It is with a very heavy heart that I pay this tribute to the memory of my friend, His Lordship Justice George Kwaku Antwi. He and I were, as it were, in the trenches together as student leaders, as we assumed the risky role of standing for liberty, freedom and justice in the days of Kwame Nkrumah’s rule in Ghana.
George Antwi was an affable and pleasant person, very unassuming but capable and confident. He was often quiet, but he held clear views and always offered sound advice as a friend and as a colleague in the student movement. Above all, he was principled and committed. It was a pleasure to work with him.
I came to know His Justice Judge Antwi intimately when we were both leaders of the National Union of Ghana Students (N.U.G.S.). I did not choose or appoint George Antwi to his position as General Secretary of the National Union of Ghana Students.
It was an elective office, and George was unanimously elected to that challenging position on merit. He thus became the General Secretary when I was the National President of the National Union of Ghana Students (N.U.G.S.) in the year of our Lord 1962.
As President of N.U.G.S., I worked closely with the late Judge Antwi. It was then that I realized what an indefatigable gentleman he was. He was very dependable and made my responsibilities much lighter. There was a healthy collegiality between us and we tried to offer responsible leadership to the students of Ghana in very difficult times.
His Lordship Justice Antwi died unsung and without proper recognition of the historic role he played in the student movement in Ghana and in championing the cause of freedom, justice and liberty for Ghanaians.
Because of our principled stand against One Party dictatorship, His Lordship Justice George Antwi was detained under the notorious Preventive Detention Act by Kwame Nkrumah in 1964. I was the first to be arrested and detained. A few days later, I heard that George also had been arrested.
In addition, Mr. (later Dr.) F.Y.I. Fiagbe and Mr. Easmon, both from the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, were also arrested and detained, together with Mr. Kodwo Carr from the University College of Cape Coast. We did not see each other until the day of our release from detention. We committed no offence. We had to suffer because of our commitment to true freedom and justice in the leadership of the student movement.
I am recounting these sad facts because it has been asserted by some in influential positions, including a Deputy Minister of Information who had participated in N.U.G.S. affairs, that the N.U.G.S. was not founded until 1966, that is, after the fall of Kwame Nkrumah. The story of the arrest and detention of His Lordship Justice Antwi and the rest of us, shows that the claim is palpably and demonstrably false.
It is difficult to say whether the date of foundation of the N.U.G.S. is being fabricated with the implied revision of history, in order to obfuscate the ugly fact that Nkrumah detained and imprisoned student leaders without trial.
Perhaps future generations of students and student leaders will one day give due recognition to Judge Antwi for his gallant role in the student movement. Without people like him, the National Union of Ghana Students (N.U.G.S.) would not have attained the stature and respectability now accorded the Union.
The present N.U.G.S. has indelible links to the antecedents of the heroic struggles of His Lordship Justice Antwi and others in the Union in the Nkrumah era and before the 1966 coup d’etat. That cannot be obliterated by the conscious or unconscious revisionists of history.
After our Legon days, I continued to follow the career of His Lordship Justice Antwi. He started at the Amaniampong Chambers in Kumasi and quickly gained the reputation of a superb lawyer and a perfect gentleman. It was no surprise to me that he was appointed a High Court Judge.
The last time I heard of him, he was posted to Sekondi where he was known as a very fair and respectable Judge. At that time there were only a few Judges in that rank. I would surmise, therefore, that, if he had lived a little longer, he would undoubtedly have been appointed to the Supreme Court before my elevation to that Court. His death robbed Ghana of a fine gentleman, a lawyer of distinction and promise, and an excellent Judge.
The day I heard of the death of His Lordship Justice George Antwi, I nearly collapsed. I saw his Obituary by chance on the Notice Board in the Supreme Court Building in Accra. I was scheduled to fly that very evening back to the United States and could not cancel my flight. It still pains me that I was unable to attend his burial.
Although his was a short life, His Lordship Justice George Kwaku Antwi left his mark.
History will remember him as a dedicated and fearless defender of truth, freedom and justice, for which he unjustly suffered for Ghana, enduring arbitrary imprisonment and deprivation of his liberty without trial and without a right of access to the courts. By irony of fate, he will also be remembered as a fair, honest and hardworking Judge in the courts, where access to justice had been denied him.
I miss His Lordship Justice George Kwaku Antwi very dearly, but his memory lives on. His friends will miss him. Above all, even fond words of consolation will not be enough to comfort his children and his family.
All I can say, after the Biblical Job, is “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
May the earth lie lightly on his mortal remains, and may the Good Lord grant His Justice Judge George Kwaku Antwi a perfect rest.
By His Lordship, Prof. Justice A.K.P. Kludze
