'Ghana is now training lawyers contrary to the law' - Yaw Boafo

Former President of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, is of the view that Ghana is currently training lawyers contrary to the law.

According to him, people outside the system pushed for reforms in legal education.

He indicated that those who pushed for the reforms made people within the system “enemies” of the process.

“Currently, we are training lawyers contrary to the law. It is not about disagreement with the current system. You can do the right thing the wrong way. The push for reforms came from people outside the system, and they made those within the system enemies of the process.

“So today, we have a situation where a law has been passed; a statutory body has been created, not established, but the Chief Justice and Attorney General have assumed the powers of that body that has not been established.

“They created a pre-bar course and accredited institutions illegally.

“Now, when we start training lawyers illegally, what we’ve told them is that it is convenient for you to displace the law.

“It is because those who were pushing were outside the system, and they felt that they knew the system more than us.

“Those within the system were seen as enemies of the state. So, when the law was being reformed, those in the system were sidelined, and people sitting in Florida woke up one morning and, writing in big English, were telling us how to run the system,” he said.