A former member of the Council Of State has characterised the composition of the Counsil Of State as problematic.
He was speaking today on the Big Issue on Citi Fm about the relevance of the Council Of State and its usefulness in recent times.
Even though Dr. Dzani believes the Council is relevant to the democratic dispensation we find ourselves in, he believes the composition of the Counsil has been influenced by partisan political elements.
“I think that the issue and problem of the Council of State is the way it’s been politicised in recent times. And that is what we have to look at, it’s constitution and what we can do about it”, the former member said.
Dr. Dzani was a representative of the Greater Accra Region on the Council during his time and the quality he saw on the Counsil was not encouraging.
By this he said; “I would say the quality of the members of the Council of State is not too good. I mean you have to call a spade, a spade. I have served on the Council of State and sometimes you’ll realise that the political parties, especially the ruling government, always try to influence those who serve on the Council”.
Constitutionally, the members on the Council are required to be non-partisan in the dealings as Council members. Yet, the President has the power to appoint at least 11 members.
It has been reported in the past that the President is seeking to increase his appointing power to 17 members. Apart from that, those who constitute the Electoral college for the Council of State include party executives and some appointed heads of State bodies.
Furthermore, Dr. Dzani added that, “Sometimes we go on the Council of State meetings and out of 25, maybe the people who actually contribute to debates maybe 10. No it’s not right”.
“Apart from that the Council of State is very important. Recently, you saw that the Council of State tried to intervene between the Minority and Majority on the issues that happened in Parliament. And that is bringing some decency in Parliament. I can tell you that nobody or organ will be able to do that apart from the Council of State”.
The issue surrounding the Council of State is as a result of how a recent member, Together Afede XIV, returned an amount of more than Gh 350 ,000.00 as ex-gratia paid to him as an end-of-service benefit as a member of the Council of State. This brought about the conversation about the relevance of the Council.
Togbe Afede upon receiving his ex-gratia was not comfortable with it. For believed his duty as a Council of State member was mostly part-time. For him, it was inappropriate to receive such huge amount of money after receiving salaries and enjoying other benefits during his time as a member of the Council of State.
Dr. Dzani commented on the action of Togbe Afede as ‘personal’ and that should be respected. But it is ‘constitutional’ that all members who serve on the Counsil received their ex-gratia. He supposed that ‘perhaps others may follow suit in future’.
Some experts who were on the show also shared similar opinions as to why the state is paying huge sums of money to a body, whose opinions are not binding on the Executive arm of government.
However, the general belief is that, the body is constitutional and all that comes with it is constitutional. Until the constitution is changed, all other things remain.
