Ghana Law School is an organised waste – Kwaku Azar as he compares it with Nigeria

A tireless advocate for the scrapping of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare known widely as Kwaku Azar has described the GSL as an organised waste that stands in the way of qualified persons seeking to be able to practice as lawyers in the country.

Making a comparison between the Ghana School of Law and that of Nigeria, Kwaku Azar noted that whereas all Nigerian Bachelor of Law(LLB) holders are entitled to the Nigerian School of Law and are all given the opportunity to take the bar examination, Ghanaian LLB holders are denied this opportunity and impediments are deliberately put in their way.

“Nigeriafuo do not leave their LLB holders behind. They 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.

As such, they offer 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.

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,” he pointed out.

He added that the Ghana School of Law as strayed from their core mandate and have become too powerful such that it is now exercising supervisory roles over universities.

“Ghanafuo 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.

Further, under the theory that the universities lack the quality to produce quality LLB, the School has admission requirements that are tougher than getting into Yale, Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge,” he lamented.

Thousands of LLB holders in Ghana continued to be denied admission in to the Ghana School of Law through Entrance Examinations that are deliberately manipulated to fail many of them with the explanation that the school lacks adequate space.

For Kwaku Azar, the school must be scrapped and a more efficient body put in its stead.

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Nigeriafuo do not leave their LLB holders behind. They 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.

As such, they offer 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.

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.

Ghanafuo School of Law has departed from its purely vocational mission and now exercises supervisory power over the universities and offers purely academic courses, such as evidence, family law and procedural law.

Further, under the theory that the universities lack the quality to produce quality LLB, the School has admission requirements that are tougher than getting into Yale, Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge.

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.

That also means 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.

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).

What an organized waste!

Yet, year after year, all we do is 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.

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!

It must stop, even if it takes a peaceful and sustained civil uprising, not next year but today!

SALL is the cardinal sin of the 8th Parliament.

Da Yie!