constitutional review should put power in the hands of the people

Accra, Feb. 11, GNA - A legal practitioner has suggested that the review of the constitution should ensure that power resides in the hands of the people through well-structured local institutions and organs and a perfected district assembly system.

Nana Addo-Aikins said in a statement in Accra that the constitution should be largely flexible and allow comparatively easy amendments. He said what Ghana needed today was an all-involving constitutional review exercise that would produce a document that would conveniently relate to the custom, traditions and beliefs of the people. "The constitutional amendments, which Ghana needs today, should therefore not be the surface-scratching or cosmetic or window-dressing type but must be the type of constitution, which will be all-embracing and sweeping enough in order not to waste a rare opportunity for change," Nana Addo-Aikins said.

He said the constitutional amendments must also end up in giving the nation a common national political and economic direction around which governments and politicians would draw their manifestos, ideologies and development plans to help Ghana run a credible and smooth process of national development. "The political system, the party system and process for the choice of national leadership are other core issues that the constitutional review commission would need to consider," Nana Addo Aikins said. He added that functional checks and balances as well as workable forms of separation of powers were other issues that needed serious consideration by the commission. 11 Feb. 10