Legal Education Bill: Sam Okudzeto questions ‘strange’ exclusion of GBA

A former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Sam Okudzeto, has expressed concern over the Association’s exclusion from the process leading to the passage of the Legal Education Bill.

The Legal Education Bill, passed by Parliament in March 2026, introduces sweeping reforms to Ghana’s legal training system, breaking the monopoly of the Ghana School of Law (Makola) and creating a national bar exam for all law graduates.

Reacting to the development on JoyNews on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, Okudzeto described it as “strange” that the GBA was not consulted as a major stakeholder in the legal space.

“When this bill was proposed, the bar was not involved at all, which I thought was rather strange. One would have thought that this matter should have been referred to the Ghana Bar Association for their input because they are the members of the profession. And it has a council, which is composed of regional presidents and secretary from each of the regions who are all members of the council,” he said.

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He further stressed that the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) is not a small body limited to a particular region, but a national institution that represents the entire country.

Yet, despite its stature, the Association was not engaged in the process.

Okudzeto also claimed that the GBA had submitted a petition requesting discussions with the parliamentary council on the bill, but this engagement never took place before the legislation was passed.

“… you can see that GBA is a body that is not limited to Accra matter or Kumasi. It has representation nationwide and yet nothing was referred to us. I think petition was made to Parliament for us to have interview with the council, and it was never fulfilled until we heard that the law had been passed. So that's a serious matter.

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“…Also, my view is that when we are talking about profession, it means that any time Parliament is confronted with an issue relating to profession, Parliament should get the professional body to be involved,” Okudzeto said.

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