Prof Atuguba Warns Sierra Leone Lawyers - “Stop Copying Bad Things From Ghana”.

Legal luminary, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, has admonished lawyers in Sierra Leone and the country’s leadership to stop copying what he calls “bad things from Ghana.”

In a keynote address delivered at the 2019 Annual Conference and General Meeting of the Sierra Leone Bar Association in Freetown on the topic “Law and the New Developmental State in West Africa,” Prof. Atuguba dissected the various forms of foreign exploitation of Africa, the inherent problems of political and economic development and proffered a way-out.

He called on lawyers of Sierra Leone to lead the way by adopting concrete achievable strategic plan and stop copying bad influences around the world.

“The attempted coup in Gabon and the successful one in Sudan this year are both fresh in our memories. In the last two or so years, there have been 11 attempted or successful coups in the world, and 8 of these were in Africa.” he stated.

“Even countries that appear politically stable are not that stable. Mali, Nigeria, and many other countries live under the spectre and growing threat of terrorism. Shinning stars like Ghana are slowly experiencing democratic reversals, and Sierra Leone is learning all the bad things from Ghana,” he stated.

He observed, “When a country starts to illegitimately remove constitutionally protected officers from their posts, including sitting Supreme Court judges, represses journalists, and interferes in court processes for really micro and meso level political agendas, the destructive seeds of authoritarianism and the annihilation of the freedoms of the people are sown.

The just appointed Dean of the Law faculty of the University of Ghana stated, “It is no wonder that Liberia experienced a massive citizens demonstration last month, Sierra Leone experienced similar skirmishes in the same month, and just at the beginning of this month, the courts were used by the government of Ghana to temporarily subvert a demonstration.” he added.

“To conclude this address, I call on the Sierra Leone Bar Association today to:

1. Get Organised;
2. Mobilise Resources-human, spiritual, material;
3. Create Working Groups for the four Themes (political, economic, social, technological);
4. Distill Clear and Simple Action Points for Immediate Implementation;
5. Advocate, Push, Agitate, for their Implementation; and
6. Use the Annual Conference and General Meeting as a Forum to Assess Progress on all of the above”.

“This is the only real role the Sierra Leone Bar Association should play today. The people of Sierra Leone are tired of the numerous and sophist parroting of liberal values at millions of meetings and workshops”.

“The people of Sierra Leone are yearning for, longing for, cannot wait for a true renaissance, a reorientation of governance through real and effective democratic guidance; political, economic, social, and technological governance; which meet the people at the point of their needs and wants”.

The unofficial bifurcation of the Bar along the lines of the two main political parties must end. That is a by-product of inimical liberalism which I have told you will die next year. The unofficial remnants of patriarchy that exist within the Bar must also end”.

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