Mr Kufuor’s comments come in the wake of a landmark exposé that has revealed rot within the judiciary.
At least 34 judges have been accused of engaging in underhand dealings while over 100 court staff were also found to have helped in perpetrating the acts.
The exposé was undertaken by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Speaking at the opening of the Ghana Bar Association’s Conference in Kumasi on Monday, September 14, Former President Kufuor observed there are a number of noble justices as a result of the honour associated with law.
“But the movement from the bar to the bench should be revisited,” he said, “and not come as a matter of course.”
“The selection for elevation should be done so critically as to ensure that the chosen will bring honour both to the bench and the bar.”
The conference is themed: “Rule of law, access to justice and sustainable development – The panacea to political and economic progress of a nation state”.
The former president noted that nations have been plunged into war “due to lack of justice”.
“Indeed, access to justice supports sustainable peace by offering the citizenry a more attractive alternative to violence in resolving personal and political conflicts. If the judiciary is the mouthpiece of justice, then it will be difficult to fathom anything worse than a false oracle.”
Mr Kufuor admitted that corruption has eaten a wide patch of the societal fabric and that of the judges is only a tip of the iceberg.
“One daresay that today it is members of the bench that have fallen into disgrace; but if we are to be candid to ourselves, we should all admit that the canker has eaten deep and wide into the social fabric of our society and at all levels of society.”
He blamed the situation on the lack of firepower from the country’s anti-corruption agencies.
“Our institutions for checking corruption do not seem to be working and it has had to take the spearheading by a single individual to unearth such a massive scale of malfeasance in society. The laws are there but we as a people have perhaps played the ostrich for far too long.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter: @kwame_amoh
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