NPP Flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has aligned himself with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in opposition to the Tribunals Bill, 2026, amplifying organised labour’s warning that the legislation could become “a potent tool for weaponising justice delivery.”
The TUC has called for the Bill to be withdrawn altogether. Dr. Bawumia, in a statement urging President Mahama not to sign it, leaned heavily on that position to underline the non-partisan character of his appeal.
“This is not a partisan request. The Trades Union Congress, the voice of millions of Ghanaian workers, has called for the Bill to be withdrawn altogether… Those are the words of Ghanaian workers, not of any political party,” he said.
Organised labour objected loudly and publicly during the Bill’s passage but was ignored, Dr. Bawumia noted, as Parliament waived the mandatory one-day interval before the third reading and passed the Bill the same day, voting down the Minority’s objections.
The convergence of the largest opposition party and the country’s biggest labour federation on the same side of the issue raises the political stakes for the Presidency as the Bill heads to the President’s desk for assent.
Dr. Bawumia’s prescription is a pause: withhold assent, publish the Constitution Review Committee’s report, which recommended removing Regional Tribunals from the Constitution, and convene national consultations involving labour, the Ghana Bar Association, civil society, the Judiciary and political parties.
“A law that reshapes the architecture of justice should rest on national consensus, not on a headcount,” he said, pointing the President to Articles 90 and 106 of the 1992 Constitution as the route through the Council of State.
