Former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo is not enthused by the performance of governments since the inception of the 1992 Constitution. Even the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under which she was appointed as Chief Justice, is not exempted from her purview of poor-performing political administrations.
For her, the constitution has been constantly pushed to the back burner by successive administrations to the detriment of their citizens.
“I’ve been disappointed with every single government under this Constitution. Because, after all that we went through with the military and everything, and we centered the Constitution as the guiding principle, at least, constitutionalism should have been what should have been guiding us.”
According to her, “we have eroded so many standards, we’ve eroded so many principles. Yes, it’s not only the NPP government, as far as I’m concerned, every government has failed.”
The stateswoman has been on a vociferous path since the Finance Ministry decided to embark on a Domestic Debt Exchange programme.
This forms part of the reason why she is baffled by the state in which Ghana has been left after over three decades of constitutional rule. The Finance Minister is one of the officials who has particularly incurred the former Chief Justice’s wrath.
Ken Ofori-Atta Has Been Very Disappointing As The Finance Minister
Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo says Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has not done well managing the Ghanaian economy. She said he has also failed to see through the promise by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government, to protect the public purse when it took office in 2017. The purse, she pointed out has rather become empty.
Asked if she specifically had any fundamental problem with how the minister was handling the economy, Madam Akuffo said, “All I know is that you were going to protect the national coffers, they are now empty. It has been very disappointing.
“If it were somebody else, I will still feel the same. The person who was given the responsibility to manage the economy, I don’t think he has done a good job. There have been calls from various quarters including by members of the governing NPP for the Finance Minister to be sacked.”
Sophia Akuffo
Ghana’s economy is currently facing tough times with government pushing to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Support Programme. On the question of the performance of the Minister tasked with the management of the economy, the retired Supreme Court Judge said he has not lived up to expectations.
The former Judge believes that a decision should be taken by the President despite insisting that what was promised and delivered by way of management of the economy has not been impressive. President Akufo-Addo has equally been urged to cut down on the size of government and replace some ministers. The former Chief Justice shares this concern as well.
“I think so, there are many areas where there has not been much to show for. Somebody else should be asked to try it. And then there are some ministries that need to go back to their former partners.
“There are some ministries that were split up. Transport (Ministry) included air, land, sea and whatever. But now we have taken everything apart. Minister of this, minister of that, deputy minister of this and that”.
Sophia Akuffo
She said it was a waste of financial resources because the same person who cold have been in charge of all those separated offices would have taken a singular pay check to handle all of those issues instead of being split.
