Legal luminary Tsatsu Tsikata has revealed he was taken aback by the high-profile attendance at an event held in his honour, describing the moment as both surprising and deeply humbling.

Speaking on Joy News' PM Express with Evans Mensah, the former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) CEO recounted his experience at the 2026 Honorific Lecture and Award ceremony in Accra.

“It was quite exciting. And truly, there were some people I did not know were meant to be there, like the Vice President and the Chief Justice. I thought it would be a little academic gathering,” he said.

The event, organised by GNPC in collaboration with the UPSA Law School, drew an unexpectedly influential audience, transforming what Tsikata had anticipated would be a modest academic engagement into a major national moment.

“And it was, it was humbling to have such a great crowd of witnesses as I said in my speech, in an important way because there were a lot of students,” he noted.

For Mr Tsikata, the presence of students was particularly meaningful, evoking memories of his own formative years.

“And it took me back to student days when I too was encouraged by the occasions when people came to speak to us and so on,” he added.

The overwhelming enthusiasm of the students, however, came with its own demands.

“The enthusiasm of the students ended up being a bit crushing for me, because afterwards, picture taking and so on, that was actually a longer thing than standing to make my remarks,” he said.

Despite the unexpected scale and intensity of the moment, Tsikata described the ceremony in simple but emphatic terms: “But it was a wonderful occasion.”