SOURCE: GRAPHICONLINE
A senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, Dr Alidu Seidu, has called for a review of the 1992 Constitution in line with current dynamics.
He said there was the need to consider the prevailing issues, economic dynamics, as well as global political matters and power and “see how we can mainstream the emerging dynamics into the Constitution”.
Dr Siedu was speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra.
He underscored the importance of the 1992 Constitution in underpinning the country’s democratic process by providing a stable democratic environment, where development and a lot of aspirations had been able to come into fruition.
Weaknesses
Dr Seidu explained that experimenting some issues on the political front that were anticipated over a number of years had shown weaknesses where people were able to explore and satisfy their personal interest rather than the collective interest.
“So, moving forward, it is important to say that this Constitution has been able to superintend a very stable democratic system that we have never witnessed in this country. It has been able to recognise and provide prevailing power at least, in principle, to the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. This Constitution has been able to give us a lot of media freedom that a lot of countries in the sub-region have never enjoyed,” he said, adding that “the media freedom is very important because the media is a very important organ of our democratic process that brings about transparency and accountability and hold governments to check”
According to him, wherever media freedom was stifled, democracy never thrived and that the 1992 Constitution had provided an enabling space for media freedom to succeed.
Again, he said the Constitution had created the opportunity for the private sector to participate in the development and democratic process through the inclusion of civil society organisations and other private bodies that could contribute meaningfully to the country’s development.
“So I think, socially, culturally, politically, economically, the conduct of international relations and foreign policy, this Constitution has provided guidelines for our engagements,” he said and indicated that the directive principle of state policy for instance was apt in couching governance processes, how power should be handled, among other things’’.
Threats
In spite of all those gains in the Constitution, he said new developments had posed threat to the beautifully – crafted Constitution.
“But 30 years is such a long time that a lot of things have changed. The political economic nature, the governance process and the order of power at the global scene, the order of power at the continental level and a lot of political changes in within the Ghanaian context. So it suggests that most of the things that were prescribed in the Constitution are now being challenged by current political developments and circumstances that were not envisaged at the time the Constitution was being drafted,” he said.
