Gender Ministry salutes new EC Boss

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Close Observer 10 years ago

ALL WE HAVE HAD FROM THE USELESS NDC GOVERNMENT IS DIVISION AND TRIBAL DISCRIMINATION.
NOISY AND DISRESPECTFUL FIIFI KWETEY THE CHARLATAN ECONOMIST, TERKPER AND MAHAMA MUST STOP THE FREE FALL IN THE VALUE OF THE CEDI. That b ...
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ALL WE HAVE HAD FROM THE USELESS NDC GOVERNMENT IS DIVISION AND TRIBAL DISCRIMINATION.
NOISY AND DISRESPECTFUL FIIFI KWETEY THE CHARLATAN ECONOMIST, TERKPER AND MAHAMA MUST STOP THE FREE FALL IN THE VALUE OF THE CEDI. That baby with sharp teeh, Fiifi Kwetey who calls himself an economist, insulting sensible people who understand economics well from the days of serial caller till Atta listen to him and made him a minister still doesn't have a solution to the free fall of the cedi. Mahama and his useless NDC PARTY have never done anything good to the Cedi ever since they broke into the political limelight in Ghana 26 years ago. They only create problems for others to solve. Today, if you don't dig your own borehole, you won't get water flowing in your tap like it is in every other civilized country. The less I talk about electricity, the better. It has become normal for patience to sleep on benches in buildings labelled as hospitals. Corruption and bribery is at its highest peak. Citizens who have traveled abroad to seek better life are robbed at our ports of entry of their belongings in the form of custom duty charges. What a country? Ghana can do better if these useless group of people who have been given good 26 years to show us what they can do but have nothing good to show, are kicked out of office in 2016, and a competent political party is elected. VOTE MAHAMA AND HIS MEDIOCRE NDC GOVERNMENT OUT IN 2016 AND GET THE LIFE YOU DESERVE TO LIVE BACK.
Mahmoud 10 years ago

Appointing the Chairman and Members of the Electoral Commission
Columnist Asare, Kwaku S
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has called upon the President “to seize the opportunity of the appointment of a new Chairman of the ...
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Appointing the Chairman and Members of the Electoral Commission
Columnist Asare, Kwaku S
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has called upon the President “to seize the opportunity of the appointment of a new Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) to appoint a person of integrity who is perceived as capable and just and who will not pander to political pressures from any quarters.” According to the GBA, such an appointment will boost the image and credibility of the Commission.

I agree with the GBA on the attributes that the new Chairman of the EC must possess and strongly disagree with those who argue that the GBA’s call is, “at this time, highly unnecessary and uncalled for.” The tenure of Dr. Afari Gyan, the current Chairman of the EC, ends in November 2015 and it is not out of place for the GBA, or other stakeholders, to remind the appointing authorities to emplace a mechanism that assures that a competent and independent person can be identified and appointed.

Nevertheless, I am concerned that the GBA’s call overestimates, perhaps misunderstands, the President’s role in the appointment of the Chairman of the EC and has the potential to mislead the President into taking actions that will be ultra vires and inconsistent with his powers under the Constitution.

I start by acknowledging the breadth of the President’s appointment power under the Constitution. However, the nature of the power is position dependent, ranging from absolute, where the President acts alone, to perfunctory, where the President is required to appoint someone nominated by another body. For instance, the President has the power to appoint 11 members of the Council of State, 4 members of the Judicial Council and 2 members of the Police and Armed Forces Council. That power is absolute in that it is exercised solely at the discretion of the President without the involvement of any other constitutional body. On the other hand, the President appoints some officers, such as the Auditor General, in consultation with the Council of State while others, such as ministers, are appointed with the prior approval of Parliament.

The framers of the Constitution have imposed varying levels of constraints on the President’s appointment power for democratic, governance, prudential and historical considerations. Analyzing and understanding the nature of the President’s appointment power is, therefore, important to assuring that the power is exercised in the manner dictated by the Constitution.

In the Table below, I describe my understanding of the constraints that the Constitution imposes on the President's appointment power ranging from a Level 1 power (pure or absolute power) to a Level 10 power (perfunctory or ministerial power). In addition to the pure and perfunctory powers, I identify other appointments for which the President wields consultative, shared, or approval power. Consultative power means the President is required to consult another body prior to making an appointment. Shared Power means another body has to approve the President’s nomination. Approval Power means the President approves a nomination made by another body. Perfunctory power means the President is required to appoint persons nominated by other bodies. That is, the President has no involvement in selecting the nominee and no discretion in the appointment. Thus, the appointment power is merely ministerial involving no more than a mandatory appointment letter issued by the President. The process for appointing some public officers may involve a combination of powers. For instance, the President may be required to consult with the Council of State, hence a consultative power, and the nominee must be approved by Parliament, hence a shared power.

