A former United Nations Senior Governance Advisor has warned that Ghana risks undermining institutional stability if the removal of heads of key state institutions becomes a routine political tool.
Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, said the country’s real democratic test lies in how political power is exercised without retaliation, especially following recent high-profile petitions targeting senior public officials.
His comments come against the backdrop of the removal of the Chief Justice last year, a decision that continues to shape national debate, as well as ongoing petitions seeking the removal of the Electoral Commission Chairperson and her deputies, and the Special Prosecutor.
“I pray not because the removal of the Chief Justice really shook the country’s justice system,” Prof Agyeman-Duah said, adding that while arguments were made in support of the decision, the broader impact cannot be ignored.
“The fact is that we can’t have a stable government when some key institutions of governance, the heads of which are changed at will, or because we don’t like the way they behave,” he said.
He cautioned that campaign promises to remove officeholders, when carried out after elections, risk entrenching a dangerous political norm.
“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 warned that such a trend could lead to every incoming government targeting institutional heads it dislikes.
“So my hope is 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.”
On the petition against the Electoral Commission, Prof Agyeman-Duah noted that the issue did not arise in a vacuum but was rooted in political commitments made ahead of the election.
“That was a promise the government made when it was competing for power again,” he said.
He also pointed to past actions as contributing to the current situation.
“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 restraint and alternative approaches.
“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 train or whatever. I think that should be the way rather than removing them.”
Turning to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Prof Agyeman-Duah described the President’s intervention as a positive signal.
“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 argued that the same approach should guide the handling of other petitions.
“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 what he described as a growing cycle of political revenge.
“Or you do me, I do you kind of thing that we are bringing into our politics,” he said, adding, “so let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”
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