I had been gathering material to write about the injustice causing needless pain and suffering to law students until a typical bad attitude of civil servants got me sad and to change course. A poor pensioner who could have lived a little longer died in circumstances I can’t but believe was avoidable. I will get to that shortly.

I am tired of this law school problem leaders have failed to fix despite solutions known for more than a decade. The former Ag. Director of the school Maxwell Opoku Agyemang, a pro-expansion crusader, has documented the rather simple solutions we have ritually drummed into their ears over the period. He can re-submit them if they have forgotten about them.

What is happening is an indictment on the leadership. 2,842 sat this year’s entrance examinations. Please admit the 499 students who made the 50% advertised pass mark to join the 790 being admitted on a belated re-set of the rules cutting them out.

You started solving this problem the last time by admitting over 1000 qualified students and running a triple-track system. Don’t retrogress. Keep pace with the ever-expanding population. Remember there are only 14 lawyers practicing in the Upper East Region with 1.3 million people, and only 39 in total for the entire 5 regions of the north.

These students have labored and sacrificed a lot and it has cost them and their sponsors a lot of money. The system must aid and not frustrate them reaching their destination to be lawyers.

They should not be adding to the list of the many unemployed graduates pursuing studies that guarantee jobs. Unemployment has become a national security threat, and the mere lack of adequate space at the law school must never to deny them admission.

Now to what made me sad. This lady and her family were introduced in July, just before the courts would commence the annual vacation. Her dad was seriously sick it affected his brain and speech. Her family needed to access his UM Bank account to cater for him after spending all they had on him while on admission.

They spent over a month chasing this and later got advice for a power of attorney, but the bank does not work with that and needed a court order appointing someone as his guardian. This is when I came in (pro bono). I called the bank and was assigned a colleague (coincidence) who explained nicely what they required. I prepared the processes and filed in court.

My clerk sought a quick hearing of the motion for guardianship but someone didn't appreciate the urgency and got the case scheduled for a later date. Well, I argued the case before a rather helpful lady-judge. She granted our prayer subject to an independent doctor's report (a 2nd report - clinical screening) on the current condition of the man.

The Court appointed State hospital Korle Bu in Accra to do that job. It took weeks to get court officers to type out what could have been done in minutes to be sent to the hospital. And this was despite almost daily reminders.

Then there was this back and forth with the hospital but a psychiatrist was assigned after a month or so to conduct the assessment. The assigned doctor will not reach out to this man's doctors in the Eastern Region demanding the very sick man be brought to Accra physically to be examined.

Yeah, best practice, but in this tech age, I thought this was not necessary since the doctor could reach his colleague who has been treating him to get this done. The man was brought last week but could not be attended to fully as they were unable "to assess his cognitive functions because he was unwell and couldn't speak".

But this was supposed to be exactly a major part of his suffering? He was returned and brought back on Tuesday and the message I got from his daughter read "...but unfortunately just before the assessment, he started gasping for air and we lost him".

This made me really sad because I kept complaining about the unnecessary delays both at the court and hospital and she would tell me “and my father is getting worse by the day”.  She told me “my father was a good man”.

I feel this family's pain. He just may have lived. Rest well, Nana Kofi Akyeaw. Your lack of sense of urgency and lazy conduct at work may be hurting and even killing people. The good book instructs that “...whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24

Samson Lardy ANYENINI

October 16, 2021 Issue#34