Council of State relevant – Rawlings

Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings has said that the Council of State plays a critical condition in the development of the country and should not be abolished.

Several critics have said that the council of state is a waste of national resources because there is a cabinet that advises the president of the country on important matters.

However, he argues the two “have different roles clearly outlined in the constitution” and cannot be scrapped.

He emphasised that the council of state “is not one of the institutions in the 1992 constitution of Ghana that should be abolished.”

He said it grew out of the African traditional system of governance where a king or chief becomes as “good only as the elders who surround him.”

Mr Rawlings who was speaking at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) on the role of the Council of State as part of the Accra Dialogue event on Wednesday, August 16, 2016 said the traditional elders served as a check for chiefs and similarly, the council of state is supposed to serve as an advisory authority to keep the president in check.

He said individuals with a high sense of honesty, wisdom, spirituality, patriotism, courage among others are supposed to be appointed on to the council of state but “unfortunately, some members of the council over the recent years do not have these qualities.”

Even though he supports the council of state as an institution, he was of the view that certain changes need to be made in order to make it more effective in delivering the mandate outlined in the constitution.