Politics

 Legal practitioner reiterates Constitution review to reduce flaws

 Martin Kpebu, a legal practitioner, has reiterated a review of the 1992 Con­stitution in order to reduce the flaws.

“The 1992 Constitution is no longer fit for purpose so we need to review it to reduce the flaws because the ongoing motion of censure pro­ceedings in Parliament has thrown into the limelight some of the many flaws of the constitution which must be reviewed as soon as possible to prevent future constitutional crises,” he indicated.

Mr Kpebu explained that with the Constitution demonstrably not fit for purpose, it was only right that it be reviewed extensively as soon as possible to prevent future constitu­tional crisis.

His comments were based on as­sertions by Dr Amoako Baah, a po­litical science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the country might just be headed for constitu­tional crisis should the President continue to remain entrenched in his resolve not to sack Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, even after he has been censured.

Article 82 Clause 5 of the 1992 Constitution states: Where a vote of censure is passed against a Min­ister under the article the President may, unless the minister resigns his office, revoke his appointment as minister.

According to Dr Baah, the use of “may” instead of “shall” does not obligate the President to heed the counsel of Parliament in the is­sue and thus the President through his refusal to remove his minister will create a constitutional crisis.

He indicated that he had said it several times for the past six years and was being manifested because every chapter in the Constitution there was a problem which could lead the nation into constitutional crisis and questioned what would happen after the vote for censure and the minister does not resign and the President does not remove him.

Agreeing with the lecturer, Mr Kpebu pointed out that he hoped in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, candidates would couch their campaign messages around the need for a constitu­tional review.

“So for the next government coming and even assuming President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo does not leave with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia we have to wait till 2024 and constitutional review should take centre stage of the elec­tion.

“A candidate to be able to win massively will have to promise us a quick constitu­tional review, we have seen the Constitution is no longer fit for purpose, we have to redesign it, cut down the powers of the Executive President, ensure Members of Parliament (MP) will remain MPs and ministers will be ministers and we will no longer want MPs to be minis­ters at the same time since we have learnt hard lessons from that,” Mr Kpebu stated.

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