GBA Lawsuit Fights Presidential Cherry-Picking

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• Mahmoud 8 years ago

  Mr. Kofi Ata claimed that the president wanted to balance the number of conservative and progressive judges at the Supreme Court, and we asked him to explain to all the world view or set of ideas a judge may hold in Ghana th ...
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  Mr. Kofi Ata claimed that the president wanted to balance the number of conservative and progressive judges at the Supreme Court, and we asked him to explain to all the world view or set of ideas a judge may hold in Ghana that qualify him to be called a progressive or a conservative judge. We are still waiting for his his answer.

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• LONTO-BOY 8 years ago

  Is the President strictly obliged to pick all the Justices to the Supreme Court from the Ghana Judicial Council's Recommended List? I'm sure there are instances in Ghana and at international level where appointments to the Su ...
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  Is the President strictly obliged to pick all the Justices to the Supreme Court from the Ghana Judicial Council's Recommended List? I'm sure there are instances in Ghana and at international level where appointments to the Supreme Court did not follow strict procedure.

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• John,Tema 8 years ago

  If he's not obliged then why shd he ask the Council to recommend to him?Even assuming he's not happy with the list,he could've asked for a review of the list.President John Dramani Mahama is highly indiscipline & dishonest.

  If he's not obliged then why shd he ask the Council to recommend to him?Even assuming he's not happy with the list,he could've asked for a review of the list.President John Dramani Mahama is highly indiscipline & dishonest.

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• Abeeku Mensah 8 years ago

  Let me give you an explanation that may likely fit in with your elementary level of understanding, Dr. Kwame. Students who are ranked in the top percentile in a subject do not score exactly the same mark but earn marks that ...
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  Let me give you an explanation that may likely fit in with your elementary level of understanding, Dr. Kwame. Students who are ranked in the top percentile in a subject do not score exactly the same mark but earn marks that fall within a range of grade points. The judicial council scoring of the potential Supreme Court candidates and subsequent ranking, I'm sure, were not based on some meaningful test score or IQ score. The ranking by the council carries no predictable successfull outcome for the participants or correlation with wisdom; you of all people should know and understand. Who amongst your secondary school classmates would have thought of you as an English professor? Was there ever a correlation between grades earned by "chew, pour, pass and forget" students and those earned by students with comprehension and understanding of subject material? Remember that it is more likely than not that there is a correlation between the lack of development in Africa and the inability to apply the theories and concepts so masterfully memorized by a majority to earn their school grades.

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• Kwaku Tee 8 years ago

  We're talking about the constitution and not your classroom nonsense,if we shd take your excuse then a coach of a national football team at the World Cup can go out of the 23 names he's submitted to FIFA during the tournament ...
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  We're talking about the constitution and not your classroom nonsense,if we shd take your excuse then a coach of a national football team at the World Cup can go out of the 23 names he's submitted to FIFA during the tournament.

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• kaketonti 8 years ago

  MANY WERE CALLED BUT FEW WERE CHOSEN.

  MANY WERE CALLED BUT FEW WERE CHOSEN.

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• kutsii 8 years ago

  Okoampa, u are a narratological and pathological old fool. Instead of advising the buttockslogical idiot Akufo Addo, u are trumulogically being stupid. Now we know ur face. Foolish old drunkard.

  Okoampa, u are a narratological and pathological old fool. Instead of advising the buttockslogical idiot Akufo Addo, u are trumulogically being stupid. Now we know ur face. Foolish old drunkard.

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 8 years ago

  Prof, it appears to me that you do not do understand the GBA suit. I say so because of some two or three contradictory statements contained in your article.
  
  “A critical examination of the GBA suit clearly indicates that ...
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  Prof, it appears to me that you do not do understand the GBA suit. I say so because of some two or three contradictory statements contained in your article.
  
  “A critical examination of the GBA suit clearly indicates that the plaintiffs do not seek to challenge the professional competence and/or academic qualifications of Justices Apau and Pwamang to sit on the highest court of the land. Rather, it has to do with the President's flagrant breach of protocol, or the established process by which nominees are appointed to sit on the Supreme Court.”
  
  Prof, for your information President Mahama is not, let alone flagrantly in breach of protocol or the established process by which nominees are appointed to sit on the Supreme Court. In fact, President Mahama followed protocol or the established process and that is stated by GBA as one of the main reasons for the suit. That is, appointments to the SC since the 4th Republic (by Rawlings, Kufuor and the late Mills) according GBA breached what is stated in the constitution, which is “on the advice of the Judicial Council” The protocol or established process is what is known in legal parlance as customary practice or simply what has been done in the past. You are therefore saying the opposite of what GBA is claiming.
  
