Yes, that famous - but dreaded - Makola law programme, the sine qua non for any mortal within Ghanaian legal jurisdiction to be called to the Ghana Bar Association as a Lawyer, or if you prefer, Attorney, or perhaps Counsel, whichever you think is more prestigious.
Theophilus Edwin Coleman was very shocked and disappointed when a few years ago, an assessment exam indicated that he could not qualify for the prestigious Ghana School of Law.
Coleman decided to seek a higher qualification, by travelling to South Africa for a master of laws aka LLM and a doctor of laws aka LLD.
“I completed UCC Law School in 2016 with a CGPA [Cumulative Grade Point Average] of 3.83. It came as a surprise that I failed the exam – and many of my classmates were also surprised! I don’t think I underestimated the exam, so I really don’t know what happened,” Coleman recounted in a recent Joy News report. “I even got a very rare opportunity to prep most of my classmates that made it to Makola. So, it came as a surprise to me…... I felt a bit disappointed in the system, especially knowing I couldn’t challenge the outcome.”
Coleman enrolled at the University of Johannesburg where he graduated top of his class in International Commercial Law under that university’s LLM programme.
He further pursued studies for the award of an LLD on the theoretical foundations and practical perspectives of the concept of contractual freedom and autonomy in Commonwealth Africa.
Coleman was invited to serve as a Research Fellow at the Institute of European Law in Germany. In 2018, he received an award from the Ghana National Students’ Awards Scheme as one of the Six Most Influential Student Personality in Ghana [home and abroad].
He is now an alumnus of The Hague Academy of International Law, The Netherlands. He underwent an internship programme at the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).
For his LLD, Coleman explored how commonwealth African countries ascribe respect to the notion of contractual liberty by taking into account the politico-economic orientations of governments, pronouncements by courts, constitutional underpinnings, and the impact of traditional African values [such as Ubuntu] on contract and commercial law jurisprudence.
For his thesis, Coleman developed a matrix for assessing the degree of respect and commitment to contractual freedom and autonomy in Commonwealth Africa.
Coleman is our typical once-bitten-twice-shy Ghanaian; he has no more interest in that Makola “419”, “Azar”, “Shenanigans” or whatever ignoble nomenclature Professor Kwaku Asare aka Kwaku Azar, and the rest of the upset members of the general public have for that otherwise respected institution.
Life in academia, where his excellence is truly appreciated, currently keeps him going as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Labour and Social Security Law at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Coleman has charged at the Ghana Law School’s professional programme as “a repetitive system…...in a book chapter I and a colleague worked on”.
To put in Ghanaian parlance, speaking for myself - not putting words in Coleman’s mouth - Makola is a waste of time.
We should all take the liberty and own our constitutional right to freedom of speech and of expression within the law.
People, let’s not get this twisted like Ato in Ama Ata Aidoo’s “Dilemma of a Ghost”; no prevarication on this “Makola kwakwe” that is troubling Ghana’s youth.
Tinny’s lyrics in his hit song “Makola Kwakwe” foretold this Ghana School of Law shenanigans.
Thank you Kwaku Azar, for as you have rightly observed “128/1820 is a bona fide scam and sham”.
What a life we are wasting here in Ghana?!
Email: paanyan7@gmail.com
Blog: ekowrites.blogspot.com
Twitter: @3ArthurAidoo
