Three times ‘ungagged’ Sophia Akuffo has spoken on topical issues in 2023

Retired Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, is back in the news for comments made around topical national conversations.

Her most recent views are connected to the appointment of two pro-government individuals as part of three Electoral Commissioners sworn into office by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Sophia posited among others that the appointments did not bode well for instances of conflict of interest, public perception for a sensitive position as top EC officials.

She said in an interview with Accra-based TV3 on April 5, 2023 on the sidelines of an Institute of Economic Affairs programme: "There are standards for the public service... and conflict of interest is something that always can be dealt with, whether it is written in black and white or not… and conflict of interest does not necessarily have to be actual; it can be potential.

“I am not a politician, so, I don’t know what goes on… the only thing I can do is use an analogy on the bench.

"… in doing the right thing in public service, a lot of it depends on public perception, and I think when it comes to something to do with national elections and so on, public perception is very important.

"Everything in this world that you can arrange in such a way that the dealings are at arm's length is better than somebody's arm is twisted and another person's arm is in their pocket," she stressed.

Akuffo booms on needless Independence Day celebrations

Sophia Akuffo in March this year advocated for monies spent on independence day celebrations to be channeled into better developmental projects amid an economic squeeze.

Speaking on the sidelines of an IEA programme with Citi News, she explained why there was no need to make a big deal of the celebrations.

“We should celebrate our Independence Day but to gather and march does not matter. I think whatever money is going to be spent on this celebration with everybody going to the Volta region, if they had selected a deprived district and built a new school or selected a ramshackle district hospital or health centre and upgraded it and named it Independence school or independence hospital, it will be good.

“Then every year they pick a region and a project and do it, that would be money better spent…this will inure to the benefit of the people, and it will last, but they are going to talk, march, eat and come back and then that’s all,” she made the comments with days to the 2023 celebrations that took place in the Volta Region.

Sophia joins picketing pensioner bondholders

The former CJ made the now famous ‘my mouth has been ungagged’ comment in the second week of February (February 10) while speaking with GhanaWeb at the forefront of the Ministry of Finance in Accra.

Mrs. Akuffo had joined picketing pensioner bondholders protesting inclusion in government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

In a later interview on Joy News’ Upfront programme, she explained what she meant by “ungagged” stressing that it had to do with her role as a judge of the Superior Courts.

“Ungagged in the sense that when I was in government service as a judge, you don’t go shooting your mouth off about anything, because you don’t know what is going to be in the docket before you.

“And when you are a judge in the final court, you should not shoot your mouth off and be unguarded so that you would have to recuse yourself on every other case. You become a waste.

“So, you keep to your corner, you don’t let yourself be heard too much on national and topical issues that have a potential of landing before the courts,” he added.

What Sophia Akuffo said:

“There are quite a number of people here today, who retired last year, last two years. When they retired, they put everything into government bonds and now all of a sudden, you virtually want to, at gunpoint, force them to agree with you that the repayment of their investment or yields of their investments should be as you dictate it. Why?

"Why are we in the mess we are in, nobody has fully explained it to us, yes debts, we took debts, what was it used for? Where is the accountability? You are not telling us about how you are going to make things better but just ‘help me and I’ll help you’ no, you help yourself first.

“Let me see you doing something serious because we’ve seen these sorts of things for a very long time. I’m over 70 now, and I’m no longer a government employee. My mouth has been ungagged and I’m talking and I’m saying what I feel and it is important that, the elderly in this nation,” she explained.

She became the first CJ to be appointed by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017, she retired in 2019.

She stated that while she is not going to be affected by the government’s DDEP, she finds it wicked for the government to sacrifice the profits of retirees – people who have sacrificed for Ghana, just so that it is able to solve its own problems in managing the economy.

“This is just by God’s grace that I’m not included and it’s very heart-breaking to see people of, particularly, this age group – some are a bit older than me, some are somewhat a bit younger than me, but these are all people who have worked, worked very hard. They could have left the country when others were leaving, they left, they stayed, they worked for the nation and we’ve had our ups and downs and everything but bit by bit.

“A lot of us are from the generation where you were encouraged to save for tomorrow. We’ve been through times when all your savings become nonsense because of some government policy. Then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy, in investments and all that,” she added.

SARA