Ghana Catholic Bishops urge Chief Justice to avoid comparing governments

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has warned Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie against language that could make institutional assessments sound like political comparisons.

The Conference said there was nothing improper about the Chief Justice visiting public institutions, examining their operations or praising genuine improvements. Its concern focused on his reference to the “past eight years” during visits to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust and the Minerals Income Investment Fund on September 2, 2026.

In Ghana’s political context, the bishops said, the phrase could readily be understood as a comparison between the current administration and its predecessor. An assessment of institutional performance could therefore take on the appearance of a partisan judgment, they said.

The Conference noted that the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development had also raised concerns publicly, warning that such remarks could create an impression of political endorsement and weaken confidence in judicial impartiality. It acknowledged the Judicial Service’s clarification that Baffoe-Bonnie had spoken in good faith and had not intended to compromise judicial independence, saying it received that explanation in good faith.

The bishops said their intervention was intended to contribute calmly to public understanding of judicial ethics and public trust. They nevertheless stressed that the episode raised broader questions about the standards expected of the head of Ghana’s Judiciary.

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The difficulty lies not in the visits themselves, but in the political character that some of his remarks, in particular his reference to the ‘past eight years’, can reasonably be understood to have acquired.