Renowned legal luminary Tsatsu Tsikata has opened up about the most difficult chapters of his life, declaring that his survival and recognition today can only be explained by what he calls “amazing grace.”

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express with Evans Mensah on Tuesday, he said the message he wanted Ghanaians to take away from his recent honour was simple.

“Amazing grace.” Pressed on why that phrase defined his reflections, he did not hesitate.

“Amazing grace, because I mean, standing there being honoured for a lifetime. It’s not been an easy lifetime, even from my asthmatic infancy, through the whole political situation of my trial and imprisonment.

"I could have been dead, so even a posthumous award wouldn’t have been so exciting. It would have been a bit mournful. So it was exciting for me that I could be alive on that occasion, and amazing grace truly was my abiding emotion.”

The veteran lawyer, whose career has spanned decades in law, academia and public service, said his Christian faith remains the foundation of his life and work.

“Absolutely. And on that occasion, that’s exactly what I wanted to contribute and communicate.”

For Mr Tsikata, the recognition he recently received is not about personal achievement, but divine providence.

“Truly, if I’m being honoured, whatever talents I have are not endowed by myself. I didn’t put those talents in myself. And my ability to stand in court or to give a lecture to my students, as I’ve done over the decade, none of that has been endowed by myself. So I have had a profound sense of gratitude to my maker.”

He said that gratitude deepened during his time in prison, a period he described as potentially crushing but ultimately transformative.

“And because of my particular experiences, that has been even deeper because, as I’ve often said, God meant it for good. Even when I was in prison, that time could have been a low point; I could have been depressed by the circumstances. I was in a cell with 10 other people… a lawyer and law lecture, but there I was in a prison cell.”

Yet even in confinement, Mr Tsikata said he found perspective and meaning.

“But it really, I recall my first night in prison, and that morning, before I left home, my wife and I had actually been reading from Genesis, opening chapters, Garden of Eden, an idyllic sort of setting. And I went to prison that evening.

"I wasn’t expecting to be, but it struck me that outside, the birds were still singing, and from even that window, I could see there were mountains, and there was a setting which was also a setting of God.”

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I Would Have Died By Now - Tsatsu Tsikata On Prison, Pain And Amazing Grace

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