An Alternative Dispute Resolution Consultant, Alex Nartey, has underscored the need for legislators on both the minority and majority sides of Parliament to put party interests aside and collaborate with each other for success.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony of the Institute of Paralegal Training and Leadership Studies (IPLS) in Accra last Saturday (June 30), Mr Nartey, who is also a former President of the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG), explained that with a hung parliament, he thought that the two sides of parliament were going to engender meaningful cooperation to drive the country’s success but that had not been the case.

“We have had one of the worst challenges during this hung parliament, you never see them reasoning over our challenges because Ghanaians in general lack the interest based approach in handling issues. We are all the time emotional and when emotions are at their peak wisdom vanishes.

So when you see a parliamentarian addressing the Speaker of Parliament as if he is annoyed with everybody in the world, you can conclude that he is not going to say anything rather than the partisan,” he said, stressing the need for the legislators to collaborate towards the greater good of the country.

“Partisanship does not develop any country, it’s collaboration and objectivity that do. That is what ADR provides its practitioners,” Mr Nartey who is also the Director of ADR, Judicial Service of Ghana, added. 

Graduation

In all 80 students graduated from IPLS with either professional executive masters in ADR, professional executive masters in general paralegal studies, or an executive certificate in ADR.

Mr Nartey challenged the graduates to be the torchbearers of this collaborative spirit. "As you go, show them the way and tell your colleagues that we cannot achieve anything without team spirit. Democracy is nothing when team spirit is not brought to bear in engaging social justice."

Advice

The Kontire Hene of Temante in the Kumawu Traditional Area, Nana Oppong Agyei Sikapa, who chaired the programme urged the graduates to be agents of transformation by first promoting peace through the use of ADR.

“Let’s promote peace, let’s not fan the flames already existing. By this training be wholly transformed to add up to the few people promoting peace through the wings of ADR to reduce the workload on our courts.

“If we don’t dedicate ourselves to what we have learnt, then it means that we will join the queue already lined up,” he added. For her part, the Rector of IPLS, Godslove Korkor Nartey, explained that the institute’s main goal was to create awareness about ADR.

She cautioned the graduates against holding themselves out as lawyers but paralegals who were beneficial to lawyers. Again, she urged the public to make use of ADR to help reduce the backlog of cases, adding: “If you have a case and it’s not criminal and amenable by ADR, I am advising that ADR is short and cost effective so you should try that, and you will see the benefit for yourself”.