Lawyer and social activist, has lamented about how the Ghana “School of Law, has departed from its purely vocational mission and now exercises supervisory power over the universities and offer purely academic courses, such as evidence, family law and procedural law” thus leaving a huge number of LLB holders brilliant in their rights to be lawyers.
Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, likened Ghana’s situation to Nigeria, saying that the country does “not leave their LLB holders behind” but “….are entitled to enroll in any of the School of Laws, which have stuck to their core mission of providing vocational skills to these graduates”.
His comments came hours before the Minority in Parliament through a memorandum filed by the Minority Chief Whip, Muburak Mohammed Muntaka to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to trigger the necessary processes for the House to pass a vote of censure against the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
This, follows Godfred Dame’s refusal to facilitate the admission of some 499 students who were denied admission to the Ghana School of Law, despite Parliament’s order.
He wrote to Parliament, challenging and rubbishing the order and moved on to hold an induction ceremony for the executives of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) where he described the study of law as a privilege and not a right.
Godfred Yeboah Dame, then proceeded to the law courts insisting that the prospective students who had obtained more than the pass mark required for admission, had rather failed to make it to the law school.
But Prof. Asare, who has expertise in accounting, argued that as a result of Nigeria’s vocational approach to the study of law, after LLB, that country runs “a limited menu of courses in criminal litigation; civil litigation; corporate law; property law; and law in practice. They also focus on externship programs and require Students to attend three dinners”.
Due to this, “in 2021, 4,444 of 5,770 students passed the Bar exam. That is, 77% of mass produced LLB candidates were called to the Bar”.
But in Ghana, out “of the 2,800 LLB produced by the universities, the school deemed only 790 good enough to admit. A mere 28% admitted, not to the Bar, but to a school whose core mission is to equip candidates with nothing more than vocational skills”.
This means that ” 72% of the graduates, trained in the law, cannot practice it, even though these skills are in short supply and are needed by the courts, districts, corporations, and the public”.
Yesterday, an Accra High Court adjourned the case of the 499 law students, who failed the entrance examination to November 19, to enable lawyers for the students to study the Attorney General’s response to their suit.
During the hearing, the Attorney General and the General Legal Council, who were sued by the students, insisted that the 499 failed the examinations.
The students are demanding that the court “further retrains the respondents from treating the applicants as students who failed the said examinations pending the final examination of this matter on grounds set forth and such further orders the court may deem fit.”
But Prof. Asare, described the situation as “an organized waste” where people are “academically qualified but deemed not good enough to learn purely vocational skills, including eating dinners, wearing the proper dress code, doing an externship or learning law in practice (whatever that entails)”.
Taking to his facebook yesterday, Prof. Asare, suggested that the current situation of keeping Ghanaian LLB students out of the Law School, is socially constructed with the picture painted that Ghanaian “universities lack the quality to produce quality LLB”, and the Law School “has admission requirements that are tougher than getting into Yale, Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge”.
“Yet, year after year, all we do is to complain to no avail, because the moribund GLC claims it owns the legal profession and is not answerable to the courts, legislature or to the public. Adding, “never have so many people unilaterally conceded power to so few men who plainly, proudly and perennially used that delegated power to the total detriment of the people!
This, he advocated “must stop, even if it takes a peaceful and sustained civil uprising, not next year but today!
The motion means that the Minority is seeking the removal of the Attorney General from office for supposedly undermining or disrespecting Parliament.
Parliament had directed the General Legal Council, through the Attorney General, to admit the 499 candidates, but the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, had said the request was illegal.
It said Parliament cannot direct the GLC on processes for admission into the Ghana School of Law just by a resolution.
“Whilst recognizing the general legislative powers of Parliament in Ghana, except as has been circumscribed by the Constitution, I am constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law”, a statement from the AG’s office mentioned.
The response from the office of the AG, did not sit well with the Minority, who has called on the Speaker of Parliament to take swift action.
“That this Honorable House passes a vote of censure on the Honourable Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, MrGodfredYeboah Dame, in respect of the following conduct: Refusal, without justifiable basis, to implement the resolution of this Honorable House unanimously passed on October 29, that the General Legal Council admits into the Ghana School of Law 499 students who sat for and passed the entrance examination of the Ghana School of Law for the 2021/22 legal year In accordance with its own published grounds rules, impugning the image and integrity of this Honorable House through statements unbecoming of the holder of the office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice of this Republic”, a memorandum from the Minority Chief Whip, Muburak Mohammed Muntaka to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin had said.
Mr Dame, recently came under public criticism after he emphatically stated that practicing law is a privilege and not a right.
He said this during the induction ceremony of new executives of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) earlier this week.
“Mr President and new executives, you owe a duty to drive home the point that the practice of law is not a right, it is a privilege. Along with it, comes a moral obligation and a legal duty to uphold the dignity of the profession to ensure that the privileged call to the bar is not abused through unprincipled and disreputable conduct,” he advised.
According to Article 82 of the constitution, a two-thirds majority of Parliament is needed to pass any vote of censure against Ministers of State after the motion has been debated within 14 days upon receipt of the motion by the Speaker of Parliament.
82 (1) Parliament may, by a resolution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, pass a vote of censure on a Minister of State.
(2) A motion for the resolution referred to in clause (1) of this Article shall not be moved in Parliament unless-
(a) seven days’ notice has been given of the motion; and
(b) the notice for the motion has been signed by not less than one-third of all the members of Parliament;
(3) The motion shall be debated in Parliament within fourteen days after the receipt by the Speaker of the notice for the motion
(4) A Minister of State in respect of whom a vote of censure is debated under clause (3) of this article is entitled, during the debate, to be heard in his defence.
(5) Where a vote of censure is passed against a Minister under this article, the President may, unless the Minister resigns his office, revoke his appointment as a Minister.
(6) For the avoidance of doubt, this article applies to a Deputy Minister as it applies to a Minister of state.
Meanwhile, the LLB students are also pushing for a declaration that the failure of the 2nd respondent (the Attorney General) to reign in the 1st respondent for the conduct of the 1st Respondent as stated, constitute a dereliction of the 2nd respondent’s duties under Act 32.
The students want the court to expedite the hearing to enable them to join their colleagues in school. They believed they passed the examinations, hence the optimism that the case will go in their favour.
President of the National Association of Law Students, Asare Hasan, told TV3 shortly after the first hearing on Friday October 29, that “We came to court with the expectation that we would receive an injunction or the GLC would be injuncted to ensure that some of us who have qualified to actually be at the law school would have the right to go to school.
“Unfortunately, it has been adjourned to the 9th of November at 9AM because I think the Attorney General is not ready and that we had to live by that.
“That is quite unfortunate because we are talking of time as students must go to school as soon as possible. But if that is what the court has decided on we would have to abide by it so we would have no choice than to just wait until time.
“Even on that day we hope that things will be facilitated quickly to arrive at a quick conclusion so that we can join our mates at school.”
Source: heheraldgh
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