We have nobody rivaling us - GBA president on splinter associations

The president of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Yaw Acheampong Boafo says there is no rival group or association to the GBA, despite reports of same. 

He was responding to a question by host Samson Lardy Anyenini on the Law Programme on whether the association was not threatened by the formation of a new lawyers’ association. 

Asaase Radio and some other outlets had reported in March that a group of lawyers have formed a rival association to the GBA, known as the Law Society of Ghana. The group’s formation was essentially to break the monopoly of the GBA as the only professional association of lawyers, the reports said. 

But reacting Mr. Boafo said: “What bothers me was when this whole thing came, an association to rival the GBA – no, nobody can rival us, and today we don’t even know their leaders. So the point is that we have nobody rivaling us. 

 I’m telling you today, now that we process licenses on behalf of the GLC, and now we gonna have the mandate to organize the Continuing Legal Education (CLEs) because it’s compulsory under L. I. 242, this is not the time for anybody to say that I am leaving the GBA,” he said.

He said he’d rather want that members resolved issues internally and also noted that the GBA is open to listening to colleagues who may have problems they want addressed.  

“One of the things I always tell people is that stay in and fight. Why do people think Bar leaders have the answer to everything? When I was a junior lawyer, I used to give senior Sam Okudzeto hell at Bar conferences. But I did not form another association, I did not stay out. If there’s a problem with the Bar, and the Bar is a human institution. You don’t stay outside. 

The GBA is not Okudzeto’s property, it’s not Amegatcher’s property, it’s not Forson’s property. Because I don’t think that any Bar president can write and say that I devise and bequeath the GBA to my children or to my nephews forever. But the most important thing is that it’s for all of us. So I think that I would welcome our colleagues, come to us, let us know that these are the problems.”