'Don't become appendages of political parties' - Dr Ayine warns GBA, GLS

Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has warned the legal profession against allowing political parties to influence the positions of professional bodies such as the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the Ghana Law Society (GLS).

Speaking at the maiden Ghana Law Society Annual Bar Conference on September 30, 2026, Dr Ayine said such bodies must be able to speak independently on matters concerning the rule of law and governance.

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He said the legal profession could lose its authority if it is seen as representing the interests of a political party rather than the public.

“A bar whose views on matters affecting the welfare of our country oscillate like a pendulum, depending on the political weather, inevitably ends up looking like the mouthpiece of a particular political party and its interests than the public interest it exists to serve,” he said.

He said the same principle applies regardless of which political party is in government, including his own National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“It does not matter whether an association is a decade old, like the Ghana Bar Association, or like the Ghana Law Society, a newly built building is institutional voice. The moment any of you allows itself to become the appendage of a political party, whichever party that may be, and it doesn't matter if it is my own National Democratic Congress, you forfeit the very authority that makes your advocacy worth listening to,” he stated.

Dr Ayine said the public should be able to trust the legal profession to speak on national issues without first considering its political affiliation.

“A judge does not ask which party appointed a lawyer before her. The public should never have to ask which party an association speaks for before it credits what that association says about the rule of law and governance in our society,” he noted.

He also said the independence of the legal profession must be matched by the government's willingness to avoid interference and allow the profession to govern itself.

“I want to be equally direct about the other side of that bargain, because independence is not something that a profession can simply declare into being while government withholds it. I said at Ada that the demand for a bar's independence must come with a demand on the state itself for responsibility from interference that allow this profession to govern itself.

“As Attorney General, I do not want a bar, and for that matter a law society, that agrees with everything my office does. An Attorney General who seeks constant agreement from the legal profession has clearly misunderstood his own job,” he added.

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He concluded, saying that Ghana needs a legal profession that can speak freely on the country's laws and courts without being seen as representing the interests of any political party.

“What I want, what this country needs, is a profession that is visible and present in public discourse that speaks its mind on the state of our laws, our courts, and what that does from a footing that no party can claim to be its own,” he urged.

MAG/VPO

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