The Association of Law Students in the country says the opposition National Democratic Congress has given them a “believable” promise in their manifesto for the 2020 elections.
According to the association, the NDC’s promises are believable because they have been realistic with challenges confronting legal education the country.
NDC has promised in their manifesto that they will “review the Legal Profession Act in consultation with stakeholders, and establish a council for legal education and training, to accredit certified law faculties to run the Professional Law Course subject to the oversight supervision of the council”.
It further added that it will “establish a faculty of law in the Northern Region to serve the northern sector.” Currently, there is no faculty of law in the Northern Region.
Commenting on the promises, the law students in a statement said: “NALS notes that NDC‟s succinctly put message simultaneously gives hope and certainty, and portrays the NDC as more caring about the legal education crisis, as at least having understood and committed to resolving the problem, as well as showing NDC as more interested in the horrific experience of the #RedMonday demonstration held on October 7, 2019 by law students across Ghana, better than the ruling NPP.
“NALS concludes that the opposition NDC brings down legal education reform to a choice between „certainty now‟ or „hope in the future‟. Noting that in the past, under the NDC, more law faculties were accredited and the campuses of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) were increased from one (1) to three (3), NALS recognize NDC promise is a strong, and believable promise”.
Also reacting to promises on law education by the ruling NPP, the association noted: “NALS is disappointed that the ruling NPP government is not eager to pursue the required short-term solution of legislation, which if passed, eradicates the same issues within the short-time. NALS did not expect the NPP not to understand the problems considering the level of engagement we had with the NPP majority in Parliament, the Office of the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, the AttorneyGeneral and Minister of Justice, and the President of the Republic of Ghana”.
“In the light of past assurances and statements, which, hitherto, amounted to outright deception (see highlights in Editors‟ notes below, including statements in the current session of Parliament), NALS concludes that the NPP promise is not reflective of developments, is very awkward, misleading, retrogressive, is a very weak promise, giving a cause to be very worried than excited and therefore neither reassuring nor justified to resolve this matter,” the statement added.
