The Coalition on the Right To Information, Ghana has urged the president to appoint only persons who have proven records of commitment and defense of human rights to the RTI Commission.
They cautioned against the appointment of ‘ignorant’ persons unto the Commission which is expected to oversee the implementation of the Right to Information law.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, a member of the coalition, Akoto Ampaw stated that “we don’t want any party activist K3k3, whether the person is a party activist or non-party activist, the person must have a proven record of commitment and defense of human rights”.
“We don’t want any ignoramus to be appointed as commissioner Mr. President. We don’t want the person doesn’t know the job to be appointed as commissioner,” he added.
The Coalition also called for an ‘effective mass education’ of the population on the provisions of the law and their rights under the law whilst adding that there should be a provision of the necessary resources, such as funding, to make the law work.
The RTI Bill was first drafted in 1999, reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007 but was only presented to Parliament in 2010. But it could not be passed due to the many recommendations of amendment. It was brought back to the Sixth Parliament but could not be passed till the expiration of that Parliament on January 6, 2016.
Momentum to get the bill passed swelled in 2017 following the formation of the Media Coalition on RTI. The Coalition with support from other civil society organisations in the past 11 months, piled pressure on Parliament to get the Bill passed.
