CeDI-Africa Calls on the President to Review

GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER RENDERS CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW A MERE ACADEMIC EXERCISE

CeDI-Africa Calls on the President to Review

One of the fundamental charges of the Constitutional Review Commission established by President J.E.A. Mills of blessed memory in January 2010 was to lead Ghanaians on a Consultative Review of our 1992 Constitution which “… cumulatively, must move the Constitution from a political document to a developmental document, shifting from the politics of democracy to the economics of democracy, so that Ghanaians may look at it as the source of renewed hope for the future”. The final report of the CRC contained recommendations in line with the issues and concerns that the people of Ghana overwhelmingly declared as what should be done to our constitution to help engender national unity, peace and development as well as to “put national development planning on a firm and non-political pedestal”.

The Chair of the CRC, on presenting the final report noted that “there was an overwhelming call by Ghanaians throughout the country for the institution of a long-term, strategic, and relatively permanent National Development Plan in order to steer the nation into prosperity. The Commission agrees with the people of Ghana and recommends that a new National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) be established by the Constitution as an independent constitutional body, with dedicated funding, charged with the development of a National Development Plan. The new NDPC should be composed of technically competent representatives of major political parties, traditional authority, the private sector, civil society and all regional planning officers. As far as is practicable, the Plan itself must be based on the Directive Principles of State Policy and must be long-term, strategic, relatively permanent, binding, and holistic, covering both the hard and soft aspects of development. This will improve the current practice of short-term planning and the reliance on political party manifestos that do not garner broad consensus. It will also address the spate of abandoned projects all over the country. Any citizen may enforce the Plan in a court of law or other adjudicatory body. The Plan, including any changes to it, must be approved by Parliament. The Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should be responsible for implementing the Plan and the NDPC responsible for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Plan and submitting annual Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) reports to Parliament. The annual budgets of the government would have to be completely consistent with the Plan. This mechanism will ensure that government expenditure is effectively disciplined, especially during election years”.

We see in this statement, the will of the Ghanaian people to;

- take ownership of the development of this country

- end the tale of abandoned projects with every change in power

- untie the development of the nation from the short term visions of politicians which often go as far as the next election.

It is the view of CeDI-Africa that the rejection of this, the most fundamentally significant recommendation of the CRC makes the almost two years of consulting with Ghanaians within and outside the country a mere academic exercise. The $6.8 million spent on the exercise may thus, not be justified after all.

The government White Paper states, inter alia, that;

“whilst the Government accepts the Constitution Review Commission’s recommendation for a comprehensive, long-term, strategic multi-year rolling National Development Plan, it does not agree with the Constitution Review Commission that:

(a) the provision for the development of the National Development Plan should be entrenched; and

(b) the National Development Plan so developed should be binding on all successive governments and enforceable at the instance of any person or institution.

Propositions (a) and (b) will have the effects of a command model of development planning and tie the hands of successive governments to the ideological interests and policies of a particular political party”.

Again, “government does not accept the Constitution Review Commission’s recommendation for a constitutional amendment to change the National Development Planning Commission from an advisory to and independent constitutional body. The proposal would place executive power and functions in the hands of technocrats who do not have any mandate to govern and whose actions can sometimes reflect partisan political orientations”.

We find it strange that even when the CRC has recommended that the NDPC should be made up of “technically competent representatives of major political parties, traditional authority, the private sector, civil society and all regional planning officers”, government still holds the opinion that a particular political party’s ideology and interests will be foisted on successive governments. This response is caste in the same old evil of seeing everything through partisan lenses and often derailing the course of national development in the pursuit of unhelpful parochial partisan interests. It is not for nothing that Ghanaians want the hands of politicians “tied” by the law to give assurance that the national dream will not be subject to the whims and caprices of politicians who have over the years toyed with the developmental agenda of this country. Government has clearly thrown the will of Ghanaians back to our faces while staying with the old order which has not achieved much for us over the past 20 years.

CeDI-Africa finds this even more appalling considering that it amounts to a grave deviation from the precepts of democracy which calls for government of the people, by the people and for the people. What is a democracy then, if the overwhelming will of the people can be disregarded in this manner?

Cedi-Africa calls on President John Dramani Mahama to review the White Paper towards showing more regard for the overwhelming will of the people of Ghana. We have come of age and the work of the CRC presents a rather fine opportunity to turn things around for the betterment of the nation.

On behalf of CeDI-Africa:

Bernard Ohemeng-Baah

Executive Director (0547 016 209 / 0