A former United Nations Senior Governance Advisor has warned that the growing trend of removing heads of key state institutions risks becoming a dangerous political culture that could undermine governance stability.

Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah's comments come against the backdrop of the removal of the Chief Justice last year and the emergence of fresh petitions seeking the removal of the Electoral Commission Chairperson and her deputies, as well as the Special Prosecutor, early this year.

Asked whether Ghana could see more high-profile removals, Prof Agyeman-Duah expressed concern about the impact such actions could have on state institutions.

“Well, I pray not because the removal of the Chief Justice really shook the country’s justice system,” he said.

He acknowledged that arguments were made in support of the removal but stressed that frequent changes at the top of key institutions weaken governance.

“The fact is that we can’t have a stable government when some key institutions of governance, the heads are changed at will, or because we don’t like the way they behave,” he said.

Prof Agyeman-Duah warned that such actions risk becoming entrenched in Ghana’s political culture, especially when linked to campaign promises.

“When we are getting to elections, and political parties promise to do abcd, especially threatening to remove such officials, and they come into office, and they do it, then, if you are not careful, it becomes part of our political culture,” he said.

He cautioned that this could create a cycle in which every new government targets institutional heads it dislikes.

“A new, any new government will come and target a particular head of institution who, for some reasons, wasn’t liked,” he added.

On the aftermath of the Chief Justice’s removal, Prof Agyeman-Duah said the country must allow time for the effects to be assessed.

“I hope that now that we’ve done the Chief Justice removal, and things are settling down, and I’m waiting to see if there will be any study that will confirm that, in fact, the public trust in the judiciary is going up because of the changes,” he said.

“If that is the case, well, I will be happy, so we have to let these things settle down.”

Turning to the Electoral Commission, Prof Agyeman-Duah noted that calls for the removal of the EC Chair stem from political promises made during the campaign period.

“That was a promise the government made when it was competing for power again,” he said.

He argued that the precedent for removing an EC Chair was already set.

“I’ve said many times that the former president Akufo-Addo set a bad precedent for removing Charlotte Osei from that position, and therefore, I think this government is also determined to do that,” he said.

Despite this, he urged the government to seek alternatives to removal.

“I hope that they should find a way of managing this without necessarily adding to this needless culture of removing heads of institutions,” he said.

“This is a matter of giving certain safeguards in terms of better regulations and training or whatever. I think that should be the way rather than removing them.”

On the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Prof Agyeman-Duah welcomed the President’s intervention to halt the removal process.

“For the OSP, I think the President has already requested those who wanted him removed to withdraw their petitions, and that, I think, was a very wise decision by the President,” he said.

He said the same approach should guide the handling of other petitions before the government.

“In the same way, I think this President can manage the other request, other petition, in such a way that we can begin to have a sense of stability rather than a sense of retaliation,” he said.

He warned against a politics driven by payback.

“Or you do me, I do you kind of thing that we are bringing into our politics, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”