The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has launched this year’s Baffour Akoto Moot Court Competition at the Ghana Law School, to officially commence Students Representative Council (SRC) Week Celebrations.
The competition is organized annually as part of the SRC Week Celebrations to honour the memory and sacrifices made by the late Chief Linguist of the Asante Kingdom, Baffour Osei Akoto.
This year’s edition is under the theme “Leadership, Gender, and Disabilities Corporate Governance: The way forward after legal education.”
The event was chaired by one of Ghana’s celebrated legal personalities, His Lordship Justice Sir Dennis Adjei, who is a Court of Appeal Judge.
Delivering his keynote address, the Agric Minister gave a history about Baffour Osei Akoto and how the Baffour Akoto Moot Court Competition came into being.
According to him, the iconic figure is celebrated at the Ghana Law School following his pursuit of human rights, especially the well-being of farmers, women, and people with disabilities.
He admonished the students to as people in the legal profession, advocate human rights, racial discrimination as well as gender and disability inequalities as, according to him, those were the sacrifices made by Baffour Akoto and the likes to bring equality and justice to society.
“In Ghana, you as law students are a privileged group. You will leave the portals of this school to go into the legal profession which is known all over the world as an advocacy profession (Human rights, Racial discrimination, Ge, under, and Disability inequalities). Ten, twenty years from now, most of you will have successful practices and be well-to-do members of the Ghanaian society,” he said.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto observed further that “The sacrifices that the Baffour Akotos and the Mandelas made to bring equality and justice to society should not be lost on you. You may be sitting in your comfort zone after school pursuing your profession, that should not blind you to the injustices in society. A lot has been achieved in past years, but a lot of injustices remain in our society.”
He added, “It would be your responsibility to uphold the advocacy pursued by our forefathers. As trained advocates, it is incumbent upon you to continually uphold the rule of law to address the inequalities in society which Baffour Osei Akoto and others fought for.”
The Minister of Food and Agriculture also shared a chilling story of how his father, Baffour Osei Akoto was put in a condemned cell for close to six (6) years by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.
According to him, his father was thrown into condemned cell 11 of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons in the mid-fifties over his role in standing up for the rights of cocoa farmers.
Dr. Akoto narrated that this happened in 1954, a time when his father, Baffour Akoto Osei, had formed a political party, the National Liberation Movement (NLM) to oppose a virtual one-party system which was then emerging under Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
He said Dr. Nkrumah during the 1954 election campaign, promised to better the lives of Cocoa farmers by doubling the producer price of cocoa but after winning the elections, he rather announced the reduction of the price, something he said, resulted in bringing a lot of agitations in the system.
“During the March 1954 election campaign, Kwame Nkrumah had promised to double the producer price of cocoa farmers if they voted for the CPP. After winning the elections, instead of doubling the producer price of cocoa as promised, Kwame Nkrumah turned around to announce a reduction in the producer price thereby putting cocoa farmers at a financial disadvantage.
“The furore which followed this broken promise led to severe agitation against the CPP in the cocoa-growing areas of the time,” he said as he advised the students to fight for the rights of people especially farmers, w, omen, and people with disabilities”.
He said his father who was a don in Cocoa farming and a senior linguist to the then Asantehene took it upon himself to lead the agitations in fighting for what was right but he was detained with several others under the Preventative Detention Act (1958) and was kept in the Nsawam prison in solitary confinement for nearly six years.
“Being a popular figure in the cocoa-growing community, because of his position as a senior linguist to the Asantehene and as a big cocoa farmer himself, Baffour was a natural choice to lead this agitation.”
“For his role in standing up for the rights of cocoa farmers and advocating for multi-party democracy, Baffour Osei Akoto and hundreds of others were detained under the Preventative Detention Act (1958) and was kept in Nsawam medium-security prison in solitary confinement for nearly six years,” he said.
He added, “Baffour and the top hierarchy of detained political prisoners including Dr. J B Danquah were kept in cells meant for condemned prisoners who had been found guilty of murder.”
