Seven Years Later: How Dr. Wemakor Went From Serving PLO Lumumba’s Foundation to Honouring Its Founder

Seven years after serving with the Foundation’s Ghana Chapter, HRRG Executive Director Dr Joseph Kobla Wemakor reflects on the experiences, ideas, and values that shaped his journey to human rights leadership.

Some professional journeys are defined by the positions people eventually occupy. Others are better understood through the people they encounter, the institutions they serve, and the ideas they carry forward.

For Dr. Joseph Kobla Wemakor, Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), the decision to honour renowned Kenyan legal scholar and Pan-Africanist Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba in 2026 brought one of those journeys into sharp focus.

Seven years earlier, Dr Wemakor had served with the Ghana Chapter of the PLO Lumumba Foundation, first as Deputy Head of Media and Communication and later as Head of Media and Communication.

In 2019, he was part of a team helping advance the communications and advocacy work of an organisation built around a Pan-African vision.

In 2026, as Executive Director of HRRG and Founder and Convener of the HRRG Global RightsShield Awards, he found himself helping lead an institution that was recognising the founder of that organisation.

For Dr. Wemakor, the experience represented a deeply personal professional milestone.

He described it as a “very humbling full-circle moment.”

An opportunity that became a formative experience

Dr. Wemakor’s association with the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter began in February 2019, when he was appointed Deputy Head of Media and Communication.

His appointment was publicly reported by GhanaWeb at the time, marking the beginning of a professional association that would later become an important chapter in his journey.

He subsequently served as Head of Media and Communication, becoming involved in the Foundation’s communications and advocacy activities.

The role also provided him with opportunities to interact with Professor Lumumba through meetings, engagements and his public speeches.

Reflecting on that period, Dr Wemakor said the experience went beyond the responsibilities attached to his position.

“My relationship with Professor PLO Lumumba is not one I can describe simply as that of an admirer of a great African scholar. I had the privilege of serving with the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter, first as Deputy Head of Media and Communication and subsequently as Head of Media and Communication.”

“That experience gave me the opportunity to interact with Professor Lumumba through meetings, engagements and his public speeches, and I learnt a great deal from him.”

According to him, those encounters strengthened his understanding of Pan-Africanism, leadership, governance and the role of communication in promoting social change.

Lessons that stayed

Professional roles change, institutions evolve, and people move into new areas of responsibility.

But some lessons remain.

For Dr. Wemakor, his period with the PLO Lumumba Foundation strengthened a number of values that continue to inform his work in human rights advocacy and civil society.

“Looking back, I realise that some of the principles that guide my work today — human dignity, responsible leadership, Pan-African solidarity, youth empowerment and the importance of using communication to influence social change — were strengthened during that period of my journey.”

Those values have since found expression in his work across human rights advocacy, media engagement, youth development, civil society mobilisation and institutional leadership.

His professional journey has expanded considerably since his time with the Foundation, eventually leading him to the Executive Director position at HRRG.

From communications to human rights leadership

Under Dr. Wemakor’s leadership, HRRG has continued its work in human rights advocacy, media campaigns, youth development, civil society engagement, and sustainable development.

The organisation has also supported civil society mobilisation and advocacy around issues affecting human dignity, democratic accountability, and social justice.

In 2026, HRRG introduced the Global RightsShield Awards as its flagship international honours platform.

The inaugural awards were launched and presented in Abuja, Nigeria, under the theme:

“Championing Human Rights and Democratic Renewal.”

The awards sought to recognise individuals and institutions whose work demonstrated leadership, integrity, measurable impact, and exceptional contributions to human rights, democratic governance, civic freedoms, diplomacy, digital rights, sustainable development, and human dignity.

An inaugural class spanning Africa and beyond

Professor Lumumba was not the only distinguished personality recognised at the inaugural awards.

The first class of honourees included Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama; Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; Ms. Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri of Spaces for Change, West Africa; Ing. Dr. George Asiedu, Coordinator of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP); Hon. Alfredos Nii Anyetei, Municipal Chief Executive of the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly; Joshua Elikplim Adjei, Programme Officer of HRRG; Eminence Lead International LBG; and international digital rights organisation Access Now and its RightsCon Global Team.

The breadth of the inaugural class reflected HRRG’s intention to recognise leadership beyond traditional political and public-office categories.

The recipients represented different areas of impact, including democratic leadership, diplomacy, human rights advocacy, civic space protection, sanitation, local governance, youth empowerment, digital rights, and community transformation.

HRRGxs own published account of the inaugural awards identifies Professor Lumumba as a recipient of the Pan-African Legal Thought x Moral Leadership Award, while also documenting the recognition of the other inaugural recipients.

