Presidential staffer Nana Yaa Jantuah has cautioned against introducing gender into discussions surrounding the removal proceedings of suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
Citing previous examples like Charlotte Osei and Loretta Lamptey, Jantuah insisted that the rule of law must take precedence over identity politics.
“Let’s not play the gender card, because Charlotte Osei wasn’t a man, she was a woman. Other women were not men, they were women. Loretta Lamptey and even myself, I’m a woman, not a man, and we went through worse things than what the CJ is going through”
Nana Yaa Jantuah, Presidential Staffer
She further dismissed suggestions that the Chief Justice’s (CJ) legal challenges to the process amounted to legitimate resistance. “This is a constitutional process; why is everybody fighting it?”
Jantuah questioned the sudden urgency among political commentators to use the CJ’s case as an academic or legal case study, noting the absence of similar advocacy during the dismissal of former Electoral Commission Chairperson Charlotte Osei.
“When Charlotte was removed, that was the first time. They have said that Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s removal will be used as a case study in political science departments. Have they used Charlotte’s own as a case study?”
Nana Yaa Jantuah, Presidential Staffer
She contrasted the treatment of Charlotte Osei, who was removed during the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) administration, with the political sensitivity now surrounding the removal of the Chief Justice under the current administration led by President John Dramani Mahama.
She further underscored the democratic underpinnings of Ghana’s judicial system and the necessity of the Electoral Commission in preserving electoral integrity and questioned why the arguments by the NPP for the Chief Justice today weren’t used for the former EC chairperson.
“Charlotte’s institution, the EC, is one of the most important bodies in this country – The EC is the one that superintends over elections and without an election, you don’t have a democracy”
Nana Yaa Jantuah, Presidential Staffer
Questioning Legal Tactics
Jantuah criticised attempts to use the courts to delay the process, including recent reports of legal actions attempting to place an injunction on members of the committee handling the CJ’s case.
“Why?” she queried, urging critics, particularly within the NPP, to focus their energies on constitutional amendments if they believe the removal process is unjust.
“If you think the removal process is unfair, challenge the Constitution – not the government. The constitution gave the process by which a chief justice will be removed”
Nana Yaa Jantuah, Presidential Staffer
Jantuah further condemned the double standards displayed by the NPP, highlighting their failure to amend constitutional provisions during their eight-year rule. “They even had a constitutional day – January 7th – and took away July 1st, the day that we had our republic,” she accused.
“Constitution day but we never opened the constitution. I always say that it is a very nonsensical holiday because not once do we say that today we are going through our constitution”
Nana Yaa Jantuah, Presidential Staffer
In her final remarks, she defended the constitutional legitimacy of the process initiated against the Chief Justice.
She explained that if the framers of Ghana’s constitution did not envisage that a day and time would come where there might be the need to remove the Chief Justice, such a process wouldn’t have put it in the constitution.
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