Atuguba disagreeing with Mahama balancing the bench affirms my position – Anyidoho

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Atta Mills Institute Koku Anyidoho has sided with retired Supreme Court judge Justice William Atuguba for disagreeing with Mahama on the partisan balance of judiciary appointments.

He said the position taken by the respected judge, who said we can have independent-minded NDC lawyers joining the bench without necessarily appointing them to equalise the political scale.

Former President John Dramani Mahama criticised the judiciary under the administration of the New Patriotic Party, alleging that the courts had been packed with NPP-inclined judges to influence decisions in their favour.

He therefore advised lawyers of the NDC to consider joining the bench to balance out its composition.

But speaking on JoyNews’ Upfront on a wide range of issues about the judiciary and justice delivery in Ghana, Mr. Atuguba posited that Mr. Mahama only repeated growing public perceptions about the judiciary.

He however disagreed with him on balancing the equation.

He said it would rather be okay to have independent-minded persons joining the bench no matter their political colour.

Reacting to the comments by the retired judge, Anyidoho said he took strong exception to the mere equation suggested by Mahama.

He stressed that it would be best to rather have independent-minded persons join the bench.

He said the position Mahama took was not the right way to build the state via the building of credible state institutions.

He said “As Founder and CEO of the Atta-Mills Institute (AMI), which is a Public Policy and Advocacy Think Tank, I share the view of Justice Atuguba on this matter.

Indeed, when the issue first surfaced vis-a-vis John Mahama asking NDC lawyers to go to the Bench just for the sake of balancing the NDC-NPP equation, I took a strong exception to it because it is highly inappropriate for no less a person than the former President, to drown the Bench in such murky political waters.

At all times, we must work hard as a nation to insulate the Bench from deep political colours because, when John Mahama was President, he also appointed judges at all levels and did that make those judges rule on cases as NDC judges or as learned judges delivering justice according to the tenets of the law.?

So, if you want power just to maintain the status-quo that you are complaining about, then what is the point in changing?

Or like the learned retired Supreme Court justice said; you want power to maintain the status quo so you too can benefit politically isn’t it?

That is certainly not the right way to build the state via the building of credible state institutions.