Minority cooking Dame’s sack

The Minority in Parliament is lacing boots and folding sleeves to use legal means to get legal wizkid Godfred Yeboah Dame the Attorney General out of office for disobeying orders from the Legislative body to admit some 499 law students who were denied entry into the Ghana Law School.

On Tuesday  November 9, the Minority Chief Whip Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka in a memorandum addressed to the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, said the Attorney General has impugned the “image and integrity” of the House over his refusal to obey the directive that was based on Parliament’s resolution to the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit the  stranded  499 law students.

In plain language, the motion filed by the Minority Chief Whip is in quest of the removal of the Attorney General from office for not facilitating the orders of Parliament and apparently disrespecting the Legislative body.

Godfred Dame in his official response to the directive from Parliament said the House lacked the legal authority to have issued same to the General Legal Council.

He had explained that the practice of law in Ghana is not the right of the said law students but rather a privilege.

In response to the position taken by Godfred Dame, the Minority Chief Whip Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka on behalf of the Minority MPs, filed a memorandum to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin which requested that:

“That this Honorable House passes a vote of censure on the Honourable Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, in respect of the following conduct: Refusal, without justifiable basis, to implement the resolution of this Honorable House unanimously passed on October 29, that the General Legal Counsel admits into the Ghana School of Law 499 students who sat for and passed the entrance examination of the Ghana School of Law for the 2021/22 legal year In accordance with its own published grounds rules, impugning the image and integrity of this Honorable House through statements unbecoming of the holder of the office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice of this Republic”.

The said resolution and directive to the GLC and the GLS was passed after a unanimous agreement by both sides of the House that the Law School had erred in its decision to deny the said 499 students admission.

The resolution, passed last week after the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, speaking on the Floor, accused the Ghana Law School of a systemic lack of certainty and transparency in its admission processes thereby making the study of law rather frustrating, traumatizing and unattractive for prospective law students.

Afenyo-Markin, speaking on the Floor of Parliament last Friday October 29, 2021 argued that the GLS had published that the pass mark for the 2021/2022 Law Entrance Examination was 50 percent but after the examination, the same Law School has refused to admit some 499 students who scored above the agreed pass mark of 50 percent.

He said the School then shifted the goal post in a subsequent  explanation that though the 499 students had scored more than the 50 percent pass mark, they would not be admitted because the parking scheme that was used expects them to have scored above 50 percent in both sections A and B irrespective of their final pass mark.

“This is I humbly contend is repugnant and lacks certainty. We cannot create all manner of questionable schemes around how we mark scripts and how we determine those who have passed and not passed.

“If you say in your own publications that 50 percent is the pass mark, so be it. Section A and B all together make up the 100 percent. So if I score let’s say 30 in section A and I make 60 in section B, that is 90 together so how then do you say that because I made a low mark in section A, I do not qualify to enter although I made 90 and the pass mark is 50”, Afenyo-Markin noted.

He continued: “Just as politicians when we get it wrong they tell us, we are telling the Ghana Law School that they are frustrating students and they are making the study of Law unattractive.”

The Effutu Constituency MP said “the Ghana Law School must rise up in ensuring transparency and certainty in how they conduct business. Students are frustrated. Students are traumatized and this is not a matter of closing in”

Afenyo-Markin called on the office of the Chief Justice to intervene and get the GLS and the GLC to do the right thing: “My Lord the Chief Justice is a listening Chief justice. He is the overall boss. My Lord, it is our humble contention that you listen to us and quickly take steps.  MY Lord, we are not forcing you or saying that you should do that which is irregular.   My Lord knows that justice requires certainty and fairness. And that has been the bane of the jurisprudence of his country.”

Members of Parliament from both the Majority and Minority sides of the House were unanimous in their addresses that all called on the GLS to respect its own published rules and admit the 499 students who made the published pass mark.

They posited that  the affected students 50 per cent cumulatively and met the fifty per cent threshold and it is therefore unfair to deny them admission on the grounds that they could not score fifty per cent each in both sections A and B of the examination.

The MP were unanimous that there is a need for the House to investigate the perception that the examinations are not a reflection of students’ performance but drawbridge to limit access to legal education and was disappointed why the GSL could vary its admission requirements as previously advertised.

The First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu who was then presiding set the tone after the presentation of the Business Statement for the ensuing week saying his attention was drawn to the plight of the students who passed the exams as per the 50 percent threshold but are now deemed to have failed due to new regulation which required them to get 50 percent in each of the two sections.

The Deputy Speaker directed the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice who superintends the General Legal Council and the Ghana School of Law as well to take immediate steps to implement the House’s directives to ensure fairness and transparency in determining the rules of the game.