Is Ghana devaluing Justice?

But woe unto anyone who was named 'Justice' even at birth. It’s even worse if Justice was conferred as a title.

In either case, please don’t run across the village square beating your chest as King Solomon; for Justice is also a cross, indeed an eternal burden that may trail you until death do you part.

The title may sentence you to a life of misery: solitude, loneliness (‘anti-so,’), when you realise overnight that you are always home alone.

If you break jail and escape to normal social life, Justice Asomasi, please be prepared for the ‘kwɛnsekwɛnses’ as said in Cape Coast. That is indeed the current plight of Justice Baffoe Bonnie: he has broken jail.

If you were a judge of the Supreme Court those days, people stole glances at you in public; and sinners could even flee, fearing possible orders of ‘monkye no.'

To ever meet a Chief Justice was rare since he was by law often in disguise: wig, gown plus a frown. He was a virtual archbishop; alpha and omega; King Solomon’s next of kin.

The world of justices became more common in 2013, during the Supreme Court hearings on the 2012 elections, when the baritone voice of Justice Atugugba on live TV brought ‘deities’ to your doorstep.

I myself never knew he was mortal enough until 2019, when in my capacity as a temporary big man, I sat next to him at an official function in Accra.

I was surprised to have survived a 30-minute chat with him and to learn that he was even an uncle to my classmate in Legon.

With Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, I knew he was courting trouble when, soon after his big appointment in 2025, he was ‘caught’ at a thanksgiving church service making merry and dancing like a mortal: waistline liberated, hands mid-air, singing joyously, and virtually lost in merriment.

Unbeknownst to him, TV cameras followed, ignoring the media convention: ‘New Chief Justice dances in church, please switch off cameras.’

I knew Baffoe-Bonnie fairly well in his Sarbah Hall days, and was aware that, unrestrained, his regular dance moves could set off a fire alarm!

I had also followed him as part of the historic Supreme Court panel whose ruling ratified the Mahama/Amissah-Arthur presidency.

In 2025, Baffoe came under close scrutiny on his appointment as Chief Justice to replace Ghana’s third female CJ (Torkonoo), who had been unfairly removed.

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In replacing the beloved CJ, has Ghana exchanged its digital colour television for a black-and-white analogue? The answer now blows in the wind.

May 2026, our CJ travels to the US/Canada for the World Cup with a government delegation, joining in the joyous celebration of Ghana in matches won (no problem, but eyebrows were raised).

Next stop, joining Government delegations mourning with the Gold Boy Sammy on the passing of his in-law. (No problem, but eyebrows raised.)

The last straw was this September when he ignored multiple judicial issues overflowing his in-tray, and strayed into the realm of state-owned enterprises, which was none of his formal business.

Here, CJ waxed political without apologies. He stunned his audience, comparing the high productivity of current staff to their dismal performance in the previous Government now in opposition. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie only stopped short of chanting a party slogan.

The incident was without precedent and courted anger and shock across the landscape: a rude awakening that Ghana’s scale of justice had been vandalised by the Chief himself, who then loses any moral authority to lead an independent judiciary. In traditional settings, he would have walked back home barefoot.

Find below a sampling of the public uproar in the media:

‘The JDM boy has taken over Government PR’…’ Judiciary independence is gone…’ ‘A disgrace to the judiciary…’ ‘Desecrating the office of CJ…’ ‘When I saw the video, I said Jesus we are doomed…’ ‘CJ has won a political jersey… grounds for resignation’… ‘He has overstepped his bounds’--- ‘the judiciary is now led by a politician,' etc. And then this bombshell: ‘He has been working with us since 2012…’

The September breaking news reminds me of the late 1990’s when the Council of State ‘absent-mindedly’ vacated their office and became presidential errand boys: welcoming the President at the airport, reading speeches on his behalf, etc.

Then also was the horror story of one great Justice, who got promoted as CJ in 1996, but immediately stumbled by jailing a columnist in error. My right-hand man at the time charitably advised the President to quickly write to the CJ, and ‘apologise unreservedly for any embarrassment the promotion has caused him.’

In the current case though, our CJ has only three months to retire, having gotten his new position close to his send-off.

If so, CJ’s tongue-slip should be simply interpreted by the President as an APPLICATION FOR EARLY RETIREMENT.

In truth, CJ’s venerable title as ‘Chief’ has faded too soon, leaving behind an impaired reputation and a tilted scale of justice.