Torkonno's Intransigence can be Dire as it Breeds Reservations in the Faithful Exercise of the Affirmative Action Law in the Ageing Future

I am completely horrified upon hearing the news that the just-ousted chief justice, Araba Asaaba Getrude Torkonno of the Republic of Ghana, filed a lawsuit in one of the Accra high courts seeking the powers of the judiciary to immediately halt the mandate of the legislature from vetting the newly appointed Chief Justice, Baffour Bonnie. This, her action again, is a stillbirth, and patience will prove this right in no time.

In any case, every successful society is founded on law and a sense of patriotism and nationalism. I acknowledge that, as a citizen of the republic, she has the constitutional right to seek legal recourse for any grievances she may have. In fact, we have been under constitutional rule for decades now; the president of the Republic of Ghana, JDM, promotes equality before the law, freedom, and justice. No two ways because his government is on its own sterling wavelength of excellent governance. The sincerity to every citizen is that at least it is far better and incomparable to the erstwhile Nana Akuffo Addo and his NPP administration. I apologise for reopening any healed wound caused by the past regime.

Nonetheless, Torkonoo's latest move to seek legal action in appeasing her long or endless selfish anguish borne by her own removal as a CJ is nothing but a vituperation. In fact, the latest news on the former Chief Justice defies belief. Why would a woman at her age be so enraged and vengeful? Someone who preached "the law is the law" and was once an accomplished embodiment of the law as a CJ over her seniors in the bar and at the Supreme Court is now acting weird. She thinks the processes duly followed to the full witness of the public were skewed or corrupted to her disadvantage or something. I cannot believe it, but I deeply ponder over her dastardly tenure and what she could have superintended over then.

The motive of her continuous visits to the courts in and outside of the jurisdiction of the country to fight the state led by the people’s government is, of course, a fight in futility, if not for the records. Remember that the NDC just won the 2024 presidential elections with an overwhelming 57% plus of the votes cast, which is a huge endorsement by the electorate.  It is common sense for anyone to note that this statement of poll mirrored Torkonoo’s stewardship, just like her appointor and his cabinet. Several instances under her lead poked many decent consciences for having ignored due process under the remote-control hand of Nana Akufo-Addo.

The evidence is abundantly overflowing in the mouth of Gloria Akuffo, whom she succeeded after she constitutionally retired as a CJ. It is public knowledge and ubiquitous that she said during one of the cruel programmes implemented by the erstwhile administration called Domestic Debt Exchange (DDEP) that she was gagged in her administration as a CJ then. This suggested that the bridle put on her head, across her mouth and finally off, following her retirement, had enabled her to boldly show the whole world what a tyrant government she once served.

Fast forward: after Gloria Akuffo stepped down from office as demanded by law, the same Nana Akuffo Addo appointed Gertrude Torkonoo to the high office of the judiciary. The common-sensical thing for anyone to be concerned about in solitude is whether Nana Akuffo Addo was a changed man for good in and during the appointment and through the stewardship of Gertrude Torkonoo as CJ.

Certainly, you have a superb guess, and hitherto, he is what we know him to be. He is not that changed man, still full of arrogance, as captured in their own lead Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye's investigative report of their shameless and woeful electoral defeat in the just-passed Dec 2024 presidential polls. He still has the temerity to go about touting his NPP-led government in recent times as having been outstanding in governance. He went forth to state that his record and that of Kuffuor will enable the NPP to recapture power come 2028. Forgetting that he performed abysmally and that none of the economic indicators during his office are entirely congruent with his current claims, yet he is not a changed man for once in a lifetime.

Today, every diehard member of the NPP is in bitter pain for having shown early how not to govern a country before he could be referred to as a former president. It is despicable for him to still pride himself as the one ever to have governed this country to the admiration of citizens. Their membership themselves are silently lamenting today for what their leader, Nana Akuffo Addo, has caused their good fortunes going into the future, and it is a charade for anyone to think otherwise.

The adage 'birds of the same feather flock together' is characteristic of Gertrude and Gloria. Their stewardships are questionable because the very laws and due processes they both enforced in office are exactly what have been applied to them in the webs they have been caught in, especially the latter. Growing up, I was told that feasting on the flesh of the chimpanzee palm should remind you to take a close look at yours. His Excellency JDM is even adding a human face in this case, which is discretionary and not the law as postulated by Gertrude Torkonoo. I will solemnly appeal to the government of the day to take pains and reopen all cases sat on or administered by these women for new conclusions. I believed justice was not served to the people; I have no words for the past AG. Godfred Yeboah Dame

If I should remind her, the 2020 election petition hearing has not gone down well with several citizens as to why the EC chairperson, Jean Mensah, was deliberately barred from mounting the witness box. Also, the speed with which she assembled judges to sit on Afernyo Markins' rush to the supreme court for a constitutional interpretation of MPs' cross-carpeting and which side of the house of legislation they belong to.

Again, her writing to the president and listing some lower court judges to get appointed as superior judges was a grandiose scheme to pack the Supreme Court with their loyalists and juniors above seniors. The denial of SALL of a constitutional representation for 4 years in legislation cannot absolve her from being fallible, just like Nana Akuffo Addo, Jean Mensah, and her cohort of NPP loyalists led EC.

To me as an opinionist, while the affirmative bill suffered undue delay, for God knows how many years, to finally get the presidential assent as a law in its current form, women like Gloria and Gertrude are suffocating the faithful exercising of the law in appointing females to higher offices of the land as the future ages. This is not setting a good precedent at all in the phase of future decisions to appoint females, though they might be holding the requisite qualifications. The loudmouth has been on record questioning women's appointments to high offices, and now they are jeopardising the opportunities of promising candidates.

The country has suffered long enough to let this bill pass into law, but this duo, including the inexonerable Jean Mensah, rather chose party interest over the success of their long but huge decibel outcry of feminine representations in work and governance. The females have for some good times now commanded the peeling lead in population figures, and the 2021 population and housing census figure speaks to it in no obnubilation, just as the past ones did, and they deserve a good representation in all spheres.