The former Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh, has warned that Ghana’s judiciary has become structurally vulnerable to partisan influence.
Speaking at a JoyNews and An Amalgam of Professionals event on Tuesday, October 20, he cited the declining public trust in the courts and concerns over political appointments to the Supreme Court.
He said the trend had developed gradually over the years, with public confidence in the courts declining amid perceptions that judges were susceptible to political influence.
“ The cumulative effect is a public belief grounded in numbers rather than rhetoric that Ghana’s judiciary has become structurally vulnerable to partisan influence. A slow drift, not a sudden collapse, but one that now shapes the political imagination of the Fourth Republic,” he said.
Mr Nsarkoh cited Afrobarometer data showing that the proportion of Ghanaians who trusted the courts fell from 61% in 2002 to 38% in 2022.
He also referenced findings indicating that 57% of respondents believed judges were influenced by political leaders, describing the figures as empirical signals of weakening judicial independence rather than partisan accusations.
“These are not partisan accusations. They are empirical signals from independent institutions that the judiciary’s insulation has weakened,” he said.
Mr Nsarkoh argued that political practices surrounding judicial appointments had reinforced public suspicion. He said successive administrations had exercised their appointment powers aggressively since 2000, pointing to the concentration of Supreme Court appointments in the hands of sitting presidents.
Between 2017 and 2024, he claimed, more than 70% of the Court’s members were appointed by one president. He added that President John Dramani Mahama had also made appointments since succeeding former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Mr Nsarkoh further said that high-profile cases involving election petitions, removal proceedings and constitutional interpretation had sometimes appeared to divide along partisan lines, reinforcing concerns about the judiciary’s impartiality.
He cited reports by the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana), the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and other organisations, which he said had highlighted “persistent delays, opaque criteria for judicial elevation and court expansion during politically sensitive periods.”
He called for radical measures to strengthen judicial independence, proposing an institutional role for medically fit, living retired Supreme Court justices in proceedings involving attempts by the executive to remove sitting Supreme Court judges.
“I would, for example, love to see all living retired Supreme Court judges who are certified as medically fit playing an institutional role should there be an effort by the executive to remove judges of the Supreme Court,” he said.