The Member of Parliament for Lawra-Nandom, Benjamin Kunbuor has criticised suggestions for an amendment of the 1992 constitution of Ghana because there is no basis for any such undertaking.
According to him, it?s rather what he calls negative practices that need immediate amendment. ?It is how we interpret the Constitution and use it to serve parochial political interests, that is what needs to be amended and not the Constitutional document?.
Dr Kumbuor whose NDC party called for amendments during the latter stages of its 8-year term, was reacting to the call by Supreme Court nominee Justice Stephen Allan Brobbey for the amendment of the 1992 Constitution when he faced the Parliamentary Appointments Committee. His explanation was that 10 years is a long enough time for the Constitution to be amended to meet the current developmental needs of the country.
Citing the number of judges who could be appointed to the Supreme Court that has been severally described as a problematic interpretation, Dr. Kunbuor submitted that whether there is an upper ceiling or not, that itself cannot be problematic if the people practicing the Constitution choose to keep the number of justices to the Supreme Court within low limits.
He was of the view, that the so-called Constitutional gaps that informed the call for amendments, must be based on the country?s historical past as well as its present demands and not on anybody?s attempt to make suggestions that would tie the country down to limits that can create serious constitutional crisis for the nation.
Dr. Kunbuor himself a legal practitioner, further accused the ruling government of manipulating provisions of the Constitution to serve its purposes and insisted that ?that is the constitutional crisis that we have. To suggest that you can amend a provision of the constitution to address even things you cannot anticipate is an exercise in futility?.
The Lawra-Nandom MP therefore called on Ghanaians to take a critical look at the Constitutional provisions to be able to determine how according to him, ?the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is interpreting the provisions to serve its own political purposes?.
Dr. Kunbuor did not end there. He also criticised efforts by president Kufuor to promote his ?Special Initiative?. ?It is one of the absurd things in the NPP?s policy initiatives. If anybody has any initiative in this country, it is the peasant farmer in the village, not president Kufuor?.
He sees the naming of the initiatives as the ?President?s Special Initiative?, as ?self aggrandisement? on the part of the president. To him, what is necessary is for the president?s team to deliver.
?Let the president?s team deliver, nobody will take it away from them even if they do not label it as the president?s initiative?, Dr. Kunbuor said. Dr. Kunbuor accused the government of simulation, saying, what it is doing is to create a world of virtual reality, making people believe that things are happening when in fact, nothing is going on.