In addition to the Level and Nature of the power, the Table also provides the language employed by the Constitution and the positions for which the appointments are made. On close inspection of the Table, one observes that, as a general rule, the more independent the appointee is supposed to be in the performance of his task the more perfunctory the President's power. Such appointees also tend to have good-behavior life tenure. Conversely, the President typically acts alone to appoint persons who are part of bodies set up to advise him. These appointees tend to serve at the pleasure of the President or have tenure that is tied to the President’s. In effect, the nature of the President’s appointment power is remarkably nuanced and underscores the framers’ intention to subject the power to intricate and ingenious checks and balances.

As can be seen from the Table, the President’s power to appoint the Chairman and Members of the EC is at level 9a, which means that the power to make that appointment is perfunctory or ministerial. This is because Article 70(2) provides that, “The President shall, acting on the advice of the Council of State, appoint the Chairman, Deputy Chairmen, and other members of the Electoral Commission.” The plain and ordinary meaning of Article 70(2) is that the President is obliged to act on the advice of the Council of State in appointing the Chairman and Members of the EC.

There are two important points about the “advice” contemplated in Article 70(2). First, it is a term of art. Advice, in constitutional law, is a binding instruction given by one constitutional officer to another. It is not “advice” in the everyday meaning of the word. Second, the advice must be in the form of an appointee not some attributes of the appointee. That is, the Council of State is required to give the President a nominee to appoint not advice in the form of, for instance, “Mr. President, we advice you to choose a man of integrity.”

The use of “advice” as a binding instruction has a long history in our Constitutional history. For instance, Section 16 of the 1957 Constitution provides that “the Governor-General, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, appoints parliamentary secretaries to assist ministers.” Similarly, Section 7 of that Constitution provides that, “any minister may be removed from office by the Governor-General acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.” The Prime Minister at that time was Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and the Governor-General was Sir Charles Arden-Clerk [from March to June 1957] and the Earl of Listowel [June 1957 to June 1960]. It was, of course, well established, known and beyond dispute that the Prime Minister’s advice was binding on the Governor-General. Thus, the latter’s appointment power was merely perfunctory and the substantive power of appointment was vested in the Prime Minister. Moreover, it was also understood that the Governor-General played no role in the identification, vetting and selection or removal of the nominees, that power being vested in the Prime Minister.

As another example, both the 1969 (Article 30(2)) and 1979 (Article 37(2)) Constitutions provided that, “the Electoral Commissioner shall be appointed by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State.” This simply meant that both President Edward Akufo Addo (1969-1972) and Hilla Liman (1979-1981) had a perfunctory appointment power with the substantive power to appoint the Electoral Commissioner vested in the Council of State. The framers of the 1992 Constitution did not break any new grounds in the process for appointing the Chairman and Members of the EC and clearly intended the meaning of advice as employed in the prior Constitutions.

Nor is that usage and meaning of advice unique to our constitutional history. The phrase originated in the United Kingdom and is still in use many common law jurisdictions. For instance, in the United Kingdom, the Queen appoints senior judges acting on the advice of the Prime Minister. In Canada, the Queen acts entirely on the advice of Canadian Government ministers. In Jamaica, the Governor-General, the Queen’s representative, acts in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister. In all these cases, it is well understood that the advice given is binding and the Queen and Governor-General exercise only perfunctory powers.

Thus, when Article 70(2) of the 1992 Constitution provides that the President shall act on the advice of the Council of State, it contemplates that the Council of State (Council) will put in place a mechanism to search for, vet and nominate a candidate for the President to appoint. The Council could do so in a variety of ways. First, it could work through a committee of the Council. Essentially, this becomes a Search Committee tasked to identify a short list of qualified persons for the Council to choose from. Second, the Council is permitted to commission experts and other consultants to advise it. It could do so here. Third, the Council could advertise the position or call on citizens, political parties, NGOs, etc. to nominate candidates either to the Council at large or to the Search Committee. Finally, the Council could use my least favorite approach ? choose someone from within the EC, probably from the other members or a respected senior staff.

