EULOGISTIC LECTURE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD OF NANA DR. S.K.B ASANTE AT THE UPSA LAW SCHOOL HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE GERTRUDE TORKORNOO CHIEF JUSTICE 25th July 2024
Source: judicial_service_of_ghana
Date: 2024-08-17

EULOGISTIC LECTURE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD OF NANA DR. S.K.B ASANTE AT THE UPSA LAW SCHOOL HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE GERTRUDE TORKORNOO CHIEF JUSTICE 25 th July 2024 Protocols It is an absolute privilege and honor to be requested to deliver this eulogistic lecture in honor of Nana Dr. Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante, nationally known as Nana Dr. SKB Asante, or Nana Susubribi Krobea Asante, Omanhene of Asante Asokore Traditional Area, a man I consider within the context of myth and legend. I must confess that I feel like a child invited into the bedroom of my father, complete with white bed sheets, vanilla carpet, and glass vases. My first interest in this time that I will be standing before you this evening is to make sure that I do not smudge anything in the space of his reputation or break any piece of treasure of his achievements with carelessness or inexperience. Nana and Professor Abotsi, thank you very much for the honor of being asked to deliver this evening’s eulogistic piece on the beloved patriarch. Last year I had the privilege of speaking at the conferment of life time achievement award to Prof. Justice Kofi Date-Bah, another illustrious son of the law and the land. This year, the selection committee of the UPSA law school continues to display the highest standards of choice in the naming of tonight’s honoree for the award. A set of books that I recall immersing myself in as a teenager was titled ‘Makers of Civilization’. These books presented the iconic people who defined the landmarks of history and civilization. People such as Marie Curie, the nobel laureate whose work in physics and chemistry, including radio activity earned her a place among ‘women who changed science’, Alexander Fleming, whose work of culturing led to the development of penicillin, and Florence Nightangle who defined modern nursing, were introduced to many a secondary school mind through the Makers of Civilization series. As I have encountered the different facets of Nana’s life and work as a law student, lawyer, citizen and member of the Judiciary, I have long formed the position that Nana Dr Asante’s place is within the volumes of the makers of Ghana’s civilization. Should another historian oblige a waiting nation by continuing the narrative beyond the 2 nd edition of Professor Adu Boahen’s Topic’s in West African History , I believe that more than a chapter needs to be dedicated to Nana Dr S. K. B Asante, a national hero, stateman, patriarch, administrator, academic, national and international civil servant, leader of thought, philosopher and Omanhene, a traditional ruler and social engineer extraodinaire. In depiction of the quality of excellence that the man Nana Dr. S. K. B. Asante embodies, it can be seen from his life work that each of the above identified roles has influenced and filled the content of the other, culminating in trails of effective legacies from every one of them. Through all of this, Nana has towered in ageless relevance and continuing quest for service to motherland Ghana. In his ‘ Notes On My Journey to Achimota ’, Nana opens the essay by describing ‘ his fate with Ghana ’ with the words: ‘ By some historical quirk, various stages of my personal history coincided with some phases of the modern political evolution of Ghana. I went to elementary school during the Second World War i.e. 1939-45. (I actually started a year earlier). My education at the secondary and tertiary levels took place during the nationalist struggle for independence ’. It is easy then to see why this extraordinary man has poured his life into the development of our nation. His greatness undoubtedly resounds in how effectively he allowed the worth and treasures of royal upbringing, education in Achimota School, and birth and growth at the cusp of the historical landmarks that shaped the last century to impact him for good, making him a giver to the nation, rather than an untoward taker. Leonardo da vinci is quoted as saying that ‘ Whoever sows virtue reaps honor ’. The man we have come here to honor this evening has sown so much virtue in our nation, and the comity of nations, that the honor due him must, in Portian descriptions of the virtue of mercy in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice , be without strain, or restraint, and must overflow with the gratitude and appreciation of a nation that he has helped guide since the tumultuous evening of colonialism, through the several chapters of Republican governance and into the now assertive quest for development, freedom and justice in the fourth Republic. Excellencies, Lordships, Nananom, distinguished guests, this is my privilege tonight, and I do so by inviting a walk through the blazing trails of Nana Dr Asante’s work on the various stages that he performed them, not only for Ghana, but for the international community. Nana’s life’s work is a tribute to his lifelong service towards everything placed in his care, and his discharge of obligation with principles of excellence. I first encountered Nana Dr SKB Asante, Omanhene of Asokore Asante, in the hearing of his many initials and designations stated in hushed tones as they described this icon of Ghana’s national development. And my continued encounters with him have been largely through the corridors of authority, including his presence among members of the Judicial Council. And though my experience of him has been from the distance of observation, the largeness of his influence of grace, teaching and direction has been so strong because of their impact on national life, that it is my pride as a Ghanaian to hold them up. Law and Public Service A pioneer lecturer at the department of law of the University of Ghana, Nana’s natural aptitude for leadership is reflected in the fact that he became head of the law faculty in 1962, the year that I was born. A review of his life shows an active movement in different roles of public servant and scholar in the 1960s. After working at the World Bank for a period of time, Nana Asante returned to Ghana and became Ghana’s Solicitor General in 1969. He later rose to become