In the wake of calls by Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, and some individuals for the establishment of a new Constitution in Ghana, former President of the Republic, John Dramani Mahama has given a contrary view on the waging campaign.
Mr. Mahama believes the 1992 Constitution is good and has served the country for time now.
Responding to calls for the abolishment of the Constitution during a radio interview recently in Tamale, the former President intimated that, he believes more in amending the existing 1992 Constitution to live up to the exigencies of the time.
The 2020 Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) maintained that at the time the Constitution was drawn the country was coming out of a military rule into a new democratic dispensation; and we did not have the same demographics we have currently and that the population was also smaller, emphasizing that, Ghana has changed significantly since 1992 till now.
“And so the Constitution must be reviewed and amended to suit the exigencies of the time. So, I don’t believe in completely scrapping it – there are many fantastic things therein our Constitution but we can do an amendment, that, we all agree on in consensus and improve the Constitution so that it becomes a living document” he argued.
The call comes in the wake of intense pressure through social media by some section of the Ghanaian public on government to fix the economic difficulties in the country and the alleged mismanagement of state resources.
Conveners of the #FixTheCountry Movement organized a demonstration earlier in August to express their displeasure over the increasingly living socioeconomic conditions in the country. The group also believes the 1992 Constitution has given so much to the President and therefore, its lead Convener, Oliver Baker-Vormawor called for the abolishment of the Constitution.
In this regard, Mr. Mahama has called for a paradigm shift from the current dispensation where people are largely appointed based on political expediency without much consideration of their competence and capacity to the respective areas where they are appointed to serve the nation.
“So, if we can get another means by which these appointments are made so that the right competent people are sent to the right places it would be better for Ghana going forward than the current dispensation” he said.
