President John Dramani Mahama’s reckless suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo is nothing short of an assault on Ghana’s Constitution, democracy, and economic survival. It is a naked display of political interference that undermines the very independence of the judiciary and sends one clear message to the world: in Mahama’s Ghana, justice is whatever the executive says it is.
This is not just a constitutional breach; it is a betrayal. For decades, Ghana has been admired as a model of rule of law in West Africa. Investors, businesses, and international partners placed their faith in our courts because they believed Ghana was different—because they believed Ghana’s judges could not be pushed around by politicians. Mahama has shattered that trust with one careless stroke.
The consequences are already here. Investors are packing their bags, shifting capital to Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Nigeria. Billions of dollars in potential investments are evaporating because global businesses will not risk their money in a country where the judiciary can be hijacked at will. Mahama’s political gamesmanship is costing Ghana jobs, growth, and credibility.
And let us be clear: this is not the first time Ghana has flirted with such dangerous overreach. In the 1970s and 1980s, the capture of state institutions—including the judiciary—triggered an exodus of businesses and a collapse of investor confidence. It took decades of democratic rebuilding under the Fourth Republic to restore Ghana’s image. Mahama is dragging us back to that dark past.
The warning from the Bar of England and Wales and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association should not be ignored. Ghana is on the brink of international disgrace. What is at stake is not just Justice Torkornoo’s career but the very credibility of Ghana’s democracy.
Mahama must understand: suspending the Chief Justice is not strength—it is weakness. It exposes a government so insecure that it would rather break the Constitution than face judicial independence. It shows a President so desperate for control that he is willing to burn down the very institution that guarantees justice for all.
We say this without hesitation: if Mahama does not immediately reinstate the Chief Justice, he will go down in history as the man who broke Ghana’s judiciary and bankrupted its economy.
But this fight cannot be left to international observers alone. The Ghana Bar Association must rise to defend the sanctity of the Constitution. Civil society must mobilize to resist this creeping authoritarianism. Parliament—both Majority and Minority—must prove it still has the backbone to hold the Executive to account. Silence now will make every institution complicit in the destruction of our democracy.
The people of Ghana did not fight for democracy, nor defend the 1992 Constitution, only to see it shredded by the whims of one politician. This assault on the judiciary is an assault on every Ghanaian. It must end—now.
