President John Evans Atta Mills will today inaugurate the Constitutional Review Commission at the Castle Osu. A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the review of the 1992 Constitution presented the first opportunity for assessing and reforming the current constitution.
However, a constitutional lawyer, Professor Kofi Kumado, has described the proposed review of the 1992 Constitution as an act of Misplaced priority. He suggested that the $3 million earmarked for the exercise should be channeled into rural development projects. Stressing the need for the review, Mr Ablakwa said all political parties in their 2008 election manifesto hinted the need to review portions of the 1992 Constitution.
He said the review would be national in character, consultative, non-partisan and would also take the views of Ghanaians in the Diaspora. Mr Ablakwa said the process would involve key steps which would include the preparation of a detailed proposal for constitutional review complete with a detailed work plan and monitoring framework and a detailed budget, fund-raising, and office set-up.
In a letter to the Editor of the Daily Graphic in reaction to the government�s intention to carry out a review of the 1992 Constitution, Professor Kumado questioned the basis for a referendum just about a year before parliamentary and presidential elections.
�What sort of prioritisation is this?� he questioned.
Professor Kumado said in the face of the massive problems and deprivations the majority of Ghanaians suffered on a daily basis, the money to be spent would constitute a gross misuse of public funds on an exercise �which can only be self-indulgence by the literate�.
He said he was shocked and dismayed after reading the news in the Daily Graphic, because in his view, the news item meant �the literate among our society continue to indulge themselves at the expense of the rank and file of our people�.
�Give me the money to build public toilets throughout the country. The benefits will touch everyone of our long-suffering people. What is more, the benefits will contribute concretely to our national development agenda,� he said.
A Cabinet memorandum on the Consultative Review of 16 years of the operation of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana submitted by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, outlined the road map for the constitutional review process.
According to the memorandum, the Electoral Commission (EC) would be required to hold a referendum and declare the results in October/November 2011.
The memorandum said when the constitutional proposals were submitted to Parliament, they would be considered and facilitated in October, 2011.
Since independence in 1957, Ghana has tested several constitutional models. The 1957 Constitution, modelled after the Westminster system, was repealed in 1960, when Ghana became a sovereign unitary Republic under the 1960 First Republican Constitution.
The 1960 Constitution was abolished on February 24, 1966 when a coup d'etat ushered in the first military government in Ghana under the National Liberation Council (NLC).
The NLC vested both Executive and Legislative powers in itself but preserved the judicial functions of the Judiciary. The coups d�etat and constitutional experiments continued until the 1992 Constitution was adopted.
A national referendum towards amending the entrenched provisions of the 1992 Constitution as part of next year�s constitutional review exercise has been projected to cost $1.5 million.
The entire constitutional review is estimated at US$2.7 million, with the government contributing 20 per cent of that amount and the rest coming from donor sources.
Amending the entrenched provisions of the Constitution, which deal mainly with the Transitional Provisions, entails one of the most costly and elaborate processes under the supreme law of the land.
Under Article 290 of the Constitution, it has to begin with the Speaker of Parliament referring the proposals for amendment to the Council of State for its advice, after which �the Council of State shall render advice on the bill within 30 days after receiving it�.
The bill shall then be published in the Gazette but it shall not be introduced in Parliament until after six months after the publication in the Gazette.
�After the bill has been read the first time in Parliament, it shall not be proceeded with further unless it has been submitted to a referendum held throughout Ghana and at least 40 per cent of the persons entitled to vote, voted at the referendum and at least 75 per cent of the persons who voted cast their votes in favour of the passing of the bill.
�Where the bill is approved at the referendum, Parliament shall pass it. Where a bill for the amendment of an entrenched provision has been passed by Parliament in accordance with this article, the President shall assent to it.�
After 18 years of operation, the 1992 Constitution has come under intense scrutiny, with some advocates calling for its review, while others contend it is too early to undertake such an exercise.
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