Name,Shame& Chase-Out GLC Members

A United States (US)-based Ghanaian law lecturer, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, has once again, hit hard, at the General Legal Council (GLC) for its arbitrarily instructions to prospective Ghana School of Law candidates, who are set to be admitted into the prestigious institution.

According to the law lecturer affectionately called ‘Prof Kwaku Azar’, members of the Council must be named, shamed and chased-out of town for the Council’s resistance to modern times and trends.

The law professor, who has never shied away from mostly challenging positions and directives of the General Legal Council was outraged over the latter’s latest undertaking being forced under the throats of prospective candidates of the Law School for the new academic year.

The undertaking, sighted by The Anchor, said that prospective law students have absolutely no right among others, to seek for review of the Entrance Examination, neither do they have the right to request for remarking.

A copy of the agreement read, “The General Legal Council (GLC) has over the years established credible, rigorous and well-benchmarked systems and procedures for assessing answers booklets and re-checking of same for all candidates before examination results are released.

Thus, the decision of the General Legal Council in respect of the published results of the Entrance Examination shall be final. No request for re-marking of scripts, re-tallying of scores or review or marks shall be accepted. Candidates cannot also request to see their marked answer scripts or the marking schemes used for marking the questions. In view of the above, I undertake to accept without question, the decision of the General Legal Council in respect of the published results of the Entrance Examination as first”.

Now it is unclear what the undertaking is seeking to cure, but many on social media have assumed that, the heavily criticized agreement, is to solve the annual rancor and confusion that rock the Entrance Examination, some of which sometimes end up in court for redress.

But this has been viewed as unacceptable by a number of concerned Ghanaians including the lawyer and KPMG professor in Accounting, who shared a copy of the undertaking on social media.

Prof Asare who didn’t mince words reacted angrily saying the Council should be named, shamed and chased out for still sticking to its “pre-colonial views on legal education”.

In a series of posts on Facebook, the professor asked the candidates to boycott the Entrance Examination and further called for the dissolution of the Council, entirely.

He said: “The GLC members must be named, and chased out of town for pre-colonial views on legal education. Da yie!”

Another critic and a vice president of policy think-tank IMANI-Africa, also joined the fray partnering the law lecturer to blast the Council over the matter.

Mr. Kofi Bentil, who himself is a senior lawyer said the agreement by the GLC, was in bad taste and will serve as a precedent for equally bad rules going into the future.

“This is patently illegal immoral and unconscious. This will age badly and be a byword and reference point for bad oppressive leadership. Posterity will judge all who presided over this terrible opaque and insensitive system badly”, he wrote.

His colleague, Selorm Brantie also fumed “This is what the study of law has been reduced to, and you expect the law profession to blossom and grow when we cannot even check the arbitrariness of those who say they are marking exams?”

Mr. Brantie went on to question the bases for the agreement expected to be taken by the candidates hook line and sinker.

“Where in this world are students not allowed to have lecturers justify the reason why they are given certain marks especially when the questions aren’t multiple choice? And the Ghana Bar Association (which is only active when non-NPP gov’ts are in power) sits down for this travesty of justice to take place? You speed 1000s of cedis and countless hours on your tuition only to be told that the process of grading you is completely opaque, and not only that, you cannot seek redress if you feel cheated.

It’s like depositing momey for a car to be delivered to you, they tell you they are billing you for a new Mercedes S Class, and yet, if they deliver a 10-year-old Toyota Vtz, you have no right to complain because they choose what car to give you. Such nonsense. This country naa it’s not worth fighting for. We deny constitutional rights to push elitism and a senior boys club and nobody lifts a damn finger!”

Recall that last year, GLC and the Attorney General were sued by 143 LLB graduates who sat for the 2020/21 Ghana School of Law entrance exam but could not get admission into the law school.

The candidates were 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.”

They also want 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.

Earlier, the aggrieved 499 law students who were denied admission, despite passing the 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exam appealed to President Akufo-Addo to intervene.

The students said their supposed failure was a travesty of justice, a situation that should be corrected immediately.

At a press conference in Accra on Monday October 18, they said “on 15th October, 2021, we petitioned the Office of the President, appealing to His Excellency to use his Executive authority to come to our aid, in our quest for justice and to vindicate our fundamental human rights as enshrined in Chapter 5 of the 1992 Constitution of our dear country. As we speak, we are yet to receive a response from the high office of the President.

“We are nonetheless confident that President Akufo-Addo, who, for all intent and purposes, has proven to be a renowned human right lawyer and freedom fighter, would rise to the occasion and do justice to our legitimate grievances. We appeal to the President, who also happens to be a member in permanent good standing at the bar, to cause his official Representative on the GLC, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame Esq, who is clothed with powers under the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), to order the General Legal Council and for that matter the Ghana School of Law, to comply with their own rules of engagement and within the confines of the law, by admitting the remaining 499 candidates who passed the entrance exams.

“This, respectfully, is not too much to ask for, Your Excellency. It is the reason why we voted for you, and we humbly beseech you to do exactly that,” the said.

The students subsequently, hit the principal streets of Accra on Wednesday, October 20, to register their displeasure over what they described as maltreatment and injustice meted out to some of their colleagues.

They submitted a petition to Parliament and the Presidency after protesting in the streets for hours.

Among other things, they requested for the immediate admission of the 499 candidates into the Ghana School of Law. They also called for the decentralization of the legal education in the country.

Source: Anchorghana