Philip Addison jabs Nii Armah Ashitey

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SGT ANANI FIADZOE 10 years ago

If not a crooked and most dishonest lawyer, how could any lawyer with morals stand for Nana Addo in that bogus baselessly frivilous and vexatious appeal to the Supreme Court? Everyone knew that Nana was beaten fair and square ...
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If not a crooked and most dishonest lawyer, how could any lawyer with morals stand for Nana Addo in that bogus baselessly frivilous and vexatious appeal to the Supreme Court? Everyone knew that Nana was beaten fair and square yet he wanted the court to annul 4.6m votes from Mahama's stronghold to enable him win. Not even a mad person would make such a claim, yet Adison was dishonestly conscienceless enough to represent this old trouble-causer.

Osu people are too honorable to be represented by a scoundrel like Philip Adison.
AbasZ 10 years ago

This Anane Fiadzoe is a big fool and I could conjecture that he is sick in brain.
Can you stand as a candidate in any constituency? Kwasea like you.

This Anane Fiadzoe is a big fool and I could conjecture that he is sick in brain.
Can you stand as a candidate in any constituency? Kwasea like you.
Tuapee 10 years ago

If u ar too dump to make an intelligent comment shut up and save all of us the insults

If u ar too dump to make an intelligent comment shut up and save all of us the insults
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 ...
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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
JOE 10 years ago

URSULA OWUSU GETS EASY MONTHLY SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES AS AN MP IN GHANA, SO WHY WOULD SHE NOT SEEK RE-ELECTION DESPITE THE CHALLENGES SHE CLAIMS TO BE FACING AS AN MP?

GHANA POLITICS IS FOR LAZY AND CORRUPT PEOPLE WHO CA ...
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URSULA OWUSU GETS EASY MONTHLY SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES AS AN MP IN GHANA, SO WHY WOULD SHE NOT SEEK RE-ELECTION DESPITE THE CHALLENGES SHE CLAIMS TO BE FACING AS AN MP?

GHANA POLITICS IS FOR LAZY AND CORRUPT PEOPLE WHO CAN NEVER COMPETE FOR JOBS ON THE OPEN JOB MARKET.

MOST OF GHANA'S LEADERS COPIED, PLAGIARIZED, OR IN THE CASE OF THE WOMEN, FUCKED THEIR WAY TO GETTING A UNIVERSITY DEGREE OR POLITICAL PARTY POSITION(S).

SUCH BREED OF PEOPLE CAN NEVER COMPETE FOR, OR DO ANY OTHER JOB THAN GHANA POLITICS BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THEY CAN GET EASY MONTHLY SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES FOR NO HARD WORK DONE WHATSOEVER EACH AND EVERY MONTH FOR FOUR YEARS.

THAT'S WHY GHANA IS WHERE IT IS TODAY, BECAUSE 99.99% OF OUR POLITICIANS AND LEADERS ARE ALL FAKE, AND "CONNECTION" PEOPLE.
JOE 10 years ago

THE 1% WHO ARE NOT CORRUPT HAVE NEVET HAD THE OPPORTUNITY, OTHERWISE THEY'LL JOIN THE CORRUPT BANDWAGON.

THE 1% WHO ARE NOT CORRUPT HAVE NEVET HAD THE OPPORTUNITY, OTHERWISE THEY'LL JOIN THE CORRUPT BANDWAGON.
Salam 10 years ago

You are very stupid and an idiot to make such a baseless lies about lawyer Addison and Nana,the whole world know that NPP has a case and talking of scoundrel it is your useless father and prostitute mom that are scoundrels.

You are very stupid and an idiot to make such a baseless lies about lawyer Addison and Nana,the whole world know that NPP has a case and talking of scoundrel it is your useless father and prostitute mom that are scoundrels.
AbasZ 10 years ago

He is good and could do better.

He is good and could do better.
Peacemaker 10 years ago

U an animal who can wake up from the ground nd start thinking of going to parliament where humans go.

U an animal who can wake up from the ground nd start thinking of going to parliament where humans go.
Bryt. 10 years ago

Mr. Addison do u even stays or live in Gh at all.

Mr. Addison do u even stays or live in Gh at all.

Naaba kugri 10 years ago

Win your election first before comparing your self with the sitting mp. Nii Armah is not your coequal at this moment in time ,Addison is still an espiring candidate and not a candidate yet , go ahead and cross the first bridg ...
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Win your election first before comparing your self with the sitting mp. Nii Armah is not your coequal at this moment in time ,Addison is still an espiring candidate and not a candidate yet , go ahead and cross the first bridge
Addo Agyei K 10 years ago

Addison would be a very helpful to his constituency. Do not loose this guy or you will weep in the near future. Think before you act!!!!!

