Celebrating legal icon: Tsatsu Tsikata

I have chosen to write this laudatory piece extolling the impressive contributions of Tsatsu Tsikata to Ghanaian law essentially out of context with any particular events driving my motivations.

In so doing however, I am perhaps subconsciously inspired by the fact that, far too often, we have allowed the rare accomplishments of national heroes to slip into oblivion without the benefit of acknowledgment even in the footnotes of history, and my better judgment ostensibly fears the likelihood of this prospect happening to the evolving illustrious contributions of Mr Tsikata to Ghanaian law.

Mr Tsatsu Tsikata’s name towers high and reverberates in multiple halls of Ghanaian law, and as many will readily concede, his pathbreaking contributions to the development of the law either as a purely epistemic variable or as a factor of national  development and governance has come to define an age worth calling to mind.

Having attained legal academic excellence at an early age in his education, Mr Tsikata perhaps uniquely stands in a position of his own among the best and brightest of Ghanaian legal minds whose names dot the pantheon of the country’s legal history. 

As a student, teacher, politician, technocrat and lawyer, he seemed to have imprinted indelible footprints on each episode of his life with something for posterity to continue reflecting on.

Mr Tsikata has, and continues to inspire a generation of students, lawyers, and curious minds desirous of pursuing legal scholarship, advocacy, or learning the mechanics of statecraft understood through the prism of law particularly through his prominent role in apex constitutional litigation within the last two decades.

Having entered the then Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana in 1997 as a student, I did not have the benefit of being taught by him, but it certainly was a tribute to his enduring legacy that years after he had left academia, students at the Legon Law Faculty in the late 90’s were generally enchanted by stories of his prodigious intellectual brilliance and the young age at which he made his stellar mark.

Mr Tsikata’s famed records were particularly notable given that the faculty of law at Legon at the time attracted arguably some of the most talented and exceptionally gifted students entering into the University of Ghana generally (that being the only law unit in any university in Ghana at the time), by reason of which ordinarily he should not have overly stood out among the rest of his mates or generation.

To some  therefore, his early departure from academia was to represent something of a loss to the academy — a veritable denial  of his prospective scholarly excellence and prowess and ruing what could have been!

Born in 1950 in Keta, Tsikata’s outstanding intellect became a prominent feature of his formative educational years. Young Tsatsu won a scholarship to the University of Ghana at the age of 14 before proceeding to Oxford University, where he graduated with first-class honours in law from the Corpus Christi College, having already graduated with a previous “first” from the University of Ghana.

As mentioned, his stint in legal academia in Ghana was both short and impactful during which period he taught notable personalities in Ghanaian law and authored consequential scholarly papers.

It is instructive that Tsatsu himself was taught by some of the most prominent names in Ghanaian legal education including Professor Ofosu-Amaah and Dr Obed Asamoah, and while it is not clear the extent to which he was mentored by these personalities, the fact that Tsatsu’s writings reflect a certain apostolic zeal which either advocated for or critiqued a certain scholarly paradigm of the heavyweights in the University of Ghana faculty of law at the time shows the extent to which he was partly formed by the moments of his academic career at Legon.

I was particularly impressed earlier on in my own studies by the finesse with which he deconstructed the Marxist legal theory, and the subtleties of that theory to legal thought and legal idealism.

Now largely discredited given the realities of global political and economic orders, any reader of Mr Tsikata’s Marxist Theory of Law and Its Critique Of Idealist Legal Theory will still find Mr Tsikata’s expositions intellectually enchanting reflecting the depth of knowledge of the author, but even more peculiarly, his then extant obsession with defending Marxism against the raging critiques of the day. 

In his writings, Tsatsu’s concept of law becomes evident, and remains telling of his deep understanding of public law in particular, and Ghanaian law in general.

His insistence on a context-dependent approach to legal education reflects his enduring frustration with an acontextual application of the law—a situation that continues to endure till this day and undermines the effective use of  the law as a tool of development.

Courtroom advocacy and constitutional jurisprudence

Mr Tsikata’s record as an advocate is as formidable as his footprints left in the sands of the legal academy.

His command of constitutional law, legal history, and statutory interpretation is well acclaimed by those he taught and those who knew him as a teacher and scholar. 

Over the decades, he has argued several landmark cases, including those before the Supreme Court where his submissions have influenced key decisions on elections, natural resources, rule of law, and constitutional interpretation including nearly all the electoral petition cases coming before the Court.

With a penchant for meticulousness, analytical precision, jurisprudential reasoning and persuasive oratory, he won widespread admiration and perhaps following for his unique approach.

His ability to straddle legal theory with practical advocacy remains a rare trait that should be nurtured in today’s academic and practitioner.

Mr Tsikata’s constant presence at the Bar in matters of electoral litigation at the highest level of adjudication for the many years since the first major petition should earn him national acclaim as his role inevitably has contributed to the governance stability of Ghana particularly in hotly contested elections. 

Public service & worldview

Mr Tsatsu Tsikata’s establishment of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC), where he served as CEO from 1988 to 2000 reflects yet his dexterity in innovation and leadership as a person.

Establishing that institution without prior template should serve as a point of reference of his capabilities and contributions to the cause of Ghana, the controversies surrounding his time at the entity notwithstanding.

Under his leadership, Ghana laid the groundwork for effective petroleum exploration and production policies, eventually leading to the discovery of offshore oil reserves.

The writer is the Dean, UPSA Law School