Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged African Governments to prioritize budgetary allocations to ensure that funds are available to strengthen key institutions of state, such as the Legislature, Judiciary and fiscal institutions, among others.
President Akufo-Addo said in order for the African continent to meet the aspirations of her citizens and open up opportunities for all, it was imperative that priority was given to key institutions of state.
He said there was the need to promote and develop a culture of accountable governance, free of corruption, whereby these bodies would see themselves as independent public entities serving the wider public interest, rather than the temporary conveniences of the governments of the day.
He said the independence of the Judiciary was critical and needed to be protected because of its constitutional jurisprudence.
President Akufo-Addo, who was addressing the 58th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, in Abuja, Nigeria, said when he assumed office as President of Ghana, budgetary allocation to the Parliament of Ghana had increased by 82%, compared to 2016 as the base year, while the Judiciary, within the same period, had also seen its budgetary allocation increase by 47%.
He said Ghana had added to its architecture of accountability the Office of Special Prosecutor to hold public officials, past and present, accountable for their stewardship of the public purse, adding that a well-known anti-corruption crusader, lawyer and a leading figure of the current opposition in Ghana had been appointed as the Special Prosecutor.
He said as Attorney-General from 2001 to 2003, under the Government of His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, he had the honour of nominating for appointment onto Ghana's Supreme Court, distinguished jurists and academics such as Professor Samuel Kofi Date-Bah, the late Professor Tawia Modibo Ocran and the late Professor A.K.P Kludze, three judges whose works made a significant impact on the growth of the Court's constitutional jurisprudence.
President Akufo-Addo said he had continued in this tradition by nominating the immediate past President of the Ghana Bar Association, Nene Amegatcher, the former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Professor Emmanuel Nii Ashie Kotey and two respected Court of Appeal Judges as his first nominees to the Supreme Court.
This blend of persons on the Supreme Court, he said, in his view, would strengthen the development of Ghana's jurisprudence.
Source: ISD (Rex Mainoo Yeboah)
