Politicians benefiting from delay in constitution change - African Reform Movement

Dr Nii Amu Darko, President of the African Reform Movement (ARM), says the lack of zeal towards amending Ghana’s Constitution is because politicians are benefiting from certain provisions in the Constitution.

“The fear on the part of successive Governments over calls being made for a change in Constitution is because it serves their needs. Good men can make a bad constitution better but bad men will even destroy a good constitution and abuse every provision in it. This is our situation in Ghana now,” he said.

Dr Darko made the comment on Saturday at the African Reform Movement Grand Opening meeting in Accra.

He bemoaned the winner-takes-all attitude, which allowed ruling Governments to occupy majority of political appointments and suggested a proportional representation in Government.

Winner-take-all or winner-takes-all is an electoral system in which a single political party or group can elect every office within a given district or jurisdiction.

Proportional representation is an electoral system that creates a representative body that reflects the overall distribution of public support for each political party.

It allows majority or plurality systems to effectively reward strong parties and penalises weak ones by providing the representation of a whole constituency to a single candidate who may have received fewer than half of the votes cast.

Systems of proportional representation have been adopted in many countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Mr Darko urged citizens to intensify their calls for change in the constitution and punish underperforming Governments by voting them out of power.

He declared his intention to contest in the 2024 Presidential election and urged the citizens to look beyond the duopoly of NPP and NDC and try a new alternative.

Mr Kwasi Kyei Darkwah, popularly known as KKD, a Ghanaian Broadcaster, said the duopoly of NPP and NDC had failed to develop Ghana as expected.

“This duopoly is is only working for the few politicians who get the position they need in one of these two. The average Ghanaian suffers,” he added.

He said Ghana could only advance if vices such as nepotism, ignorance, arrogance, selfishness, greed, conflict of interest and corruption were eradicated.

KKD urged participants to be daring and challenge the status-quo, adding that, the best minds in the world were those who challenged existing thoughts.

“In the days of old, countries were great because they had armies and ammunition. In today’s age, nations are great because they have thinkers and thought leaders. Everyone of us must be a thought leader,” he said.