Sophia Akuffo

"For me, very little gets to me, except to do my work that I have to do and I must say up till now, I still believe that 99.99% of the judiciary from magistrates all the way to the Chief Justice, they are there to simply do their work."

"It's been going on in this country (Ghana) for the longest time, when I was appointed by President w:Jerry Rawlings, I became an NDC judge. When I make a decision against the NDC, I became an NPP judge and so on and so forth...and these are some of the unnecessary pressures that are put on the judiciary, not by anybody saying go this way or that way, but public perception, sometimes it gets to you."

"And you know what, I cannot fathom the reason for something being done in a particular way, especially when its been done for others but its not being done for others, I start getting suspicious, I have grown to the age where I have seen it all, and therefore I easily become suspicious."

"It's (being a Judge) been full, it's been interesting, it's been restful. and I can choose my times more effectively than before...but for me, it's been very good...no I have served, I finished, I'm happy to be retired, I'm happy I'm not each time saddled with having to write judgements and agonizing with decisions and so on and so forth...so, I really don't miss the work. And I don't think that most judges after a long pause on the bench miss the daily grind, I doubt it."

"There are standards for the public service...and conflict of interest is something that always can be dealt with, whether it is written in black and white or not... and conflict of interest does not necessarily have to be actual; it can be potential."

"Everything in this world that you can arrange in such a way that the dealings are at an arm's length is better than somebody's arm twisted and another person's arm is in their pocket."

"If you insist on ideology....which I thought was outdated after Communism....Maybe I can say I am egalitarian."

"If by the grace of God, I've got a voice why shouldn't I use it? In fact, I've decided that after this I am always going to find a voice to espouse. Why shouldn't I? I think that is why God has given me life beyond retirement and I think that every day after retirement I must use it to worship God."

"Nobody tells me what to think, except God and nobody can tell me what to do with my time and what to say about anything going on in this country (Ghana). Thank God we have a constitution, flawed though it might be but at least the right to say what I want to say and the freedom of conscience, that's mine and nobody will trample on it however influential they are."

"I find it wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong, period! Because you don’t solve your problems by sacrificing your aged. That is the last thing you should do."

"When they are sounding hopeful, it is about getting a visa of one type or the other or getting a university admission outside. Most often their eyes and hope are external and not in Ghana which I think is extremely sad.”"

"For how long are we going to be in this situation or circumstance where you don’t really see much hope in the eyes of young people? When you get talking to them they don’t sound too hopeful."

"am not an economist I don’t stay awake because of the details of the economy but many times what keeps me awake is what is going to happen to the young people."

"Those are the things that make me sad because somebody with PhD should actually be seeing themselves as employing people who will be employing other people."

"If it takes money to do that then there should be access to that money without being necessarily identifiable that you are from here or from there."

"Sophia Akuffo is a different type of human being. She doesn't need to do this, but she's doing it! God bless her."