A Member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Communication Team, Nana Akomea, has proposed a review of the extensive powers of appointments of the president, especially regarding the appointment of Supreme Court justices.
He believes the laws are ambiguous and leave home for their abuse.
“Generally, some of these powers should be more clearly defined as we go along and try to make our democratic governance more accountable,” the STC boss noted.
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, Nana Akomea wondered how personal biases would influence the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court.
“As for discretion, like they say, power corrupts, so, you know, the more we try to limit the laneway for discretion, the easy that we can get accountability,” he asserted.
“We have talked about this, we have set up a commission to review the [1992] constitution, (I think 2009/10) spent a lot of money, I’m sure if you look into the recommendations many of these things are in there. More than ten years we haven’t done anything. If we want to have a more equitable system we must provide, make the laws in such a way that the system will be equitable,” he said on Friday, July 28, 2023.
The 1992 Constitution states in Article 144(2) that aside from the Chief Justice “the other Supreme Court Justices shall be appointed by the President acting on the advice of the Judicial Council, in consultation with the Council of State and with the approval of Parliament.”