Why Professor Lumumba was honoured

Professor Lumumba was selected for the HRRG Global RightsShield Award for Pan-African Legal Thought and Moral Leadership in recognition of his contribution to legal scholarship, ethical leadership, constitutionalism, good governance, and African unity.

The citation accompanying the recognition highlighted his intellectual leadership, ethical courage, and sustained advocacy for constitutionalism, good governance, and African unity.

Professor Lumumba is widely recognised as a Kenyan legal scholar, public intellectual, and prominent advocate of Pan-Africanism.

His professional career has included senior positions in Kenya, as well as extensive academic, legal, governance, and public-policy engagements across Africa.

Through his lectures, speeches, and public interventions, he has become one of the continent’s prominent voices on African leadership, constitutionalism, governance, and development.

“In 2019, I was the one being given an opportunity”

For Dr. Wemakor, the most striking part of the 2026 recognition was the change in circumstances between 2019 and 2026.

“In 2019, I was the one being given an opportunity to serve under the platform Professor Lumumba had built. Today, in 2026, I find myself in the position of leading an organisation that is recognising him.”

That change, he said, was a reminder of how professional opportunities can evolve into something much larger over time.

The recognition, therefore, was not simply about an award.

It was about the relationship between learning and leadership, mentorship and responsibility, and ideas and institutional action.

One African institution recognising another

Dr. Wemakor said he viewed the recognition within a broader African context.

“I see it as one African institution recognising another African institution of thought — a man whose ideas, speeches, scholarship and example have influenced many of us who continue to work for a better Africa.”

For him, Professor Lumumba represents more than an accomplished legal scholar.

He represents an intellectual tradition that challenges Africans to think critically about leadership, governance, responsibility, and the future of the continent.

That influence, Dr. Wemakor noted, extends beyond people who have had direct personal relationships with Professor Lumumba.

“I know what I learnt”

One of the more reflective aspects of Dr. Wemakor’s account is his acknowledgement that influential people may never fully know the extent of their impact.

“Professor Lumumba may not know the full extent to which his words and example have influenced people like me. But I know what I learnt.”

The statement captures the less visible side of mentorship and intellectual influence.

Influence does not always require a formal mentoring relationship.

It can happen through speeches, books, public lectures, organisational engagements or simply observing how a leader articulates a vision.

For young African professionals, those encounters can become important building blocks in their own development.

A journey shaped by communication, advocacy and service

Dr. Wemakor’s professional trajectory illustrates that progression.

His early work in communications provided a foundation for subsequent involvement in human rights advocacy and civil society.

His work at HRRG has since expanded into institutional leadership, human rights campaigns, youth development, media advocacy, and civil society mobilisation.

The establishment of the Global RightsShield Awards represents another stage in that institutional journey.

The platform seeks to recognise individuals and institutions whose work demonstrates that leadership can take many forms—from strengthening democratic institutions and defending civic freedoms to improving sanitation, promoting local governance and advancing digital rights.

In that context, the recognition of Professor Lumumba became both an institutional acknowledgement and a deeply reflective moment in Dr. Wemakor’s professional journey.

From one chapter to another

The journey from the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter to the HRRG Global RightsShield Awards is not a straight line.

It is a story of different chapters connected by common values.

In 2019, Dr Wemakor joined an organisation associated with Professor Lumumba’s Pan-African vision.

He gained experience, encountered new ideas, and developed a deeper appreciation of the relationship between communication, leadership, and social change.

Years later, he assumed leadership of a Ghanaian human rights organisation with its own international recognition platform.

That platform then honoured Professor Lumumba for many of the principles that had helped define his public contribution.

A full-circle moment and a continuing journey

The recognition of Professor PLO Lumumba at the inaugural HRRG Global RightsShield Awards, therefore, represents more than another entry in an awards programme.

For Dr Wemakor, it represents a moment of reflection on how people and institutions can influence professional journeys in ways that only become apparent years later.

An opportunity to serve can become an opportunity to learn.

An opportunity to learn can become an opportunity to lead.

And leadership can eventually create opportunities to recognise and inspire others.

What began in 2019 with an appointment at the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter had, by 2026, come full circle.

Dr. Wemakor had moved from helping communicate the vision of an institution associated with Professor Lumumba to helping lead an institution that recognised the scholar himself.

For HRRG, the moment also underscores a broader institutional commitment: to recognise African and global leaders whose ideas, courage, integrity, and service contribute to human dignity and a more just and democratic society.

For Dr. Wemakor, however, the lesson is perhaps more personal.

The people who influence us may never know exactly where their influence will lead.

But the responsibility of those who receive that influence is to carry the best of those lessons forward—through service, advocacy, leadership, and the creation of opportunities for others.

And that is what makes this particular journey come full circle.