Renowned legal scholar and Democracy and Development Fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, has called for the expansion of Ghana’s legal education system, arguing that the country urgently needs more lawyers, not fewer.
In a thought-provoking commentary titled “The More Lawyers, the Better for the Rule of Law,” Professor Asare dismissed growing claims that Ghana produces too many lawyers, describing such views as “a visibility illusion rather than a reality.”
Professor Asare began by commending the Ghana School of Law and the General Legal Council for progress in recent years, noting that the 2025 Call to the Bar, which saw over 800 new lawyers admitted, represents a positive development.
“Some of us are genuinely pleased to see more than 800 people called to the Bar this year. It marks progress, and it’s a far cry from the days when a Call barely filled half an auditorium with 200 new lawyers. We should celebrate that growth and even aspire to more”.
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
However, he lamented that some sections of the public continue to question whether Ghana really needs that many new lawyers each year or whether resources should instead be directed toward training more scientists and engineers. To those critics, he offered a simple but powerful rebuttal:
“My friends, we don’t have too many lawyers. What we have is a visibility illusion — the annual ritual of the Call to the Bar makes the profession seen, not numerous. It’s optics, not arithmetic.”
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
The respected legal scholar broke down the numbers to illustrate his point, stressing that Ghana’s lawyer-to-citizen ratio remains dangerously low. “Behind the spectacle lies the sobering math: in a country of over 30 million people, we call barely a thousand new lawyers in a good harvest year — one lawyer for every 30,000 citizens. That’s not an oversupply; that’s a crisis of scarcity,” he emphasized.
Professor Asare questioned how anyone could claim Ghana has too many lawyers when the country continues to grapple with widespread legal illiteracy, chronic land disputes, corruption, and bureaucratic impunity.
“How can anyone argue we have ‘too many lawyers’ in a country drowning in legal ignorance, endless land disputes, broken contracts, corruption, and bureaucratic impunity?
“In a system where land cases choke the courts and rights are violated daily, we don’t have too many lawyers; we have too few doing the work the system refuses to support.”
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Lawyering is Not State-Funded
He also dismissed the notion that the training of lawyers places a burden on the state, pointing out that law students bear the full cost of their education. “Let’s be clear: lawyering is not state-funded. There is no such thing as ‘Free Makola,’ he stressed.
“Every student who walks through that gate has paid dearly, in money, in time, in sleepless nights. If citizens choose to invest their own resources to study law, why should that offend anyone? It’s their money, their calling, their contribution to society.”
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Professor Asare asserted that the real issue lies not in the number of lawyers produced but in how the justice system and public institutions utilize them. “The real problem isn’t that we’re producing too many lawyers. It’s that we haven’t clearly defined what problems we expect them to solve,” he said.
He proposed that if Ghana’s justice architecture strategically deployed lawyers into local governments, regulatory agencies, compliance offices, civic education, and environmental enforcement, the system would expand access to justice and strengthen the rule of law.
He blamed the apparent underutilization of legal talent on the chronic underfunding and politicization of public institutions. “The very institutions that should absorb legal talent remain underfunded, undervalued, or politicized. The result is predictable: an illusion of lawyer oversupply but a reality of justice undersupply,” he stated.
Professor Asare also reminded Ghanaians that many people study law not merely to practice in court but to cultivate critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and analytical precision — skills that strengthen all professions.
“Many study law not to argue in court, but to learn to think critically, write precisely, and reason ethically. The law disciplines the mind and that discipline enriches every profession it touches”.
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Law Not a Competition to other Disciplines
He stressed that the pursuit of legal education should not be seen as competing with other disciplines such as science, medicine, or engineering. “Law is not in competition with science, medicine, or engineering. A healthy nation needs more of everything that builds — more lawyers, more doctors, more nurses, more teachers, more agric scientists, more accountants, more artists,” he wrote.
Professor Asare further reflected on what he described as a broader cultural decline in the value placed on education, suggesting that the question of “too many lawyers” stems from a societal problem rather than an educational one.
“Perhaps this question of ‘too many lawyers’ only arises because we have begun to undervalue education itself. We keep putting square pegs in round holes and then wonder why people question the point of studying anything serious when, in today’s climate, you can just insult your way to the presidency”.
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
In a characteristically candid tone, he concluded that the only thing Ghana truly needs less of is politicians, not educated professionals. “The truth is simple: the only thing we truly need less of are politicians,” he stated.
Professor Asare ended his essay with a call for a more inclusive and equitable education system that gives every Ghanaian the opportunity to pursue their ambitions.
“We should create the kind of environment where anyone, from Adabraka to Zebilla, can pursue any career or education path they desire. Whether one wants to be a lawyer, scientist, teacher, nurse, artist, or engineer, the nation should make room for their ambition”.
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
He underscored that education, in all its forms, is the foundation of national progress and democracy. “The more educated our people, the stronger our democracy, the fairer our economy, and the brighter our future; the more lawyers, the better for the rule of law, ceteris paribus.”
READ ALSO: Ghana’s State-Owned Banks Face IMF Deadline: Recapitalisation Must End by 2025
