The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba, speaking on Joy News’ “The Law” programme on Sunday, 20th June 2021, made it clear that there is a need to train more lawyers in the country so as to empower majority of the population legally.
He joined a panel of law students across the country to discuss the topic "Is The Law An Ass?". The programme sought to engage young students of law in order to understand their perspectives of legal education in Ghana considering recent occurrences that involved the application of the law.
Making his point during the brief discussion with the host, Samson Lardy Anyenini, Professor Raymond Atuguba stated that, the level of appreciation of law in the country has given birth to a system where the law only seems to work for the privileged thereby leaving the majority of Ghanaians stranded. He explained that, in most of the developed countries almost 90% of the population can afford legal aids leaving the government to cater for only 10% thereby enabling the law to work effectively and efficiently for all. Unfortunately, the case in Ghana is the exact opposite thus, making the law to favour the privileged, he said.
According to the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, "Unless we empower the bulk of Ghanaians legally, we can't solve that problem where the Law seems to be working just for the privileged and not for the underprivileged".
He further stated that our lives are guided by the law both locally and globally thus, if we don't have optimum availability of information or knowledge of the law, it will be problematic. Legal education is therefore important to bridge the gap. He equally pointed out some initiatives by the University of Ghana School of Law to ensure the gap is bridged in the area of legal education.
Professor Atuguba spoke about the law programmes that the University of Ghana School of Law is running. He emphasized that opportunities existed for prospective applicants who wanted to read Law despite having a non-law degree especially at the Masters level.
In his concluding statement, he informed viewers that the School of Law’s application process was 100% online, paperless and hence, less time-consuming in this era of digitalization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKXD0Mt4F1s