  Again, you stated, “it well appears that the GBA suit hinges on a breach of well-established convention.” This is also the same as customary practice or what has been happening in the past, so you are contradicting GBA.
  
  Prof, you further stated, ”the argument of the GBA plaintiffs is that if Mr. Mahama, who has absolutely no professional background in law or Ghanaian judicial protocol,...” Are you suggesting that the president must have professional background in law or Ghanaian judicial protocol before appointing SC Justices? Where does this happen in a democracy? Did George Bush have professional background in law or US judicial protocol before appointing the Chief Justice of US Supreme Court? Apart from the two contradictions in your case, this is the weakest link in your argument.
  
  The fact is that GBA is giving its own interpretation to Article 144 appointments. Though they have been aware that none of the previous three presidents followed their own interpretation but did what Mahama has done, because they believe that Mahama should not the person to appoint senior judges in Ghana they are going to court to challenge the last appointment. The question is why did they not challenge Rawlings, Kufuor or the late Mills? This is not to suggest that if what they did was wrong it should continue. I believe an Executive President is the one to take the final decision and not an unelected and unaccountable body such as the Judicial Council to instruct or order the Executive President on who to appoint.

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• Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. 8 years ago

  Mr. Kofi Ata:
  
  I don't think you read my article properly. I was merely making hypothetical interpretations of what the GBA suit appears to be about, primarily based on media gleanings.
  
  
  The plaintiffs do not detail th ...
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  Mr. Kofi Ata:
  
  I don't think you read my article properly. I was merely making hypothetical interpretations of what the GBA suit appears to be about, primarily based on media gleanings.
  
  
  The plaintiffs do not detail the contents of their suit to the media, other than their enumeration of three or four laid-down principles for the recommendation of judges for promotion by the Judicial Council.
  
  I also don't see any of the contradictions you are talking about, obviously because, unlike you, I am not trying to play lawyer here. Let's cross our fingers and see what pans out from the Supreme Bench.

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• kutsii 8 years ago

  OKOAMPA, nothing will pan out in your dirty frying pan. U have goofed trumuticiously and now Kofi Atta is holding ur impotent 'ntorshwerlogical' balls tight. Let me give u a topic to write on. The buttockslogical Tantrums of ...
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  OKOAMPA, nothing will pan out in your dirty frying pan. U have goofed trumuticiously and now Kofi Atta is holding ur impotent 'ntorshwerlogical' balls tight. Let me give u a topic to write on. The buttockslogical Tantrums of the Dwarf Kapwepwe'. Nonsense

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• Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 8 years ago

  The first ever civil comment I have read from stupid Okoampa who can write trash but never come down to defend himself.
  
  Any interlocution with this psychopath is reduced to his tribal rant and familial ties. You are right ...
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  The first ever civil comment I have read from stupid Okoampa who can write trash but never come down to defend himself.
  
  Any interlocution with this psychopath is reduced to his tribal rant and familial ties. You are right to say that you are not a lawyer because if you lived for a thousand years, you will not acquire the basic skills to become one. Foolish boy.

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 8 years ago

  Prof, you argued that GBA is challenging President Mahama for not following the protocol and established processes in appointing senior judges and SC Justices. On the contrary, GBA is challenging the appointment because Presi ...
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  Prof, you argued that GBA is challenging President Mahama for not following the protocol and established processes in appointing senior judges and SC Justices. On the contrary, GBA is challenging the appointment because President Mahama followed the same protocol and established processes as done by all presidents under the 4th Republic.
  
  The GBA is of the view that, it should be the Judicial Council that must have the final say on who is appointed and the president because the words "on the advice of" in the constitution means the advice is binding on the president. Therefore, the presidents must follow strictly the written advice received from the Judicial Council regarding Article 144 appointments and not the other way round where the presidents ignored the advice and made their own choices from the list presented by the Judicial Council as Mahama did in the latest appointment. I hope you now see the contradictions.
  
  I am not a qualified lawyer and I will not pretend to be one. However, I have studied different areas of law and therefore have some basic understanding of law, its interpretation and application. There were LLM students, UK and foreign military lawyers and qualified Solicitors on the International Humanitarian Law course I took as an option at LSE but that does not qualify me to call myself a lawyer. This is because I took it as a subject and not as a professional course though I participated in the same seminars, course work and took the same exams as the LLM students at the end of the academic year.

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