Addison would be a very helpful to his constituency. Do not loose this guy or you will weep in the near future. Think before you act!!!!!
Tina 10 years ago

adison is wrong. nii ashitey has done a lot for the constituency like street lights, markets, drains and culverts,etc. adison should not use his own blindness and enviness to spew lies.

adison is wrong. nii ashitey has done a lot for the constituency like street lights, markets, drains and culverts,etc. adison should not use his own blindness and enviness to spew lies.
Dan zango 10 years ago

Ndc's are foooooolss tweaaaa to vote for this criminal organization may Allah forbid

Ndc's are foooooolss tweaaaa to vote for this criminal organization may Allah forbid
dasco 10 years ago

go tell that to ur foolish family kwasia

go tell that to ur foolish family kwasia
dada 10 years ago

fake lawyer u betray nana kumfu addo

fake lawyer u betray nana kumfu addo
Nii Terpeh 10 years ago

Addison can do better than Nii Armah

Addison can do better than Nii Armah
Abeeku Mensah 10 years ago

If anyone in Ghana needed proof that NPP politics is damaging to Ghana then Philip Addison just gave them the answer. Addison is one of the best lawyers NPP money bought to contest the 2012 election victory of the NDC and is ...
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If anyone in Ghana needed proof that NPP politics is damaging to Ghana then Philip Addison just gave them the answer. Addison is one of the best lawyers NPP money bought to contest the 2012 election victory of the NDC and is reported to have been trained in the US. He is also aware (he would be unfit to contest otherwise) that the decentralization of local governments was sold to the public as effective way to local development via local controls and oversight. If this gimmick or bill of goods sold by the NPP and NDC was ever deemed viable with a chance of success in hell then why must representatives at Ghana's parliament be expected to bring bsvon home to their people that is derived from a corrupt horse trading that takes place in parliament? We do not elect members of parliament to fight for the interest of individual communities but for the safety, health, security and economic progress of the nation otherwise why would people not run for office as gladiators with winner take all the bacon home to constituents? We deserve better politicking in Ghana if our so-called best and brightest are this simple minded.
MC 10 years ago

its not the amount of noise one make on a political platform that makes one a good leader rather how beneficial are his policies to his people. mr lawyer please take it easy

its not the amount of noise one make on a political platform that makes one a good leader rather how beneficial are his policies to his people. mr lawyer please take it easy
Me 10 years ago

irresponsible lawyer

irresponsible lawyer

Nana Ado 10 years ago

mr.Addison do u think dat politics is about hatred and going to supreme court with this your anger.please give us break and leave this gentleman to do his work.foolish lawer!!!!!

mr.Addison do u think dat politics is about hatred and going to supreme court with this your anger.please give us break and leave this gentleman to do his work.foolish lawer!!!!!
Fuseni , Daboya 10 years ago

Stupid Fiadzo when humans are talking you also talk idiots, moron imbecile. When people are using money for investment you spend your money on idols worship, have you brains at all ? I,ve follow your contributions you do not ...
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Stupid Fiadzo when humans are talking you also talk idiots, moron imbecile. When people are using money for investment you spend your money on idols worship, have you brains at all ? I,ve follow your contributions you do not sound like a sane person.
Nana Ado 10 years ago

fuck your mother

fuck your mother
yussif 10 years ago

he should hv contested the primaries

he should hv contested the primaries
Gbo yee mantse 10 years ago

Please leave Ga seats for the Gas. Kowukrom

Please leave Ga seats for the Gas. Kowukrom
Ababio. 10 years ago

Addison is my choice. He deserves to be elected unopposed. He will be a good material paaaaa.

Addison is my choice. He deserves to be elected unopposed. He will be a good material paaaaa.
LOVE 10 years ago

Honourable Nii Armah Ashitey spoke on the day of the disaster on TV at the accident scene.He toured the accident scene on that very day.Addison give us a break.The man is a very good and humble man.He has helped a lot of peop ...
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Honourable Nii Armah Ashitey spoke on the day of the disaster on TV at the accident scene.He toured the accident scene on that very day.Addison give us a break.The man is a very good and humble man.He has helped a lot of people especially the youth.
Kofi 10 years ago

Addison will do better. He can debate in parliament to get whatever he wants.

Addison will do better. He can debate in parliament to get whatever he wants.
Jupiter 10 years ago

Addison, is Osu Police Station Polling Station still an 'Unknown' polling station? What else don't you know about Klottey Korley?

Addison, is Osu Police Station Polling Station still an 'Unknown' polling station? What else don't you know about Klottey Korley?
Amina 10 years ago

Yes we Addison sooo much n inshaa Allah he wil win come 2015

Yes we Addison sooo much n inshaa Allah he wil win come 2015

Nii Addo 10 years ago

We were told Lawyer Addison did so well during the election petition, so much that all the ladies in Kumasi fell in love with him.
Statement made by Npp activists.
May i ask why he is not contesting for a seat in kumasi wh ...
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We were told Lawyer Addison did so well during the election petition, so much that all the ladies in Kumasi fell in love with him.
Statement made by Npp activists.
May i ask why he is not contesting for a seat in kumasi where he is adored and loved?Shameless Addison,we in that constituency does not want him to go to court to defend dummy pink sheats.
WISE 10 years ago

YOU AND I WERE NOT THERE

YOU AND I WERE NOT THERE

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Philip Addison jabs Nii Armah Ashitey

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