Renowned legal luminary Tsatsu Tsikata has attributed his intellectual gifts and professional achievements to divine grace, insisting his talents are not self-made but God-given.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express with Evans Mensah, Mr Tsikata said the central message he wanted audiences to take away from his recent honour was simple: “Amazing grace.”

The former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation explained that the phrase captured the depth of his life journey, marked by hardship, resilience, and survival.

“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,” he said.

Reflecting on his past, including his imprisonment during the administration of John Kufuor after serving under Jerry John Rawlings, Mr Tsikata noted that the experience could have ended differently.

“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,” he added.

The celebrated lawyer, who was recently honoured by GNPC in collaboration with the UPSA Law School, said his Christian faith remains the anchor of his life and work.

“Absolutely. And on that occasion, that’s exactly what I wanted to contribute and communicate,” he said when asked about the role of faith in his journey.

Mr Tsikata stressed that his courtroom brilliance and academic contributions are not products of personal ingenuity.

“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.”

He said this belief has deepened over time, particularly through adversity, including his time in prison.

“So I have had a profound sense of gratitude to my maker. And because of my particular experiences, that has been even deeper because, as I’ve often said, God meant it for good.”

Recounting his first night in custody, Mr Tsikata painted a striking contrast between expectation and reality.

“I was in a cell with 10 other people… a lawyer and law lecture, but there I was in a prison cell,” he said.

Yet even in that moment, he said his faith reframed his experience.

“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… Garden of Eden, an idyllic sort of setting.

"And I go to prison that evening… 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.”