There’s an old saying: when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Dr. Isaac Asiedu, in critiquing Ghana’s professional landscape, sees the rise of lawyers as a national misstep, simply because his toolkit leans STEM. But his view flattens the complex, evolving roles that lawyers play in governance, development, and justice. The problem isn’t too many lawyers; it’s too few in the right places and far too little investment in the systems that need them.Ghana sports gear
A popular social media post asked, “So you’re telling me we have more lawyers than functional drainage systems?” and Dr. Isaac Asiedu ran with it in his article, “When Everyone Wants to Be a Lawyer: Rethinking Ghana’s Career Priorities for National Development.”
The article, while well-intentioned, is misleading. It uses satire and generalisations to frame lawyers as symbolic of Ghana’s educational “misalignment,” but in doing so, it sacrifices accuracy for argument. Let’s be clear: Ghana does not have too many lawyers. If anything, it has far too few.
1. The real crisis is the legal shortage in public institutions.
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The assertion that Ghana has an oversupply of lawyers crumbles under scrutiny. Consider the Attorney General’s Department, the Legal Aid Commission, and various Ministries. Across these institutions, there is an undeniable, persistent shortage of qualified legal personnel.
A large number of criminal cases go unattended simply because the Attorney General’s Department lacks sufficient lawyers, yet we consistently expect them to perform efficiently. ORAL comes to mind. Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Department, which should be the legal backbone of the state, is critically under-resourced. Court cases are adjourned endlessly, not because of “too many lawyers,” but because there aren’t enough state attorneys to handle the caseload. Ghana needs more lawyers, not fewer, especially in governance, policy, and regulatory reform.
2. Many Lawyers are not switching careers, they are adding value to themselves.
Dr. Asiedu’s argument assumes that people are abandoning other professions to chase the prestige of law. That’s not only dismissive, it’s wrong. Most of today’s law students are not “career shifters” but professionals adding legal knowledge to their existing expertise.Ghana sports gear
Take Dr. Kweku Boadu, Esq., my former IT Law lecturer. He is a leading engineer, deeply entrenched in technical work, yet he pursued law to expand his competence in areas like intellectual property, tech policy, contract law, and data protection.
His legal background doesn’t displace his engineering work, it enhances it. He is not an exception. Ghana is seeing a rise in hybrid professionals:
i. Engineers learning law to navigate infrastructure contracts.
ii. Bankers studying corporate and financial law.
iii. IT professionals diving into cyber security and digital rights legislation.
iv. Healthcare experts exploring health law and policy.
These are not “misplaced priorities.” This is what modern economies demand: professionals who are interdisciplinary, legally literate, and solution-oriented.Ghana sports gear
3. The “you can’t Lawyer your way to development” argument is a false choice
The quote sounds catchy, “You can’t sue your way to development” — but it’s rhetorically manipulative. It pits legal knowledge against technical knowledge, when in reality, they are complementary.
Ask yourself:
a. Who enforces building codes?
b. Who negotiates international infrastructure contracts?
c. Who defends communities from illegal land grabs and harmful mining?
d. Who drafts legislation on renewable energy or smart cities?
Lawyers do.
Engineers may build roads, but lawyers ensure those roads are procured lawfully, built by qualified contractors, and maintained under enforceable terms. Development without legal frameworks is corruption in disguise.
You can’t build your way past bad governance.
You can’t engineer your way around legal loopholes.
You can’t code your way out of constitutional dysfunction.
You absolutely can lawyer your way to development, if your lawyers are placed where they matter.
4. The “too many lawyers” claim doesn’t hold up to data.
Let’s talk numbers. Ghana has fewer over 8,600 active lawyers for a population of over 32 million. That’s a ratio of 1 lawyer per 3,720 people.Ghana sports gear
Compare that with:
South Africa – 1:600 , Kenya – 1:2,434 , United Kingdom – 1:357 , United States – 1:261, Nigeria – 1: 2320
By international standards, Ghana is severely under-lawyered. The few lawyers we have are often concentrated in Accra, Kumasi, and a handful of cities. Large parts of the country lack any meaningful access to legal representation, especially in land, family, criminal, and property disputes.
If you believe in democracy, development, and justice — you should be concerned that there are not enough lawyers, not too many.
5. STEM vs Law is a false battle. Fix both.
Dr. Asiedu makes valid points about the underinvestment in STEM education. Yes, physics departments are underfunded. Yes, we need more engineers.Ghana sports gear
But here’s the truth: law students are not the reason physics students are disappearing. The haalso have their own problems.
STEM suffers because: Labs are outdated, Science teaching is theory-heavy,Career pathways for scientists in Ghana are limited. Research funding is near-zero.
Rather than blaming law for the death of science, let’s hold policy makers accountable for not funding science. The real issue is underinvestment across the board, not student preference.
And let’s stop pretending we must choose: Ghana needs more engineers, more scientists, more lawyers, more policymakers, more teachers, more welders, and more technicians not fewer.
At the 2025 Call to the Bar ceremony, held at the Accra International Conference Centre, 824 new lawyers were formally inducted, including three traditional leaders, Nai Atopi Kwashie Abbey VII, Obrempon Hima Dekyi XIV, and Nana Agyei Kokoo Takyifri Beyeeman.Ghana sports gear
Their call to the Bar highlights a growing interest among chiefs in legal education to support governance and enhance customary dispute resolution. The ceremony also featured media personalities, police officers who had studied law, further emphasizing the profession’s wide appeal. Unlike many other fields, law draws individuals from various sectors such as traditional leadership, law enforcement, health, media and more. Each pursuing legal training for different professional and community-focused reasons.
6. Certificates vs Competence.
Dr. Asiedu concludes with an emotional line: “Ghana doesn’t need more certificates; it needs solutions.”
That sounds good, until you remember that certificates often represent rigorous learning, skill-building, and personal sacrifice. The issue is not certificates. The issue is how we apply what we’ve learned.
Legal education, when done right, builds critical thinking, problem-solving, systems analysis, and ethical reasoning. These are not enemies of development, they are its foundation. Let us not confuse the two.
In conclusion, let’s stop creating scapegoats out of law students. Let’s stop pitting disciplines against each other. Let’s stop turning professional ambition into a national problem.
What Ghana needs is not fewer lawyers or more engineers but functional systems that reward competence, regulate corruption, and integrate professionals across sectors.Ghana sports gear
We need a public sector where such as, Engineers design solutions, Lawyers defend systems, Scientists research challenges, and Leaders implement policies.
Ghana doesn’t need to “rethink” career priorities in the way Dr. Asiedu suggests. Ghana needs to recognize the value in every career path and then build an economy that can absorb and apply all of them effectively.
Oh yes, you can lawyer your way to development.
But only if you know that lawyers don’t just argue, they structure, protect, regulate, advocate, and design justice. And justice is the blueprint for any nation that hopes to stand.
