'Expressing A Desire To Be A Lawyer Doesn't Mean You Should Be One' – GBA President To Law Students

As prospective LLB holders prepare to write the entrance exams into the Ghana School of Law the study for their Professional Law programme, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, the Ghana Bar Association, GBA President, has been defending some decisions of the General Legal Council, GLC, which have triggered disaffection the students.

Speaking on JoyNews' 'The Law' show on Sunday, August 14, the GBA President, who is also a member of the GLC said, not all dreams need to come through for a dreamer.

He said, dreaming of getting into the realm of the learned profession is not always necessarily realised.

“The idea that I have expressed a desire to be a lawyer doesn’t mean I have to be a lawyer,” Yaw Acheampong Boafo said.

“When we were kids, we all wanted to be pilots but Ghana Airways is collapsed now.

“So, the expression of desire does not necessarily mean that there is a corresponding obligation to let your desire come true,” the legal practitioner explained.

The GLC's undertaking that is supposed to be signed by all prospective candidates bars them from, among other things, demanding the re-marking after sitting for the entrance examination into the Ghana School of Law.

“No request for re-marking of scripts, re-tallying of scores or review or marks shall be accepted. Candidates cannot also request to see their marked answer scripts or the marking scheme used for marking the questions“, the undertaking stated.

Many interest groups including the Law Society of Ghana (LSG) have described the development as unjust and arbitrary.

But speaking on this, Yaw Acheampong Boafo explained that “every examination body has its own rules and there is no declaration of human rights on examination. People get very emotional about the matter.”

He noted that the GLC is limited and cannot take on re-marking.

Over 3,000 applicants are expected to write this year's entrance exams to start a two-year professional law course.