Mr. Oppong remarked that “substantial parts [of the address] have been about promises instead of what is currently happening.”

“We may have missed the actual requirement of the constitution [Article 67] on this matter because it says the President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before a dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the State of the Nation,” he said on The Big Issue.

The most recent State of the Nation address, by President Nana Akufo-Addo, contained a number of projections and proposals, notably when he spoke on sanitation, the creation of new regions, the state of the eastern corridor road, among others.

Mr. Oppong stressed that, there must be a clear difference between the budget statement, which is about projections, and State of the Nation, which should “be to state exactly how the state, the economy, the political environment is like.”

“…But over time, our Presidents have taken advantage and even highlighted more promises. It is becoming like a duplication of what the President does through the Finance Minister. The Finance Minister does this in November and then within two months or sometimes one month, the President too has to come and give the State of the Nation Address,” the lawyer added.

In his view, “the point is to state what it is because what he should do about it would have been stated by the Finance Minister.”

‘State of promises’

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had earlier described the President’s State of Nation Address as a ‘State of Promises’ after the President’s delivery in Parliament on Thursday.

On the back of the Minority Leader’s comment, Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, said the President’s address was more of a campaign speech and all the president did was talk about what he is going to do instead of what his outfit has done so far.

“Virtually, he was just talking as if he was on a campaign trail, still making promises. Instead of him to be telling us exactly what he has been able to do in 2017, the President wasted all the time talking about what he was going to do,” he said.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post State of the Nation addresses now becoming just promises – Lawyer appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the Supreme Court was clear in its judgment, saying if it covers past students a lot of lawyers who benefited from the process since its introduction in 2012, could be adversely affected.

His remark sharply contradicts a comment by a law lecturer at the Ghana Law School, Moses Foh Amoaning, who believed that the judgment could have serious implications for previous and current students of the school.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FD8G87EVAZwfguhYtHUYBfTRnznwzQmW”]But Yaw Oppong while making a contribution on the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show said: “…The [Supreme] Court made it clear that it would have meant that such a large a number of lawyers who had benefited from this process from 2012 to now would have had their names struck out, and that is not how laws are to be implemented. So the court said that it will not affect those who have already been the product of this unconstitutional act.”

“There are some people who have already had the contract with the General Legal Council, they have made payments, they have filled in the appropriate forms which constitutes the basis of an agreement. So it will also be unfair to declare that the implementation of the decision should be forthwith, meaning from yesterday [Thursday], it is also going to adversely affect these students who have already had that contract with the General Legal Council,” he added on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday.

Supreme Court order

The Supreme Court on Thursday [June 22, 2017] declared as unconstitutional the requirement by the General Legal Council asking applicants to the Ghana Law School to undertake an examination and subsequent interview before admission.

According to the court, the requirements are in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296 which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The Supreme Court made the judgment in a case brought before it by Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, in 2015.

Prof. Asare challenged the legality of the modes of admission used by the Ghana School of Law and argued that the number of people who were admitted into the school was woefully small considering the number of people who possessed LLB from the various universities in the country.

The Ghana Law School has been criticized for being overly rigid considering that it serves 12 schools providing LLB degrees.

The current training regime limits the intake into the Ghana Law School to under 500 of the about 2000 LLB students who graduates annually.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Supreme Court judgment won’t affect past law students – Lawyer appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.