Friday, 17th September, 2021

DAILY ANALYST
Friday, 17th September, 2021 Page 9
A noble profession,
ignoble association
Opinion
By Manasseh Azure
Awuni
Dear Ghanaian lawyer,
In December 2020, Ghanaian
voters were presented
with the option to choose
between dying by firing
squad or dying through
hanging. A choice was made, and
we are feeling the debilitating effects
of the ever-tightening noose
of bad governance and impunity.
Today, you lawyers in Ghana
have an opportunity to choose
leaders of your association, the
Ghana Bar Association (GBA). I
don’t know the contestants. And
I cannot pass any judgment on
their competence, character or
courage.
What I know, however, is that
the GBA is now like an over-aged
breast, one that cannot produce
milk for babies or entertain the
eyes and mouths of grownups.
In effect, the GBA has lost its
essence and appeal.
There is no doubt that law is
among the most respected, powerful
and influential professions
in this country. When I delivered
a speech to students of the
University of Ghana Law School
a few years ago, I mentioned that
lawyers were the most dominant
professionals in all three arms of
government in Ghana.
As I write this, the executive,
the legislature and the judiciary
are all headed by lawyers. The
dominance goes beyond the
heads.
In his welcome address to
the 2021 batch of Harvard Law
students, the Dean of the Harvard
Law School, John F. Manning, said
“being a lawyer is a superpower.”
The Ghana example attests to
the fact that he is right. (This is
despite the fact that some crooks
who have found their way into
your fold are known by the people
who deal with them and should
not bask in this unearned glory
because they undermine the very
nobility of the profession.)
Aside from being one of the
most boastful and (sometimes
arrogant) sets of professionals
ever to crawl on Oboadeε’s earth,
lawyers are like medical doctors.
Every other professional needs
them. So, the nobility and power
accorded to the legal profession
are reasonably grounded.
If lawyers are powerful and
respected in our country, then its
union, the GBA, ought to be one of
the most respected associations
in the country. Unfortunately,
that isn’t the case.
As an observer, themoribund
GBA isn’t different from the Ghana
Journalists Association (GJA)
to which I belonged until it lost
its way.
I say the GBA is moribund
because Martin Luther King Jr.
taught us that “our lives begin
to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.”
Our wise elders have also
taught us that a man does not
run after rats when his roof is on
fire
Ṡo, when you hear the GBA
louder on the policing of boobs of
female lawyers than the deterioration
of the rule of law, corruption
and bad governance, then
you don’t need anyone to tell you
that this is an association that
has outlived its usefulness.
When the President of the
Republic and his team formed
themselves into the instigator,
investigator and adjudicator
in suspending (in the form of a
forced leave) and later hounding
the Auditor-General out of office,
one would have expected the
GBA to lead the pack fighting for
the reversal of that unfortunate
decision.
When some individuals and
civil society groups petitioned
the Supreme Court to intervene,
the apex court could have dealt
with that important constitutional
matter in two weeks if it
had attached the same seriousness
it gave to the 2020 election
petition. But after seven months,
the petitioners discontinued
the case because the delay of the
Supreme Court had rendered it
moot. And the GBA was mute.
When an MP and influential
member of the governing party
put the photograph of an undercover
journalist on television,
told the world where the journalist
lived and ordered whoever
saw him to attack him, nothing
was done to the MP. Later, the
undercover journalist was shot
and killed by unknown persons.
Again, nothing was done to MP
who issued the threats.
Shockingly, the President had
the guts to use the 2019 Bar Conference
in Takoradi to state that
the killing of Ahmed Suale should
not be taken to mean an attack
on press freedom. Again, the GBA
did not find anything wrong with
the desecration of its platform. If
it did, it did not find its voice.
The list is endless. But the
trend is simple. The GBA has lost
its voice against any democratic
vice.
I have learned about the
influential role played by the GBA
in the days of military rule. I have
learned that the GBA used to be a
respected voice when the cost of
speaking up in this country was
more detrimental than the fear of
not getting favourable judgment
in court or the inability to court
the friendship of the powerful
and mighty in the land.
Today, we have some semblance
of a democracy. We have
a democracy that is strong and
robust only when it is compared
with the miserable mess in our
sub-region and continent.
We have a democracy in
which the rule of law, separation
of powers, and checks and balances
are only useful to academics
who must teach them to earn
their salaries and students who
must know them to earn their
degrees.
We operate a democracy
whose legislature isn’t different
from the executive and whose
conservative judiciary, which is
perceived to hardly stray from
the wishes of the executive.
We run a democracy in which
the poor and vulnerable cannot
walk to a police station and be
sure to get justice against the
rich; where getting such justice
in the court of law remains a
remote dream to the average
citizen.
Our democracy has deteriorated
considerably in recent years
in many aspects. The abuse of
power by the executive, the legislature,
and to some extent the
judiciary, is becoming a norm.
Critical voices from associations
such as the GBA should
serve as the guardrails against
the arbitrariness in a country
where state institutions are
either robbed or rob themselves
of the power to act in the interest
of the people.
But when Supreme Court
Judges attacked a law professor
over academic research, which
they found unpleasant, and the
Ghana Bar Association did not
put the Supreme Court in its
rightful place, then members
of the association should have
announced the date of burial of
the GBA.
Some individual lawyers
wield powerful voices that can
cause change. But some have
decided to kiss asses and sing
praises in order to be invited
to the sumptuous buffet of the
political and judicial spoils. Other
conscionable ones are also afraid
to speak up because of the fear of
victimization and retribution.
There is, however, strength
in numbers. There is safety and
anonymity in speaking with the
collective voice of the GBA. That’s
why the GBA must not be allowed
to die.
Whoever gets onto the executive
committee of the GBA today
should not be left alone. Until
lawyers sit up and demand the
best from the association, nothing
will change.
And if groups such as the GBA
continue to “see no evil, hear no
evil and speak no evil”, lawyers
will one day be called to join the
pallbearers of our dying democracy
Ȧnd when democracy dies,
the rule of law dies. And what’s
the essence of lawyers when
there is no rule of law?
This is a view of someone
with enormous respect and enormous
disdain for the law profession
and lawyers.
My views may mean something.
They may also mean
nothing.
Yours sincerely,
Manasseh Azure Awuni, the
Bongo Boy.
NOTE: Bongo is about 20 minutes’
drive from Bolga, so visit
when you have time. You might
find a business idea in water
production
Security takes over KNUST campus
The police and the
Operation Calm Life
team which includes
the military will take
over the campus of
Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST)
from Saturday, September 18.
Already, the police water canon
has been detailed on campus.
The University Relations
Office tells TV3’s William Evans-Nkum
the directive forms
part of a recommendation made
by a committee that investigated
the July clashes between the
University Hall and Unity during
the SRC vetting.
Students of the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology (KNUST) have
been warned not to remain on
campus after midday on Saturday,
September 18.
Only foreign students and
students permitted by management
can stay, the regional
minister has directed.
According to the Ashanti
Regional Security Council
(REGSEC), it has picked intelligence
that some “unruly”
students are planning some disturbances
on campus on Friday,
the eve of vacation.
In a press statement issued
on Wednesday by the Head of
REGSEC, Simon Osei-Mensah,
who is also the Regional Minister,
the campus is still a security
zone as declared in 2018.
“It is instructive to remind
the student population that the
declaration of the University
Campus as a security zone in
November 2018, is still in force
and, therefore, it is an offence to
demonstrate within the security
zone,” he stated.
He announced the deployment
of security personnel on
campus to “ensure peace and
security and prevent any unruly
behaviour by any group of students”.