Amend Ghana's Constitution - HKP

Mr Kwasi Prempeh, "a regular Ghanaweb's "Say It Loud" visitor, and international legal consultant on Saturday suggested an amendment of Article 290 of the Ghanaian Constitution dealing with the manner in which an entrenched provision of the constitution could be amended.

He said: "Where the Constitution, by design or omission, has become in one way or the other a stumbling bloc to the advancement of our constitutional democracy we must be willing to consider amending the offending provision."

Mr Prempeh made the suggestion in Accra at the inaugural lecture of the maiden National Constitution Week celebration under the theme, "The Constitution and You."

Speaking on, "Eight years of constitutional rule, challenges and prospects", the renowned Ghanaian International Constitutional Law Expert, said article 290 sets an impossibly and ridiculously high requirement for amending the Constitution.

He said the article, which is also an entrenched provision, required that "after an amendment bill has gone through the Council of State and first reading in Parliament, a bill to amend an entrenched provision must be submitted for a national referendum."

Mr Prempeh said at the national referendum there must be a voter turnout of not less than 40 per cent of registered voters and at least 75 per cent of the votes cast must be in favour of the amendment.

He stressed that article 290 is needlessly costly and obstructionist and would make an amendment to an entrenched clause of the Constitution almost impossible to achieve.

Mr Prempeh said it is not necessary to hold a national referendum at each time there is a proposal to amend an entrenched clause and suggested a two-third parliamentary majority plus 50 per cent or more of all district assemblies approval for an amendment to an entrenched provision.

He devoted much of the talk to the Presidency, Parliament, Council of State, Media, Judiciary, Watchdog Committees and ministerial appointments. He said although the Constitution is only eight years old, "it is the only one in our history to have broken the curse of infant mortality that has kept each one of our previous Constitutions from serving beyond a few short years."

"There is, therefore, ample cause to treat this Constitution as special and thus honour it with an annual celebration," Mr Prempeh emphasis.

Mr Prempeh said the challenges of the Constitution are the difficult but important task of managing growing public expectations and demands amidst the reality of an impoverished sovereign.

He said that regardless of the financial health of the state, the public would continue to expect government to find solutions to the persistent public problems using whatever resources it can muster.

"This is the biggest constitutional challenge facing the new administration, as elsewhere persistent failure on the part of elected governments to find appropriate public solutions to problems has often fuelled widespread public disenchantment with constitutional democracy," the Constitutional Expert noted.

Mr Prempeh said in such circumstances the popular disillusionment must target the failed government and its policies and not constitutional democracy.

He said the way forward for governments is transparency, prudent budgetary priorities, fiscal discipline, sound economic and institutional management and an enabling environment for private enterprise to sprout and flourish.

He noted that a liberal-democratic constitution has as its foundation effective and credible system of institutional checks and balances.

It must be designed to ensure that power does not concentrate in the hands of any one office and that powers assigned to a particular office holder is limited and restrained by law and due process.

He said the 1992 Constitution provides the basic framework for constitutionalism by dividing the powers of government among three separate but interdependent branches while placing certain functions outside the realm of partisan politics.

Mr Prempeh said for constitutionalism to develop and thrive in the country certain provision, which inhibits its growth must be amended, citing the provision which gives a disproportionate amount of power to the Executive and not enough countervailing power to Parliament.

He said in a political culture where the executive has historically been overly dominant, the constitution's excessive deference to executive power creates a situation in its quality and progress would hinge too greatly on the party that occupies the presidency.

Mr Prempeh emphasised "that this is not healthy for our constitutional growth and development".

Nana Akufo-Addo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who performed the inauguration, presented awards to three second cycle institutions that excelled in a constitutional game competition.

Accra Academy, who worn the median competition, received 500,000 cedis, a plague and a dustbin, the first runner-up, Presbyterian Boys Secondary School was given four hundred thousand cedis.

Three schools, Accra High, Accra Girls and Achimota Secondary tied for the second runner-up and was each given 200,000 cedis.

The Main sponsor Ford Foundation of USA in a solidarity message commended NCCE for the foresight in initiating the process for the institutionalisation of the Constitution Week.

Other programmes lined up for the week include topical discussions on "Freedom of expression, limitations and latitudes", "Judicial review as a tool for constitutional amendment", "Consolidating Ghana's democracy the way forward" and "Problems of an election administrator in transition democracies".

The rest are "The constitution and the youth - steps into the future", "Strengthening women's participation in decision-making through cultural and traditional values, systems and practices" and "The dynamics of democratic consolidation in shaping state institutions".

There would also be durbars for the military, police, immigration, Ghana National Fire Service, Prisons and Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS). The topics for the security services include; "Insights and reflections on military-civilian relations for democratic consolidation", "Police-civilian relations for crime prevention", "Consolidating constitutional democracy in Ghana- The role of security services".