President Nana Addo Dankwa has described criticisms against the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) as an elitist organisation as baseless and unsubstantiated.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, at a recent meeting with the leadership of the Law Society of Ghana (LSG), a new association of lawyers, is quoted as saying that the Ghana Bar Association has become an “elite organisation,” calling for a change, especially with respect to the views of the GBA on national and political issues.
However, at a meeting with the leadership of the GBA at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday, President Akufo-Addo described the GBA as “an institution that has championed the course of good governance in Ghana since its establishment and it is one of the non-governmental organisations that needs the support of all its members and the country as a whole to bloom in order to do more for the nation.”
“I hear other people are talking about it (The Ghana Bar Association) being an elite organisation. I don’t know what they understand by elite.
“I know that it is an organisation that is concerned about the welfare of the people, the quality of their governance, (an organisation) which has always been prepared and its leaders have been prepared to make the sacrifices that were necessary to make sure that we have a modern and respectable form of governance in our country. This cannot be an elite organisation,” President Akufo-Addo said.
The President said the GBA was an organisation that spoke truth to power, one that concerned itself with the issues that affected the ordinary people of Ghana and that all attempts to paint it black must be resisted.
“It (The Ghana Bar Association) is an organisation that speaks to the interests of the people of Ghana for accountable governance and that, is an organisation that deserves the support of all right-thinking lawyers in the country,” the President stated.
The President of GBA, Yaw Baafo, and his delegation thanked the President for attending the 2022 ‘Annual General Bar Conference’ in Ho, Volta Region, on September 12.
BY YAW KYEI
