The Forum for Governance and Justice commends the NDC Government for accepting 90% of the recommendations contained in the report of the CRC. We also welcome the announcement by Government that it will soon set up a five-member committee to facilitate the process of amending the 1992 Constitution.
Clearly, the commitment of government in this very historic national exercise must be commended. This commitment is manifested in the good sense of government in educating the media, the NCCE, and the Regional Houses of Chiefs on the report as well as well as on its whitepaper.
However, we wish to encourage government to reconsider the remaining 10% of the recommendations made by the CRC, especially the inclusion of the National Development Plan. We also call on the Council of State and Parliament to help ensure the inclusion of the rest of the recommendations because of the fidelity of the report, the rigorousness of the research methodology, the breadth of the recommendations – covering all aspects of the good governance as well as very difficult subjects such as ethnicity, partisan politics and corruption.
As an organisation interested in good governance and working to entrench our democratic culture as a nation, the FGJ must express its deep disappointment with the dorsal posture of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) regarding this exercise, occasioned by the very constitution based on which our current system of governance is predicated.
We wish to call on the NPP to reconsider its stands that the CRC report is not a priority and to join us in our call for a 100% acceptance of the recommendations. If the reported position espoused by the Chairman of the NPP is the official position of his party, it calls into question the commitment of the NPP in as far as the supreme law of the land is concerned. For example, the people will ask why a party that believes in the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution adopt such a causal position in relation to a report based on 83,161 submissions received from the very people it hopes to rule?
We strongly believe that the recommendations will only improve our Constitution, a living document. Therefore, in the national interest, we wish to use this opportunity to call on all political parties, professional organizations, civil society organizations, community groups, religious organizations, labour unions and youth groups to support the call for the inclusion of all the recommendations made by Ghanaian, both home and abroad.
It is our opinion that the Constitution Review Commission has managed the review exercise fairly, credibly and transparently. The good people of Ghana have expressed their views on the operation of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution and, in particular, the strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution.
Signed
Dr. Clement A. Apaak
Convener, Forum for Governance and Justice - Ghana
020 011 7620
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