Dr Lloyd Amoah, the founding Director of the University of Ghana Centre for Asian Studies, has suggested a constitutional amendment to legally allow presidents to appoint ministers outside parliament.
Such a review, according to him, “will give presidents the liberty to appoint experts outside their political party based on merit and competence”.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) democracy month roundtable in Accra, Dr Amoah indicated that “such strict separation of powers in terms of personnel and functions will prevent legislators from being influenced unduly by the executive arm of government.
“What we have is where the Legislature is expected to provide personnel for the executive is a matter of engineering, if it’s not working, we should find a way to fix it for presidents to have free hands to appoint constitutionally.
“The amendment is expected to be done legally, we begin to think about quality personnel, if we amend the constitution, presidents can cast their net wide to look for the general populace to see those who have skills, knowledge and capacity,” Dr Amoah stated.
Maame Darkowa Awindor, an international trade law expert, observed that the nation’s democratic dispensation, in its current form, does not allow freedom and justice for the ordinary voter and insisted that “the country’s fragile democratic system has simply become an avenue for the rich and elite to amass wealth at the expense of the poor voter.
“The current system benefits only the party elites, think about it, the same people who give you power are the same people you’re robbing, you don’t care about their needs, why is it that the same people you give power to, who are supposed to be serving you are now your lords? We should devise a system that puts the common man first,” she proposed. -classfmonline.com
