Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo Stands Firm: “If I Had to Picket Again Over DDEP, I Would Do It”
Retired Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has reaffirmed, without any regret, her decision to join pensioners on the picket line outside the Ministry of Finance during the controversial Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) in February 2023.
In a candid interview on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, February 27, 2026, the former head of the Judiciary declared that she would repeat the action if the circumstances arose again.
“If I had to do it again, I would do it,” she stated firmly when asked by host George Wiafe about her participation in the protest.
On February 10, 2023, Justice Akuffo stunned the nation by appearing alongside pensioners demanding full exemption of their bond investments from the government’s debt restructuring programme. Holding a placard that read: “We use our bond yields to pay our rent, medical bills, electricity bills and water bills,” she stood visibly with ordinary retirees whose livelihoods had been severely affected by the haircut on their fixed-income investments.
The image of a former Chief Justice on a protest line became one of the most iconic and talked-about moments of the DDEP crisis.
When asked what drove her to take what many viewed as an unconventional step for someone of her stature, Justice Akuffo was unequivocal:
“First and foremost, I wasn’t there in that boardroom when that decision was made to give people haircuts, whether they liked it or not. But even if I had been, and I had disagreed, and despite my strenuous position, it went ahead to the extent that I think it’s wrong and that it’s in the interest of the public to know that it’s wrong. Yes, I would have come out and done it.”
She framed her action not as a departure from her judicial background but as entirely consistent with it:
“I will say that maybe it’s my home upbringing or how I understood my legal education. You don’t sit there and just let unlawful things be done, and if you feel strongly about it and there’s no one to listen to you, you shout it out.”
Justice Akuffo revealed that her participation was spontaneous rather than planned:
“I saw that there were some people picketing, and I saw somebody I knew on that picket line. Phoned her and said, ‘Was it you I saw?’ She said, Yes. And I said, Okay, are you going again? And she said, Yes. I said, Can I join? And so I went.”
Years later, the retired Chief Justice remains resolute:
“So it’s something which I always say, if I had to do it again, I would do it.”
Her stance has reignited public discussion about the role of retired public officials in civic activism, the ethics of debt restructuring, and the treatment of small bondholders — particularly pensioners — during national financial crises.
The DDEP, implemented in late 2022 and early 2023, involved significant haircuts on domestic debt holdings to help Ghana achieve debt sustainability under the IMF programme. While credited by government with helping stabilise public finances, it drew sharp criticism from affected bondholders who argued it disproportionately burdened ordinary citizens and retirees.
Justice Akuffo’s unwavering position continues to resonate with many who felt the programme lacked fairness and adequate consultation, even as the economy has shown signs of recovery in the intervening years.
Her comments serve as a powerful reminder that, for her, justice and public interest sometimes demand stepping beyond traditional boundaries — even for a former Chief Justice.