deputy Attorney General, an appointment that reflected the steady progression of life and career that he has consistently expressed. At the Attorney General’s Department, the records tell us that Nana’s pivotal work included negotiating key projects for the country such as the Kpong Hydro Electric Project in 1974. In law, the trails blazed by the honoree run through the disciplines of the law of Immovable Property in Ghana, constitutional law, investment and commercial law, international law, the law of international organizations, and the law on arbitration. Land Law In my early years as a law student from 1980, I was introduced to Nana’s works on the intertwining of different concepts in customary law, land law, and the law of trust. Through his writings that continue to be relevant in providing a foundational understanding of Ghana’s land law, Nana elucidated the facts, principles and philosophies behind the normative structure of Ghana’s land law, especially the seemingly fast eroding appreciation of the concept of trusteeship in Ghana land law. In Nana’s reflections on his time at Yale Law School, he provides a window into the environments from which his rich contributions to learning on Ghana’s land law were shaped. He had this to say: ‘ Yale Law provided me with every opportunity to widen my intellectual horizons, appreciate American approaches to law in various areas, and reflect deeply on Anglo-American and Ghanaian legal concepts. My area of concentration was Real Property and Trusts, subjects which I was teaching at the University of Ghana ’. Of course, the appreciation that he is a royal reveals his interest in clarifying the norms of land law in the early years of Ghana’s independence and status as a Republic. Nana, all students and researchers of law have been beneficiaries of your depth of thinking, research, knowledge and scholarship in this area of land law, property and trusts. For this and much more, we say, thank you. Arbitration In the landscape of arbitration, our honoree has participated in international arbitrations under the auspices of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce ICC, where he was a member for twelve years, the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Dispute ICSID, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Hague and more. Crucially, his dissenting opinion in the ICSID case No. ARB/87/3 Agricultural Products Ltd v Republic of Sri Lanka delivered on 15 th June 1990 attracted wide international attention for the sheer depth and breadth of its scholarship and jurisprudence. Constitutional Law Nana’s legacy in leading the committee of experts that formulated proposals for the drafting of the 1992 Constitution has continued to impact the Republican era of Ghana and beyond, and is noted in African governance reform history. It is a legacy that has continued to inspire similar models on the continent. For his faith in his country, and his dedication to overcoming decades of failed experiments, and willingness to brace the odds of speaking and contributing at every turn, Nana deserves the appreciation of generations gone, present and yet to be born. Nana, for this and much more, Ghana is thankful. To quote his own words from his speech in 2000, when he represented his class of 1950, fifty years after they entered Achimota School, ‘ We remember Alexander Fraser for his abiding faith in the inherent intellectual capacity of Africans, his deep commitment to the essential equality of all races and for giving Achimota a sound and imaginative leadership for nearly a decade.We honour Kwegyir Aggrey for his towering intellect, his humanity and magnanimity and his profound insights into education, particularly of women .’ Nana, your contribution to Ghana’s moments of constitutional history, resound in the same terms that you used for these contributors to the nation’s educational history. Your abiding faith in the inherent intellectual capacity of Ghanaians to shape the slippery slopes of democracy, your deep commitment to the essential equality of all our ethnic groups to meld together in the kaleidoscope of a national life under one Constitution, despite the diversity of customary laws on inheritance, marriage, land, property ownership and traditional governance in chieftaincy, and your towering intellect, humanity and magnanimity in adding your profound insights into how law can guide a nation of diverse people into a harmonious and prosperous whole, has vastly and undoubtedly contributed to the national resilience that is leading the peoples of Ghana in a relentless match on to democratic excellence, no matter the odds and challenges we face. As current head of the nation’s constitutional court and legal order, allow me to say thank you to you and the founding fathers of our nation from the 1 st Republic to this 4 th Republic. Nana, for this and much more, Ghana is thankful. Diplomacy and Civil Service Nana joined the World Bank as the first African south of the Sahara to be appointed to the Legal Department of the World Bank. From this time on, Nana’s work in commercial law and investment law shone in the legacy he has bequeathed on the stages of civil service. Described as ‘ an international civil servant, a well-known scholar of foreign investment protection law, a first-generation ‘Third World’ international scholar and an observer of the unforgotten UN-based battle for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) of the 1970s and 1980s ’ in a biographic review of his work by scholar Dr. Kehinde Folake Olaoye, Nana Susubiribi’s work in diplomacy blazed trails through the UN Center on Transnational Corporations, UNCTC and, ICSID such that Dr Olaoye points out that Nana’s appointment to the UNCTC was acknowledged as one of the two most influential appointments of the time in the writings of John H Dunning, a scholar widely recognized as the father of the fields of research of international business, economics, international direct investment and the multinational enterprise. Dr. Olaoye urges his own position that the publications of the demure man from Asokore, during Nana’s years at and after the UNCTC are the most important on the work of the UNCTC from a legal perspective. The records show that Nana’s services at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Dispute saw him significantly contribute to shaping the norms that govern international investment law and rules. Working there