The important point is that Article 70(2) not only obligates the President to appoint whomever the Council nominates but it also bars the President from sending a name or otherwise consulting with the Council prior to the nomination. This process can be contrasted to the level 2 appointments where the Constitution contemplates a consultative process. For instance, the President appoints the District Assemblies Common Fund Administrator acting in consultation with the Council of State. By creating subsections of Article 70, the framers highlighted that the process for appointing Article 70(1) officers differs from that of Article 70(2) officers.

The rational for assigning the President a perfunctory role in the appointment of the Chairman and Members of the EC is not far-fetched. The EC is, in essence the political referee of the quadrennial political games, and it is flawed constitutional design for the President, a key political player, to have an active role in the EC’s appointment. Incidentally, this, in my opinion, is also the reason why Parliament is excluded from this appointment process. It would have been absurd to assign the President a critical role in the appointment process and exclude Parliament, hence the opposition parties, from the process. Thus, a purposive interpretation of Article 70(2) will also support the conclusion that the President’s power to appoint the Chairman and Members of the EC is only ministerial.

The framers operated on the assumption that the Council is an independent, non-partisan body and could be trusted with the task of essentially appointing the Members and Chairman of the EC. Thus, the Council's independence and integrity are critical to the effectiveness of this appointment scheme. Nevertheless, because the President has a level 1 power to appoint 11 out of the 25 Council members, it is important that any process established by the Council to discharge its Article 70(2) function is transparent and verifiable. Without a high level of transparency and verifiability, it is impossible to know whether the President has acted on the advice of the Council or impermissibly acted in Consultation with the Council. Thus, sound governance and prudential considerations will require the Council to employ a transparent nomination, vetting and selection process. The Council must not only act independently of the President, in the discharge of its Article 70(2) responsibility, it must go the extra mile to be seen to be independent.

In conclusion, the President’s power to appoint the Chairman and Members of the EC is merely a ministerial one. The substantive power of appointment is assigned to the Council of State. The President shall act on the advice of the Council of State means the President is barred from the nomination, vetting and selection process. Those who framed the Constitution were keenly aware of the impropriety inherent in allowing the President, a political player, to play a critical role in selecting the political referee. Nevertheless, out of deference for the office of the President, the framers allowed him, as the Chief Executive Officer, the honour of “appointing” the candidate selected by the Council of State. In this case, all the President is required to do is to issue the appointment letter under the Presidential seal but no more.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/egs6snslw2arrs7/Modern%20Ghana%20Table.docx?dl=0
Nana Ansah 10 years ago

Congrats Lady Osei! JDM Good Job!

Now my ten personal tips for Lady Osei in order to stay at the top as the EC chairperson are as follows:

1. Do not commit to anyone that is by maintaining your indepedence you become t ...
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Congrats Lady Osei! JDM Good Job!

Now my ten personal tips for Lady Osei in order to stay at the top as the EC chairperson are as follows:

1. Do not commit to anyone that is by maintaining your indepedence you become the mistress in your own right.

2. Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use your enemies. See friends are the best betrayers so keep a selected few in the inner circle.

3. Always listen and say less than necessary that way you don't risk any
faux pas. You are better off by passing no comment i.e. no Statement, no judgment, no Argument.

4. Conceal your intentions and come out with the surprise effect in your actions which catch people off guard.

5. Win the hearts and minds of Ghanaians through your actions, never through Argument.

6. Renew or recreate yourself time and time again. Be bold sometimes stubborn if the occasion demands.

7. Plan all the way to the end and walk it through over and over again before execution. Play on peoples need to believe to create a culture of following.

8. Keep your hands clean but never appear too perfect. You are after all human. Do not Isolate yourself but also not all over the place.

9. Make your accomplishments seem effortless. Opt for change but never too much at once.

10. Guard against your reputation if necessary with your life and when required crush those who like to sully your reputation with full force of the law.

Go, go Lady Osei! God bless Maame/Daavi Ghana.
OMANBA 10 years ago

What is special about her appointment?Is she the first woman to be appointed to a very high office in Ghana?I hope positive discrimination will not be used to appoint women to higher positions.

What is special about her appointment?Is she the first woman to be appointed to a very high office in Ghana?I hope positive discrimination will not be used to appoint women to higher positions.
yaw 10 years ago

Nana stop eating too much. You look like pig

Nana stop eating too much. You look like pig
Civilized Eagle! !! 10 years ago

Go tell that to your stupid Mother. Foolish Loser!

Go tell that to your stupid Mother. Foolish Loser!
Eric the icecool 10 years ago

Senseless slave shut up, tanii ba

Senseless slave shut up, tanii ba
Civilized Eagle! !! 10 years ago

All you dirty mouth jerks who have nothing sensible to contribute other than showering hurtful insults! Watch out because you will be taught how it feels to be unjustly insulted also.

