National Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, is calling for a separation between the roles of Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to strengthen Ghana’s fight against corruption and improve justice delivery.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the 2025 African Governance and Anti-Corruption Summit in Accra on Thursday, June 26, Asiedu Nketiah emphasised that the country must, as part of the ongoing constitutional review, make efforts to separate the two roles to ensure greater accountability in justice delivery.
“From hindsight, I think that we were wrong in combining the Office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, for instance,” he stated. “Because you could have Attorney General, and if he’s the Minister of Justice, he sits in cabinet with his colleague ministers. All policies that are coming from the other sectors are cleared at cabinet. So it becomes very difficult for that same member of the government or cabinet to now seek to arrest or prosecute his colleagues.”
According to him, the prosecutorial powers of the country are vested in the Attorney General, who also happens to be the Minister for Justice. “On the one hand he will sit in cabinet, participate in the approval of all the programs, and when one of the programs goes wrong by way of implementation and you ask him to now go and arrest his colleagues and prosecute them it becomes a problem.”
He further stated, “So you believe they should be separated? Yes, I think that we should have separate Attorney General who in my view ought not be a politician. It must be a career Attorney General who would not rely on any political party to put him there, I mean voting and all that.”
Asiedu Nketiah added that, “Apart from his colleague ministers, if it happens that his party chairman has committed something and I say the Attorney General should arrest and prosecute his party chairman, for instance, it becomes challenging.”
He concluded, “So I think that moving forward we should look at making the position of Attorney General like a career position or something that can be secure like a judge, so that he can be free to embark on his prosecutorial duties right.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Emmanuel Mensah
