Public sitting of Council of State advocated

A retired Supreme Court Judge, on Friday called for the sitting of the Council of State to be conducted in public for them to know whether it was discharging its duties properly, maturely and effectively.

Mr Justice N. Y. B Adade, who was delivering a lecture at the Martyr's Day in Accra said, "the public are entitled to be comforted that at least the members of the Council are putting their enormous learning and experience at the disposal of the country."

He said, "may it not be useful to amend Article 92 (3) so that instead of the Council meeting in secret as a rule, it should rather meet in public, sitting in camera only in exceptional circumstances where the interest of the public morality, public safety or public order may so required."

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) organised the lecture, which was on: "Agenda for reform of the Constitution, some policy considerations," to mark the 19th anniversary of the murder of three High Court Judges and a retired army officer on June 30, 1982.

Mr Justice Adade said there was a grey area, which sooner or later might require clarification in relationship to the Council's quasi-legislative functions. "What happens if the Council advises the President not to sign into law a particular Bill passed by Parliament? Is the President to ignore the advice and proceed to sign the Bill or is he bound by the advice, and therefore required to return the Bill to Parliament?" he asked.

Mr Justice Adade said the term of four years of a President may be cut short by death, resignation or removal from office and that the Vice President could serve the unspent portion of the President's term and asked; "But what happens if the Speaker of Parliament is forced by circumstances to assume office as President, and must call a Presidential election in three months according to Article 60 (3).

"In that event, from when do we reckon the end of the term of the Council of State?" he further asked.

Mr Justice Adade said that the clause that chiefs should not participate in active party politics runs counter to Article 17 (2) which prohibits discrimination on gender, social or economic status and stands against Article 21 (1) (a) and (b) on freedom of speech and expression.

It also stands against Article 55 (1) and (2) which gives the people the right to form or to join a political party and to propagate and disseminate its views, programmes and ideals.

He debunked the claim that politics by the chiefs would dismember their traditional areas. This to him, "is not sufficiently strong as we pretend it is, if only because whether we admit it or not, it is founded on the assumption that is bad, and if so, why don't we all stop it".

Mr Justice Adade said every citizen owns allegiance to and subject to one or the other of the several stools/skins and contested the wisdom of running the country without the active participation of chiefs in politics.

He called for deliberation of the chiefs and the giving back of their lands to them and to build local government institutions around them to generate more revenue.