1992 Constitution flawed, review process long overdue - Sophia Akuffo

Former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo has submitted that Ghana's current Constitution has served the country well but also that a review is long overdue.

She made the observation in an interview where she expressed her views about the freedoms that the 1992 Constitution gave to citizens.

"Nobody tells me what to think, except God and nobody can tell me what to do with my time and what to say about anything going on in this country," he said reacting to her recent decision to join an anti-government picketing event.

"Thank God we have a constitution, flawed though it might be, but at least the right to say what I want to say and the freedom of conscience, that’s mine and nobody will trample on it however influential they are,” she said.

She also told host of the Upfront programme on Joy News earlier his week that a constitutional review was long overdue, positing that it should have been implemented incrementally over the years to make it a stronger guiding document.

In her opinion, the 1992 Constitution and how it was birthed should have given Ghana the perfect grounds to build successive governance architectures but that has not been the case.

Asked in an interview with Joy News (February 15) whether she was disappointed in the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, the former CJ said: “I have been disappointed with every single government we have had under this (1992) constitution…

“… because after all that we went through with the military and everything and we centered the constitution as guiding principle, at least constitutionalism should have been what should have been guiding us.

“But we have eroded so many standards, principles. It is not only the NPP government, a far as I am concerned, every government has failed us,” she emphasized.

Evolution of Ghana’s Fourth Republic

President John Agyekum Kufuor completed his second term in office in 2009 having taken office in 2000 from late Jerry John Rawlings. It was Rawlings who kick started the Fourth Republic in 1993, serving two terms till 2001.

The election to replace Kufuor was a two-horse race between Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and late John Evans Atta-Mills. The latter contesting for the third consecutive time beat Akufo-Addo in a runoff vote.

Mills died while in office paving the way for his then Vice President John Dramani Mahama to become president. Mahama won the 2012 polls but lost his re-election bid to Akufo-Addo in 2016.

Akufo-Addo beat him in 2020 with both men seeking re-election, that is their final terms in office.

SARA