Kwesi Pratt, the Managing News Editor of the Insight Newspaper, has said a Chief Justice, whether past or present, praising government policies is problematic.
The veteran journalist argued that a Chief Justice publicly praising a sitting government for its policies or how they are being implemented raises questions about the judge’s impartiality.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on September 16, 2026, Kwesi Pratt stated, “Let’s be frank, if a Chief Justice mounts a platform and praises a government for its policies, it’s problematic”.
“Any Chief Justice, whether in the past or present, mounts a platform and starts praising a sitting government for its policies, the manner in which the policies have been implemented, and so on, it’s problematic,” he stated.
He added, “If a Chief Justice urges the population to act in favour of a particular political party or a particular government, it is problematic”.
“Now, if a Chief Justice is minded to protect a certain administration or certain persons within a certain administration so that they can continue in office, his fairness is called into question or her fairness is called into question, no doubt at all,” he said.
Kwesi Pratt further added, “It does not mean that those who sit on the bench do not have views. They vote in elections. Election Day, they vote, their preferences, but those preferences need to be kept to themselves”.
“Some would argue that that is perhaps a manifestation of inherent hypocrisy. But that’s the situation we are supposed to deal with. At least our laws need to make sense,” he added.
Kwesi Pratt’s comment follows the President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Efua Ghartey, quoting a biblical admonition in expressing the Bar’s disappointment with remarks made by the Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, concerning state-owned enterprises.
According to the GBA president, although the Bar was reluctant to interpret the Chief Justice’s comments, his remarks have raised concerns among members of the legal profession.
Speaking at the Ghana Bar Association Conference 2026/27 in Ada on Monday, September 14, the GBA President, Efua Ghartey, expressed the association’s concerns, saying, “The recent commendation of a public institution and the comparison to a past government’s output, by no mean a person than the Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, left much to be desired”.
We do not want to believe that what happened is a fulfilment of Matthew 12:34, which says, ‘Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh,’” she stated.
Ms Ghartey further fired a shot at the Judicial Secretary, saying the apparent attempt to explain or defend the Chief Justice’s comments was, at best, lacklustre.
“Respectfully, the Judicial Secretary’s attempted defence of the Chief Justice was, at best, lacklustre,” she said.
She further referred specifically to Article 128(4) of the 1992 Constitution to caution that the protection of judicial independence must be accompanied by respect for the constitutional limits placed on public office holders.
“The Bar wishes to serve a reminder that much as it is poised to protect the independence of the Judiciary, as per Article 128(4) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the guarded must stay within their bounds as dictated by their calling in the Constitution,” she said.
“And may I repeat that the guarded must stay within their bounds as dictated by their calling in the Constitution,” she added.
Meanwhile, the brouhaha stems from Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, who on Wednesday, September 2, toured some state institutions where he questioned how Ghana sank so low in the past eight years under the former administration.
The Chief Justice expressed astonishment at the performance of some state institutions over the past eight years.
According to Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, comparing the current progress of some state institutions with their performance over the past eight years, he wonders what went wrong in the last eight years.
The Chief Justice lauded the performance of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) and other public institutions under the current Mahama administration.
Speaking during a visit to MIIF on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, he said he was impressed by what he had seen at the institution and other state entities.
Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie stated, “I must congratulate you. I mean, you have done marvellously well. Sometimes, when we hear about the things that you have done and the things that some organisations are doing now, we wonder. Some of us keep wondering what we really have been doing in the past eight years”.
“We’ve just come back from SSNIT. We went to SSNIT this morning, and the kind of things that we heard and what we had heard even before we went there, if you compare that with the fact that, not too long ago, SSNIT was preparing to sell its prized assets like the Labadi Beach Hotel, you wonder how Ghana could have sunk so low,” he added.
Watch the video below:
Any Chief Justice who does this is problematic – Kwesi Pratt #GoodMorningGhana #MetroTV pic.twitter.com/IonNfhgMdv
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) September 16, 2026
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