Audio Attachment:Listen to Nana Ofori Owusu |
PPP Aspiring National Chairman, Nana Ofori Owusu has described the swearing in of Speaker of Parliament as President when President Nana Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are absent from the nation as pure "nonsense".
According to him, there is absolutely no common sense in mandating the Speaker to act in the stead of the President when the President or the Vice President is away.
Nana Ofori Owusu expounded that it would be admissible to swear the Speaker to act as President if he (President) is no more alive.
He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that this culture of the Speaker becoming Head of State is nonsensical because it means "now, we can have an international President for Ghana and local President for Ghana. That is what we are making. So we now have an international President, Nana Akufo-Addo…and we have President Mike Oquaye Snr who’s also a President”.
“There’s no sense in it. If you look into critically, I don’t think it’s anything to help our country, Ghana. Why should there be two Presidents at the same time . . . I think we have interpreted the constitution wrongly or the framers didn’t frame it correctly”.
Nana Ofori Owusu asked President Nana Akufo-Addo to stop his travels because "when you travel, you’re not the President. This is not fair for us as Ghanaians; we as a people. So now, in case of any crises, something happens in Ghana; who do we hold accountable. Is it the President at large or the local President”.
He emphasized that there will be no economic development if the leadership of the country doesn't address the constitutional problems confronting the country.
" . . we continue to look at the problem, talk around it, dance around it and then when we finish, we sit there and put our arms between our legs . . . We lie to ourselves. We deceive ourselves. And we have leaders that they have to be able to climb out of doldrums. They have to wake up. You cannot have a nation that’s competing against other nations, then you have a flaw in your constitution that’s crippling you; doesn’t allow you to do many things and then you continue to look at this book that is sitting there and point to the book that the book is the problem. The problem is leadership who cannot take the decisions to change provisions in the book. This book is not the Quran. It’s not the Torah. It’s not the Bible. This book is an enactment of a people meaning we made the book and so we have the ability to change . . . We’re such a hypocritical nation. We cannot tell the truth nor face the truth”, he said.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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Kojo Ansah makes a lot of sense. Another point - imagine there is something calamitous or disastrous that happens during the time of the absence of both Prez and VP, and in that moment we need someone physically to lead the nation, do we have to depend on telephone or whatsApp calls from the absentee President and his Vice? Certainly someone needs to act in the office of President anytime both the President and Vice are away from the country. The country cannot be left without a physical leader. Not even a school can afford that vacuum. But then the issue that should engage people's attention is the frequency of the swearing in as the constitution demands. For me, both the Speaker and the Chief Justice, both of who are required to act, in that order, for the office of President, must simply take the oath once. They may take it during their own swearing in with the understanding that they automatically assume the office of President whenever the top hierarchy are out of the country. In that case, whoever the leader is at a time can mention in his/her notification to Parliament that the next in line is acting. We don't always need to summon Parliament to do a swearing in.
Hello fellow Ghanaians. Please, is it the swearing-ins that is the problem? Or someone acting, that is the problem? Because,in our everyday lifes at our various work places, we always have someone acting for another in his/her brief absence and that does not lead to a loss in position by the substantive employee. Essentially, the President is also an employee. Otherwise, why is it even necessary that the Vice President also act for the President in his absence from the Country? To the extent that we accept that the VP acts, it means we also agree that in principle, someone should be acting in the brief absence of the President. So really, some of us think that the core arguments have been mixed up by the way this issue is being discussed presently. Let us all step back for a moment. Aside the multiple swearing-ins which I understand is Constitutional, I rather think the idea of an Ag. President when the VP is also not in the jurisdiction, makes absolute sense, at least, for day-to-day operational reasons.
if you care to know the constitution was written by Asiedu Nketia at his palm wine distillation center. he only gets inspiration to write something after taking some cups of palm wine and tots of the real stuff. so pls send ur problem to him the good thing is he is still alive. he might talk trash to u bcos he still takes the stuff and makes no sense any time he talks so be careful what time u approach him. Thank You!