The Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkornoo, has urged the nation to uphold justice for all people as a way of attracting God's grace and blessings.

She warned that without justice and law enforcement, Ghana would face destruction and instability.

She made these remarks at the opening of the 2023 National Development Conference organised by the Church of Pentecost at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region on Monday, 26 July 2023.

The two-day conference, which is on the theme: “Moral vision and national development”, brought together key personalities, stakeholders, bodies and institutions in Ghana to deliberate on critical issues on Ghana’s development.

Among the speakers attending the event were Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin; former President John Agyekum Kufuor; Former Minister of Women’s Affairs of Zimbabwe, Dr Olivia Nyembezi Muchena and Spokesperson of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu.

Justice Torkornoo stressed that justice is a vital element for peace and stability, and that the quality of life in every nation depended on that. She pointed out that upholding the laws and investing in the building of justice delivery in a nation brings prosperity to its citizens.

"As a nation, we must work towards giving justice to all manner of persons," she said, adding “there cannot be prosperity without peace and there cannot be peace unless people are assured that their rights will be upheld and they will not be robbed of their entitlement.”

She also spoke on the theme of the conference, saying that the judiciary does not see morality as a personal preference of a person, but as a constitutional mandate that requires the maintenance and enforcement of the highest standards of ethical conduct and the upholding of the innate need of the human soul for justice in a nation.

She said that members of the judiciary have chosen to defend the morality of a person through the power given to them by the Constitution and other government institutions.

She further said that it is her conviction that in Ghana's diversity of ethnicity, belief systems, vocations and talents, the elements of the laws of Ghana, the rules of equity, and the innate ethical values that flow from good conscience can surely bind our hearts and minds together and assist us to arrive at a nationally accepted vision of morality.