Anti-corruption crusader and renowned Pan-Africanist, Professor P.L.O. Lumumba, has called for a rethinking of Ghana’s legal and judicial systems, urging the country and the continent to cast off colonial legacies and embrace laws and customs rooted in African identity and contemporary realities.
Speaking at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Public Lecture Series on Friday, April 11, Prof. Lumumba challenged the prevailing tendency of African legal systems to defer to colonial-era practices and foreign precedents
“Must we always have this inadequacy to compare ourselves with others? We must change in order to enter the 21st century with confidence,” he noted.
In a pointed critique of judicial symbolism, he mocked the outdated dress code of legal practitioners.
“When you see our judges addressing, they still dress like Father Christmas. Whoever told us that justice could only be administered when you dress like Father Christmas, I do not know,” he remarked.
Prof. Lumumba particularly highlighted Ghana’s continued reliance on English legal precedents, even in cases involving local matters such as land disputes.
“When we are deciding our own land matters in Ghana in Cape Coast we still want to cite some decision that was made by some English judge, as if we do not have our own land laws,” he remarked.
He stressed that the time has come for Ghana, and by extension Africa, to “rethink and re-enter the 21st century with laws that are known to Ghana.”
According to him, this is not merely a legal matter, but one of sovereignty, cultural pride, and practical relevance.
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