Legal practitioner and Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development – CDD Ghana, Prof. Henry Kwesi Prempeh has said Ghanaian law students and lawyers are afraid to stand up to the tyranny of the General Legal Council (GLC) and the judicial leadership despite the constitution “presumably guarantees the right of protest”.
Prof. Prempeh in a Facebook post sighted by Awake News is wondering “Why must Florida-based Prof. Kwaku Asare become the crusader, fighting the tyranny of the GLC and demonstrating persistent outrage, while the vast majority of the victims of the GLC’s pompous tyranny adopt a futile “each-one-for-himself-God-for-us-all” approach to dealing with the situation.”
Prof. Prempeh was commenting on a news report that “Egyptians emboldened to defy el-Sissi in anti-government protests” and said “Sudan. Hong Kong. Egypt” but “Here [Ghana], where the law presumably guarantees the right of protest, even law students and lawyers are afraid to stand up to the tyranny of the GLC and the judicial leadership.”
“Looks like we are hard-wired for oppression.” – He said
“If, as aspiring lawyers, you cannot organize and mobilize collectively to fight for justice for YOURSELVES against a tyrannical regulator and an indifferent Establishment, how in the world can you hope to fight zealosly for justice for your clients and for the less privileged in society.” – He asks.
The General Legal Council, a body that administers legal education and supervises legal practice in Ghana has over the years been adamant to the cry of many citizens that yearn to become legal professionals in Ghana.
The institution headed by the Chief Justice has on many occasions maintain that legal education must not be accessible to all Ghanaians who wish for it.
It has, therefore, put in though measure who many including Prof. Prempreh describes as tyrannical ranging from mass failure of students from being called to the bar and mass failure of prospective students who seat in for an entrance exam that has been pronounced by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
This year alone, there are reports that over 90 per cent of students who sat for Ghana School of Law entrance examination failed to make the cut for admission.
Results showed that of the 1,820 candidates who sat for the entrance exams, only 128, representing 7 per cent passed.
The mass failure comes on the back of a similar failure in the Ghana Bar exams few months ago. More than 90 per cent of the 727 students who wrote that exams failed, sparking agitation amongst the students.
Read Prof. Prempeh’s post:
Sudan. Hong Kong. Egypt. Here, where the law presumably guarantees the right of protest, even law students and lawyers are afraid to stand up to the tyranny of the GLC and the judicial leadership. Why must Florida-based Prof. Kwaku Azar become the crusader, fighting the tyranny of the GLC and demonstrating persistent outrage, while the vast majority of the victims of the GLC’s pompous tyranny adopt a futile “each-one-for-himself-God-for-us-all” approach to dealing with the situation.
Looks like we are hard-wired for oppression. If, as aspiring lawyers, you cannot organize and mobilize collectively to fight for justice for YOURSELVES against a tyrannical regulator and an indifferent Establishment, how in the world can you hope to fight zealosly for justice for your clients and for the less privileged in society.
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com
