YouTuber and Ghanaian law student Elorm Ababio is on hold to become a lawyer after a petition was filed against her because of the videos she shares online.
Elorm Ababio is a law student in Ghana who has passed the final exams to become a lawyer. The call to the Bar for newly qualified lawyers is held on November 11. But it’s not sure she will be allowed to attend the ceremony like the 840 other students of the country who successfully passed the Professional Law Examination.
Elorm Ababio is also known as Ama Governor on the Internet. She is active on social media, with a few dozen thousand followers on each YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or Twitter channel.
She shares videos on YouTube about her life, her opinions, about sex, about her days as an openly bisexual woman in Ghana, a country where a bill aims at criminalizing with prison terms LGBTQ+ people more severely than they currently are. A video talks about sex, another shows a trip to Togo to buy an iPhone. She records a video of when she got an IUD and videos tell the days in the life of a law student and law firm intern.
However, the General Legal Council, the main regulatory body for the conduct and administration of legal education and profession in Ghana, received a complaint against Elorm Ababio in order to prevent her from officially being enrolled as a lawyer and called to the Ghana Bar.
The Council received a petition filed by a “concerned citizen” because her videos online show “conduct unbecoming of an applicant called to the Bar,” according to the letter sent by the General Legal Council Secretary to Ms Ababio, Ghana Web reports. The complaint also included a flash drive with some of her online video content.
According to Ghana’s regulation of legal professions, a law student must be of “good character” to become a lawyer.
The Council needs to review the petition but in the meantime, Ms Ababio’s graduation is on hold.
A petition was launched on Wednesday to support Ms Ababio and received close to 15,000 signatures on Thursday at the time of writing.
