Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, has said the government should have shared its position on the constitutional review process with the committee before it completed its work.

According to him, speaking on JoyNews on August 3, 2026, it was expected that the committee's recommendations would differ from the government's position because the committee was independent and consulted a wide range of Ghanaians.

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"First of all, we have to accept it would be a miracle if, indeed, there was no substantial divergence between the product of the committee and the government's position.

"The committee is drawn from outside of government, drawn from outside of the political class. It was given a far-reaching mandate that included canvassing opinion across the length and breadth of the country,” he said.

Prof Prempeh explained that the committee engaged people from different backgrounds and did not limit its consultations to government officials or influential people.

“We consulted with the establishment, went beyond the establishment, elite sections of society, went to the general public, and met people where they lived.

"Now, that kind of a committee, following that kind of process, is certain to come to conclusions different from a government position,” he stated.

He said, looking back, the committee would have benefited if the government had presented its own proposals before the consultations ended.

"Now that I look back, it would have been helpful if the committee had had the government's position as input… So I think it would have been useful if the government had a particular view of the constitution review that it made available to the committee, its view as input rather than as output,” he added.

He noted that having the government's position earlier would have allowed the committee to seek public opinion on those proposals before finalising its report.

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“Because we consulted very broadly and were accessible and reached out and wanted to talk to everybody.

"Then we could validate some of the things that they want out of this process. Within our consultations, we could throw the issues out and just get public reactions to it,” he concluded.

MAG/BAI

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