Seven years after serving with the Ghana Chapter of the PLO Lumumba Foundation, Dr Joseph Kobla Wemakor, Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), has found himself helping to honour the founder of the organisation that once gave him an opportunity to serve.
Dr Wemakor was appointed Deputy Head of Media and Communication of the PLO Lumumba Foundation’s Ghana Chapter in February 2019 and later served as Head of Media and Communication.
In 2026, in his capacity as Executive Director of HRRG and Founder and Convener of the HRRG Global RightsShield Awards, he became part of the leadership of an institution that honoured renowned Kenyan legal scholar and Pan-Africanist Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba.
Professor Lumumba received the HRRG Global RightsShield Award for Pan-African Legal Thought and Moral Leadership at the inaugural edition of the awards held in Abuja, Nigeria.
For Dr Wemakor, the recognition represented more than an award.
He described it as a “very humbling full-circle moment” that connected his professional beginnings with his current work in human rights advocacy and institutional leadership.
“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,” he said.
“That experience gave me the opportunity to interact with Professor Lumumba through meetings, engagements, and his public speeches, and I learned a great deal from him,” he added.
A professional connection that began in 2019
Dr Wemakor’s appointment to the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter was publicly reported by GhanaWeb in February 2019.
During his time with the Foundation, he was involved in its media and communication activities and had opportunities to engage with Professor Lumumba through meetings, organizational activities, and his public speeches.
According to Dr. Wemakor, the experience strengthened his understanding of Pan-Africanism, leadership, governance and the role of communication in promoting social change.
He said several values that continue to guide his work today were reinforced during that period.
“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,” he said.
From serving the Foundation to leading HRRG
Dr Wemakor’s career has since expanded from journalism and communications into human rights advocacy, civil society mobilisation and institutional leadership.
As Executive Director of HRRG, he has been involved in human rights campaigns, media advocacy, youth development, and civil society initiatives.
HRRG later established the Global RightsShield Awards as an international recognition platform for individuals and institutions whose work contributes to human rights, democracy, justice, civic freedoms, sustainable development, and human dignity.
The inaugural awards, held in Abuja under the theme “Championing Human Rights and Democratic Renewal,” brought together a diverse group of African and international personalities and institutions.
Distinguished inaugural honourees
The inaugural 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 range of recipients reflected the awards’ focus on contributions across human rights, democratic governance, diplomacy, digital rights, youth development, local governance, and sustainable development.
Ing. Dr. George Asiedu was recognised for sanitation and sustainable cities leadership, while Hon. Alfredos Nii Anyetei was recognised for his contribution to local governance, inclusive development, and community transformation.
Within the same inaugural class, Professor Lumumba was honoured for his contribution to Pan-African legal thought and moral leadership.
Why Professor Lumumba was recognised
HRRG said Professor Lumumba was selected for his contribution to legal scholarship, ethical leadership, constitutionalism, good governance, and African unity.
The citation accompanying the award recognised 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.
He has held senior positions in Kenya and has undertaken extensive academic, legal, governance, and public policy work across Africa.
His lectures and public engagements have also made him a prominent voice on African leadership, governance, constitutionalism, and development.
“In 2019, I was the one being given an opportunity”
For Dr Wemakor, the most striking aspect of the recognition was the reversal of roles 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,” he said.
He said the award should not be viewed simply as HRRG honouring an individual but as an African institution recognising the contribution of an influential African thinker.
“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,” he said.
The influence of ideas and mentorship
Dr Wemakor said his experience demonstrated how exposure to influential African thinkers can shape the professional development of emerging leaders.
He acknowledged that Professor Lumumba might not be fully aware of the extent to which his speeches, ideas and example have influenced people who encountered his work.
“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,” he said.
For him, the recognition was therefore both institutional and personal — an acknowledgement of Professor Lumumba’s contribution to African intellectual thought and a reflection on an important chapter of his own professional development.
A journey that has come full circle
The journey from the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter to the HRRG Global RightsShield Awards represents a notable progression in Dr Wemakor’s professional career.
In 2019, he joined an organisation inspired by Professor Lumumba’s Pan-African vision in a communications capacity.
Seven years later, he was leading a Ghanaian human rights organisation that had created an international platform to recognise contributions to the same broad values of human dignity, responsible leadership, good governance, and African solidarity.
For Dr. Wemakor, the experience reinforces the importance of mentorship, institutional opportunities, and the lasting influence of ideas.
What began as an opportunity to serve with the PLO Lumumba Foundation Ghana Chapter in 2019 had, by 2026, come full circle—with Wemakor becoming part of an institution honouring the founder whose ideas and example had influenced his professional journey.
