Barker-Vormawor reacts to the vetting of Chief Justice nominee Torkornoo

Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a lead convener for the #FixTheCountry Movement, has reacted to the vetting of Chief Justice nominee Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo, which was done on Friday, May 26, 2023.

In a tweet shared on Friday, May 26, 2023, Barker-Vormawor said that Ghana’s judiciary is currently ‘sick’ but the Chief Justice nominee failed to proffer a solution to make it better.

He also accused some of the members of parliament (MPs) on the Appointment Committee of the House, who vetted the Chief Justice nominee, of not now understanding their job.

“I am non the wiser as to what reforms and direction the new CJ is proposing. Our Judiciary is ailing. But when you watch the vetting for the top job of a failing judiciary, you wonder if parliament understands the enormity of the task ahead.

“Only few MPs come ready to engage in a true and proper rigorous conversation. The rest are just…” parts of his tweet read.

The #FixTheCountry convener proposed that the laws of the country are amended so that the president is required to make more than one nomination for positions so that the vetting process is taken more seriously.

“Maybe our laws must require the President to send two-three nominees for each position to Parliament.

"That way, the nominees don’t come before Parliament with the knowledge that the entire vetting thing is inconsequential. And Parliament itself doesn’t come treating the vetting as routine and inconsequential,” he wrote.

Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo, a justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, is being vetted for the Chief Justice position of the country after her nomination by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

If approved by the Parliament of Ghana, Justice Torkornoo will be the third appointment to the office of Chief Justice since Akufo-Addo became president in 2017.

She will also be the third female Chief Justice in the history of Ghana, following in the footsteps of Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo.

View Barker-Vormawor’s tweet below:

I have been watching the vetting of the CJ nominee. And i can’t even articulate fully how I felt through it.

Maybe our laws must require the President to send two-three nominees for each position to Parliament.

That way, the nominees don’t come before Parliament with the…

— Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor (@barkervogues) May 26, 2023

IB/OGB