It is time to fix the Constitution where it is broken – CDD Executive Director
Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD), Henry Kwasi Prempeh has called for a review of the 1992 Constitution to address its shortcomings.
According to him, the current Constitution, which governs the activities of the Fourth Republic, is the worst of its kind as it promotes the welfare of state officials as against the average citizen.
“Frankly, unlike the Constitution of the First Republic, this Constitution is, from a governance and People-centered perspective, easily the worst Constitution in our political history.
“It is also the most profligate, in the sense that it invites wasteful growth in the size of government and in public expenditure. No wonder it has both attracted and spawned a political class in its own image,” he stated.
Mr Henry Prempeh noted that the 1992 Constitution does not place a limit on the number of constituencies that could be created and the number of representatives in Parliament, unlike the 1969 Constitution that provided a fixed number of constituencies.
He also said the constitution permits Members of Parliament to receive salaries, allowances and gratuity, although their actions recently have landed the state in several judgement debts due bad contracts.
For him, the manner in which the Constitution was designed does not provide an effective framework to ensure that financial loss to the state caused by Parliament is checked as MPs have the luxury to engage in private initiatives aside from Parliamentary duties with the permission of the Speaker.
“So, how exactly are our MPs working for us full-time as MPs? And what have they done for us lately? How many billions of cedis or dollars have our MPs saved us since 1993? Indeed, is our Parliament, as currently designed and operating, capable of saving us much at all? I doubt it.
“Well, this is the kind of Parliament and MP the 4th Republican (1992) Constitution has provided. And this is only a small slice of it. It does not get better.”
He, therefore, called for the immediate rectification of parts of the Constitution in the many places where it is irredeemably broken.
“The 1992 Constitution has lasted longer than all the rest, only because, we the people are tired of and reject coups and the disruption and retrogression they bring and entail. The longevity of this Constitution is not because there is something intrinsically superior or great about the Constitution itself; there isn’t at all.
“But this should not mean we must continue to put up with whatever is served us in the name of the Constitution,” he added.
Source: Ghana News
