Public confidence in the judiciary continues to erode, and Oliver Barker-Vormawor is not holding back in placing blame where he believes it belongs.
Reacting to Global InfoAnalytic’s April 2025 poll showing that over 52% of Ghanaians support the removal of the Chief Justice, Barker-Vormawor painted a grim picture of a justice system detached from the people it is meant to serve.
Following the release of the poll, Barker-Vormawor shared his candid thoughts, acknowledging that while some believe the findings are unhelpful, they represent a sentiment too important to dismiss.
He also referenced the AfroBarometer survey done in 2024, highlighting that only 13% of Ghanaians trust the judiciary—an indictment, he stressed, recorded during Justice Torkornoo’s tenure.
“Only 13%!,” he emphasized, underlining the crisis of legitimacy facing the nation’s courts.
Though he conceded that not all blame can be squarely placed on the Chief Justice, Barker-Vormawor argued that leadership demands accountability.
When trust in a vital state institution sinks so low, he insisted, the head must answer.
“Maybe it doesn’t meet the threshold of ‘incompetence’ that justifies impeachment—fair enough. But at the very least, it should occasion introspection, and yes, even resignation. The buck stops with the head.”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
His critique of the judiciary went even deeper, challenging the prevailing attitude within the legal fraternity towards judicial reform.
Barker-Vormawor slammed the notion that only legal practitioners have the standing to critique or reform the system.
“We proclaim that ours is a constitutional democracy, and that justice is administered in the name of the people. Yet somehow, when the people deliver their verdict—when they tell us loudly that they no longer trust the courts—we dismiss it as noise? We tell them their voices don’t matter?”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
Judiciary Urged To Serve Ghanaians, “Not Lawyer”
Furthermore, Oliver Barker-Vormawor emphasized that the courts are meant to serve the people, not simply provide a platform for the convenience of lawyers or judges.
He pointed out that while lawyers can move from case to case, earning fees regardless of outcomes, it is the ordinary Ghanaian who bears the true cost when the justice system fails.
Whether through high legal costs, biased judgments, inefficiencies, or administrative misconduct, it is the citizen seeking fairness who ultimately loses.
He also criticized the tendency to dismiss complaints from litigants as mere bitterness over court losses.
In reality, Barker-Vormawor argued, many of these grievances are legitimate cries from citizens who have been let down by a system that often falls short of delivering true justice.
“The truth is: the written decisions judges deliver are only 10% of the experience of justice. The other 90% is how the system treats people—from the clerk’s desk to the courtroom bench.”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
He illustrated how deep-seated the problems run: incessant adjournments that frustrate litigants, judges disrespecting lawyers and ordinary citizens alike, the misuse of bail conditions and injunctions to stifle protests, and scandals such as the infamous Anas goats your judges ate—for which the judiciary never publicly apologized.
“The people are not lay people. They are actually the ones bearing the scars of the inefficiency we call a justice system. How dare we say that the people’s experience, perception, and reality of justice do not matter?”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
He emphasized that if justice is truly delivered in the name of the people, then their verdict on the judiciary’s performance must be taken seriously—not ignored, belittled, or dismissed as uninformed.
For Barker-Vormawor, the 52% supporting the Chief Justice’s removal is not about legal technicalities; it is about a citizenry desperate for accountability.
“People are not supporting the removal of the Chief Justice because they have read the petitions. They are doing so because they need to hold someone accountable for the 13%. If not the head, then who?”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
In an era where trust in institutions is fragile, Barker-Vormawor’s powerful call to action reminds us that justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done—by the very people it claims to serve.
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