he added.
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