at a time when the politics of seizures by governments of the global south was matched by domineering postures of countries of the north, it is acknowledged that Nana’s work was part of early efforts that helped stabilize global investment rules. It will be recalled that in the 1980s and 1990s, ISCID and the global south projected the voice that tamed post-colonial proclivities and helped to demand space for the proper growth of international relations, trade and investment. Undoubtedly, Nana belongs to the unsung brigade of international civil servants who guided nations with diplomacy and intellectual strength to the current expansive state of global commerce. Also telling is his decade-long contributions at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, UNCTC. As chief legal adviser and director of advisory and information services at the UNCTC, the records reflect that Nana played many pivotal roles including advising governments and leading teams to countries such as China to negotiate for the implementation of open-door policies for admitting transnational corporations. Nana has shared his experiences in publishing and lecturing extensively on international investment law, international law, legal aspects of transnational corporations’ regulation of international mineral agreements and international business transactions. Academia Nana’s academic prominence is no less grand. The pen, the saying goes, is mightier than the sword. And yes, it is. The sword may kill countless numbers that may lie unprofitable to nations in graves sometimes unknown, but any piece of writing preserved, contributes to knowledge, learning, and the shaping of humanity. So has Nana’s writing brilliance remained immortalized in scholarship that spans the spectrum of all the areas that this icon has worked in. From Nana’s work and writings to capture the learnings and teachings of his work, we appreciate a commitment not only to peace in constitutional and traditional governance, but to enhancing prosperity by clarifying rules and principles for market place actors. Through my checks in preparation for tonight’s address, I discovered that Nana visited and taught or spoke at leading universities of the world including Harvard University. Nana’s depth of scholarship and intellectual contributions appear in some of the most consequential and prestigious law journals including Yale Law Journal, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, American Journal of International Law, Cornell International Law Journal, Harvard Journal of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law, Foreign Investment Law Journal, Journal of World Trade Law, Journal of African Law, University of Ghana Law Journal, Review of Ghana Law, Wisconsin Law Review, and yes, the UPSA Africa International & Comparative Law Journal! By immortalizing his thought and leadership contribution to the development of functional norms through writing, Nana not only talked his walk, but he left his words behind to guide, inspire, and justify the development tracks of Ghana, Africa and the nations of the world.. Indeed, in recognition of his immense contribution to scholarship and legal academia as well as national and international public service, a Festschrift authored by 47 jurists, scholars and international experts across the world was published in his honor in 2016. Nana’s election to the office of President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences is the icing on the mountain of this scholarly standing, testifying to the satisfaction of his peers regarding the immensity of his contributions. Governance It is a matter of national note that within the revered institution of chieftaincy, Nana has taken his place as the Omanhene of Asokore Asante with the nobility, elegance and ease of excellence that he brings to everything. And undoubtedly, the State of Asokore Asante is also the beneficiary of this huge intellectual background knowledge on the functional norms of customary law, immovable property, trusteeship and governance. My beloved late father once said something at a family gathering that I have not forgotten. He said that there are two things that may not be noticed when you have them, but which, if lost, will leave a person tragically worse off. One is good health, and the other is good parentage. Chair, my humble hypothesis is that the quality of thought and mind discernible in our revered traditional leaders, epitomized by the honoree tonight, has contributed in no small measure to the adeptness with which Ghana’s peculiar model of common law provided for in article 11 (2) of the 1992 Constitution has guided the stability of our beloved nation. The Judiciary and Judicial Service of Ghana has been the beneficiary of the authority of Nana’s office in his role as a member of the Judicial Council pursuant to article 153(m) of the 1992 Constitution. Through this position, Nana has also contributed immensely to the administration of justice in our country. Nana, for your direct contributions to governance and much more, Ghana is thankful. Conclusion Chair, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please pardon me if I have been effusive tonight. Nana’s service to our world has been extravagant, and it must be acknowledged in no less a quality. In surveying the life and times of great men and women whose energies and dedication have shaped our country towards freedom and justice such as Nana Susubiribi Krobea Asante, the stark contrast in seeming prevalence of loss of love for country, loss of the values of patriotism, and loss of the social norms of courtesy, respect, and the elegance of nobility that contemporary society appears to confront any reader of modern materials with, is thrown up. The definition and clarification of honor outplayed through words, exposition of life works, and eulogies tonight provides an opportunity for generations behind Nana to appreciate what citizens must necessarily prioritize as true virtue. This award is therefore timely and opportune indeed. It beautifully weaves into the constellation of achievements which make the man Nana Dr. S K B Asante. Nana’s life mirrors the virtue, dedication and service that every nation needs to become great and strong. Nana, nyame nhyira wo. Onto wonda mu. We will hold on to the lessons of servant leadership that you teach. For these and many more, a grateful nation and legal sector says, thank you! Prev Next