Silent capture, why GSL students must reject ‘political Esau’ trap

For years, we watched the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) lose its soul.

Once a fierce, neutral watchdog for Ghanaian students, it fractured in partisan politics.

It ceased to be a union and became a highway—divided by white lines of partisan loyalty.

Today, that same capture threatens the Ghana School of Law (GSL).

The question we must ask ourselves is: Will we, as future officers of the court, sell our birthright for a bowl of partisan pottage?

In Hebrews 12:16, we are warned against becoming like Esau, who “for one single meal sold his inheritance rights."

This is not just a Sunday school story; it is a profound political lesson. 

When a candidate relies on the machinery, funding, and dictates of a national political party, they are not beholden to the GSL student body; they are beholden to their sponsors.

When you accept a "sponsored" vote, you become a “Political Esau”.

You trade your long-term right to demand accountability for the short-term "satisfaction" of following a party line or receiving patronage.

As professional law students, we are trained to be objective and independent.

As the great English jurist Lord Denning famously noted: “Be you ever so high, the law is above you."

If our student leadership is birthed in the womb of partisan bias, how can we claim to uphold the independence of the bar?

A student leader who is a "proxy" for a political party cannot fight for student welfare if that welfare conflicts with the party's agenda.

They become a megaphone for outsiders, rather than a shield for their peers.

We must reject the deception that a candidate's "connections" to a major party make him or her more effective.

True effectiveness comes from ”policy”.

Does the candidate have a plan for our library facilities?

Does he or she have a strategy for student mental health and exam stress? Does he or she possess the integrity to stand alone when the student body is being sidelined?

Let us prove that the GSL is a place of independent minds, not a recruitment ground for "Political Esaus."

Vote for policy. Vote for integrity. Vote for the student body.

Goodnuff Appiah Larbi, PhD,
Law student.