Former Chief of Staff Nana Ato Dadzie has backed legislation to reintroduce Public Tribunals in Ghana, saying greater public involvement could strengthen the administration of justice and build on the country’s tradition of settling disputes within communities.
“I’m not surprised that new legislation seeks to reintroduce the Public Tribunal system. I think it makes a lot of sense to have the public involved in the administration of justice,” he said.
Nana Dadzie was speaking last Wednesday at the third edition of the “Time with the Politician” forum in Accra. The event was organised by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Ghana in partnership with the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana.
The forum brought students together with experienced political leaders to discuss governance, public leadership and national development.
Nana Dadzie, a lawyer who served under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), said the former Public Tribunals used the same laws as the conventional courts. Their key difference, he explained, was that people who were not lawyers were included in the adjudication process.
He rejected the argument that justice should be handled solely by legal professionals, pointing to the role already played by family heads, chiefs and other traditional authorities in resolving disputes across Ghana.
He said the formal justice system should recognise and develop those community-based approaches rather than ignore them.
Although he accepted that the previous Public Tribunal system had attracted criticism, Nana Dadzie said its weaknesses could be corrected through reform. In his view, those concerns should not be used as a reason to discard the system altogether.
The former Chief of Staff also expressed support for proposed constitutional changes that would increase Ghana’s presidential term from four years to five.
He argued that a longer term would give governments more time to carry out their development programmes. Four years, he said, was not enough to deliver major national transformation, particularly because an incoming administration needed time to establish itself after an election.
“You need at least six months to form a government,” he stated.
Nana Dadzie also called for traditional authorities to have a stronger role in maintaining law and order, with particular emphasis on the fight against illegal mining.
He said chiefs and landowners were often better placed than security agencies to identify unlawful activity and stop it within their own communities.
“The administration of justice should be spread out. We shouldn’t exclude them,” he said.
The forum’s Country Representative of KAS Ghana, Anna Lena Sabroso-Wasserfall, urged students to take an active part in discussions and learn from the speakers’ practical experience in public service.
She said the initiative was intended to connect academic study with the realities of political leadership. It also aimed to encourage students to consider careers in public service and contribute to Ghana’s national development.