All you dirty mouth jerks who have nothing sensible to contribute other than showering hurtful insults! Watch out because you will be taught how it feels to be unjustly insulted also.
ADAMU 10 years ago

BBCNEWS IN PARLIAMENT CONTINUES TO DEEPEN TRIBALISM DAILY ON THE NET AGAINST AKANS ...HAVE U SEEN IT?

BBCNEWS IN PARLIAMENT CONTINUES TO DEEPEN TRIBALISM DAILY ON THE NET AGAINST AKANS ...HAVE U SEEN IT?
ADAMU 10 years ago

STOP BORING OUR EARS, DIDNT BETTYMOULD DUPE GHANA OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN FAKE JDGT DEBTS DESPITE BEING THE FIRST FEMALE ATTORNEY GEN?.....NDC HAS LOTS OF SUCH LADY VAMPIRES IN POWER AND IN OFFICE AND OUT OF OFFICE ...LIK ...
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STOP BORING OUR EARS, DIDNT BETTYMOULD DUPE GHANA OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN FAKE JDGT DEBTS DESPITE BEING THE FIRST FEMALE ATTORNEY GEN?.....NDC HAS LOTS OF SUCH LADY VAMPIRES IN POWER AND IN OFFICE AND OUT OF OFFICE ...LIKE BETTYMOULD, VICCI HAMMAH, HANNAH TETTEH, ETC ETC....THESE ARE REALLY WICKEEEEEEED NDC WOMEN WHO ARE WORSE THAN SHARKS AND VAMPIRES.

Asamoah Forson 10 years ago

You call this a minister???.

You call this a minister???.
Alidu Mohammed 10 years ago

Salute who? Think about how your corrupt practices seduced your deputy which finally drew her into a huge saga. You thought you are done and that you are getting another corrupt mind that will create a ballot stafing presiden ...
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Salute who? Think about how your corrupt practices seduced your deputy which finally drew her into a huge saga. You thought you are done and that you are getting another corrupt mind that will create a ballot stafing president to get you a ministerial appontment..eeerh? And that your bald head husband to go to supreme court to advertise his prime arrogance...eerh? Tofiakwa. God will make you pay for all the injustices you have caused ghanaians. If you ever did anything to influence the election petition, I speak wth authority that God's curses will clothe you in all your endeavours and this will follow you till the 7th generation of your descendants. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Nana oye say Amen too!
fuzi 10 years ago

orgly woman like beasts know how to pay money to twist the arm of judges to rule in their favour in election petition.what has your dead ministry did when you criminals ndc promises to give ghanaians social protection when th ...
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orgly woman like beasts know how to pay money to twist the arm of judges to rule in their favour in election petition.what has your dead ministry did when you criminals ndc promises to give ghanaians social protection when the same gov.is destroying fellow ghanaians properties in sodom and Gomorrah
Alidu Mohammed 10 years ago

Do you have to be worried about these idiot criminals and vanpires? Their days are numbered. They are gang of criminal fools who only know how to steal, destroy and wreck the nation. And another section of stupid fools in the ...
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Do you have to be worried about these idiot criminals and vanpires? Their days are numbered. They are gang of criminal fools who only know how to steal, destroy and wreck the nation. And another section of stupid fools in the society who are suppose to know better sre also accepting these filty bribes to help them collapse our contry. A judge who doesn't know what an over voting is... very criminal and stupid. Yet they shamelessly come out and tell us to respect norms and be morally upright. Idiots. God will make all that they have stolen be enjoyed by their enemies
Eric the icecool 10 years ago

You are too fat and buzz senseless.

You are too fat and buzz senseless.
Civilized Eagle! !! 10 years ago

ERIC THE INSANE JERK! I don't think you know how nasty the Eagles can be with fools like you on Social Media! You've been showering insults where ever you show your stupid head . Ask some reformed guys who used to do filthy t ...
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ERIC THE INSANE JERK! I don't think you know how nasty the Eagles can be with fools like you on Social Media! You've been showering insults where ever you show your stupid head . Ask some reformed guys who used to do filthy things like what you doing and they will tell what a Pain we can be on Morons like you around the clock.
yaw 10 years ago

Two wrong s don't make it right. Pls let us call it as it's is. As fat as pig is the truth. Come on. Leave your mum out of this.

Two wrong s don't make it right. Pls let us call it as it's is. As fat as pig is the truth. Come on. Leave your mum out of this.

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Gender Ministry salutes new EC Boss

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