A former Ghana Bar Association (GBA) President, Samuel Okudzeto, says the suspension of the Chief Justice sends the wrong signals to the world and could have dire consequences for Ghana\u2019s reputation and economy.<\/p>\n
In an interview, the legal luminary warned that the action, though constitutional, is damaging in the eyes of the international community.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow the question, of course,\u201d he said, \u201cis that when you suspend a Chief Justice, the signal that it sends out into the international community is quite serious indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Ghana cannot afford to overlook the international ramifications of such a move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can assure you that a lot of investors will withhold their investments from your country by virtue of that kind of situation,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
The suspension follows the formation of a five-member committee by President John Mahama to investigate petitions against the Chief Justice.<\/p>\n
The committee is made up of high-profile figures from the legal, academic, military, and public service fields.<\/p>\n
But the former Council of State member cautioned that legal provisions alone are not enough. The manner of execution matters too.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though it is pursuant to a constitutional provision,\u201d he said, \u201cyou have to be careful how you handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that diplomatic and investor communities pay close attention to how justice is administered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you study international relations,\u201d he said, \u201cyou begin to understand the intricacies involved in the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that the optics and timing are just as important as the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that you shouldn\u2019t handle it,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you must be careful the way, the manner in which you handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued that Ghana risks being seen as politically unstable in matters of judicial independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat can give a wrong order to the international community about justice delivery and legality of your situation,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the sensitivity involved in it. This is my worry,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Ghana Bar Association (GBA) President, Samuel Okudzeto, says the suspension of the Chief Justice sends the wrong signals to the world and could have dire consequences for Ghana\u2019s reputation and economy. In an interview, the legal luminary warned that the action, though constitutional, is damaging in the eyes of the international community. \u201cNow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":10608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2327,3396,3061,1935],"class_list":["post-10607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-chief-justice","tag-ghana-bar-association-gba","tag-president-john-mahama","tag-sam-okudzeto-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10609,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10607\/revisions\/10609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}