The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba, has urged Africans to return to their countries’ concepts and values in governance and the rule of law to create a culturally authentic constitution for their countries.
“Africans are constantly living by the standards of other foreign countries and their colonial masters, instead of living according to their progress, growth and development which has put the continent in a state of schizophrenia and keeping Africans from fully developing as a continent,” he decried.
According to Prof. Atuguba, as Africans, continuously living by the standards of others, when they had their own standards to live by, always kept them in a state of schizophrenia was unfortunate and clearly seen in the way their constitutions and governments were set up, thereby putting them at disadvantage while aiding their colonial masters.
He made the call at a virtual forum on the theme: ‘Talk and Discuss-What Type of Constitution Does Ghana Need?” which was organised by We R uS, a non-profit organisation in Ghana helping communities initiate self-help projects to improve communities and livelihoods of the people and avoid over-dependence on governments.
It served as platform to discuss growing urge for change on the continent with Africans calling for review of their constitutions and governmental institutions to bring into actualisation the African citizens’ vision.
Prof. Atuguba advocated African countries to carry out extensive constitutional review, which sought to address current needs of the continent which should be the way forward for empowerment of the continent because the current constitutional system had left them with unenforceable economic and social rights.
“It has made Africans disadvantageous since economic and social rights forms part of predominant issues on the continent, which needs to be addressed under constitutional system and to successfully achieve culturally authentic Constitution, we must first identify and seclude aspects of our Constitutions that are hinged on western liberalism which occupy entirely our constitution thus disrupting our governance.
“I encourage the continent’s leaders to revisit initial indigenous attempts made at the time their constitutions were being drafted to gain more insights into needs of ordinary citizens and ways to incorporate them into their Constitutions which must be traditional.
