Ghana’s first lady Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood spends her last day in office today as she retires after forty seven (47) years of public service tomorrow.
She was nominated for the position of Chief Justice of Ghana by President Agyekum Kuffour and the Parliament of Ghana approved her nomination as the new Chief Justice of Ghana by consensus on 1 June 2007.
Georgina Wood worked with the Ghana Police Service as a deputy superintendent and public prosecutor for three years. She later joined the Judicial Service as a District Magistrate in 1974.
She rose through the Circuit and High Courts to become the presiding judge of the Appeal Court in 1991. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Kufuor on 12 November 2002, an appointment she had earlier declined.
In June 2007, she became the first woman in the history of Ghana to head the Judiciary and also made her at the time, the highest ranked female in Ghana’s political history; that rank was surpassed by the appointment of Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo as Speaker of the 5th Parliament of Ghana‘s 4th Republic in January 2009.
Chief Justice Wood assumed office on 15 June 2007. Since taking office, she has sworn-in three Presidents, the late President John Evans Atta-Mills in January 2009, then Vice-President John Dramani Mahama upon the death of the President on 24 July 2012 and President-Elect John Dramani Mahama, winner of the December 2012 General Elections on 7 January 2013.
On 7th January 2017, she swore-in Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo-Addo the winner of December 2016 elections into office as President of the Republic of Ghana.
