40 Years National Development Plan, A Call For A Second Chamber Parliament

“86 (vi) such other persons as may be appointed by the President having regard to their knowledge and experience of the relevant areas and roles pertaining to development, economic, social, environmental and spatial planning.” Constitution 1992.

Certainly a nation without priorities is doomed to fail and no nation shall prosper without the mind-set of the people tuned to march the objectives of the state of affairs of the nation. Under Article 55.3 of the constitution 1992, the framers of the constitution urged political partiesto disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character.

Propagating information on political ideas, social and economic programmes cannot be done in a vacuum or without a plan in place or could vague promises be conjured on the altar of one term office political agenda. It must be resolved to include a long term programme proposals which all citizens of Ghana can access and debate upon from which they shall make informed opinion to elect a political party into office notwithstanding the bases of a political presidential candidate.

Surely an Act of Parliament can compel each political party to create a long term national development programme such that technocrats under Article 87 and others appointed by “the President” shall help them marshal and manifest their programmes if they should win the mandate of the people and get into office. That surely would become the thrust and cluster of ideological insignia into “Thinking Ghana” against vain political promises made on the altar of political campaign platforms, one term political manifesto.

We then shall manifest not to trust the confidence in man but shall chain him down from mischief by the law that the political party endorsed and the bases for which he was elected the President of Ghana.

But that is not the best. Every now and then, the people of Ghana are refused the opportunity to harness a living programme that shall benefit the people at every single opportunity the nation glosses around. Among what the nation suffocates of are developmental programmes that includes our electoral process, fiscal, spatial and structural programmes.

The clue lies with the determination to empower a section of the people with “a second thought” authority and not to make the decision of a political party in power as the alpha and omega of decisions of our nation Ghana. We need a countervailing authority to represent the state of Ghana visa Vis a political party in power.

That is why it is wrong to shoulder political parties under Article 55.3 with the mandate to sponsor candidates for election to public offices without the basic requirements of a countervailing authority to check on a government a political party shall produce knowing very well that, the President of Ghana is the Government of Ghana under this constitution 1992.

Would it not be prudent to assign and mandate qualified Ghanaians nominated, appointed and elected to officiate in their capacities as so required under Article 86 with the power to enforce adherence that shall gear mother Ghana’s desired goals for the grandchildren of our children yet unborn?

The National Development Planning Commission is supposed to consist of the Government Statistician, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, a Minister responsible for finance and such other Ministers of State as the President may appoint; one representative from each region of Ghana appointed by the Regional Co-ordinating Council of the region, such other persons as may be appointed by the President having regard to their knowledge and experience of the relevant areas and roles pertaining to development, economic, social, environmental and spatial planning, a Chairman who shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the Council of State,

The mandate of the commission includes development planning policy and strategy, study and make strategic analyses of macro-economic and structural reform options; (b) make proposals for the development of multi-year rolling plans taking into consideration the resource potential and comparative advantage of the different districts of Ghana; (c) make proposals for the protection of the natural and physical environment; (d) make proposals for ensuring the even development of the districts of Ghana by the effective utilisation of available resources; and (e) monitor, evaluate and co-ordinate development policies, programmes and projects.

What other things would the people of Ghana desire more than the enumerated strategies contained under Article 87 of this constitution 1992?

To make a better twist, the capacity of the President to appoint members to the commission must be taken away from him and entrusted to organizational representatives qualified by their given standards as so indicated under Article 86 (6) of the constitution1992 to form a Second Chamber Parliament.

This move would subdue and overhaul our belligerence to developmental programmes we have long yearn for as a nation and power centeredness on political party shall wane and allow sanity in our multi party democratic expedition.

“86 (vi) such other persons as may be appointed by the President having regard to their knowledge and experience of the relevant areas and roles pertaining to development, economic, social, environmental and spatial planning.”

It is painful serious misgivings hunted the creation of the constitution 1992 and more painful as realism was not assigned to the position of the President to the extent that, the president is exalted and made an imperial President in this 21^stcentury. It is all the more painful how the Parliament of Ghana has become a subservient to the Executive President and the council of state, serving as any other commission of the President – advisory body.

It must be noted here that, those who sponsor a presidential candidate to the office as the President of Ghana have their bite to take in return for monetary and fiscal support offered him. Facts are stubborn and that no political party in Ghana can gainfully rely on membership dues to enter into elections.

Politicians have to lobby business people with assured and guaranteed promises of lofty enterprise upon winning election from which they shall recoup and make extra gains towards an incoming elections. Gainful business is sweet.

Sponsors of Presidential candidates and winning compels patronage as he cannot under any circumstance have all the monies required to enter into election to usher him into office himself or the political party he belongs to owns businesses of its own to which management dedicates some proceeds as reserved amount towards electoral campaigns. That is why it is necessary for a countervailing authority to check on government extravagance.

The executive authority vested in the elected president is also being carried out by his favourites and minions called subordinates under Article 58, 3 and 4 of the 1992 constitution of whom he appointed under Article 78(1),79.(1) and 256 (1 and 2); not to mention those in other statutory bodies including emissaries.

These groups of people receive additional sponsorship from other angles other than their political parties, thereby increasing the chains of political patronage in our system, leading to exhaustive political corruption though.

This ironically prompts the call for a second chamber parliament that shall be distinct from political party government as their source of membership to the house shall not have relations to political party in government.

Without a countervailing authority to check on the excesses of a given government, guess the state of a government that won an election with heavy debt lingering over its neck?

Where a dual chamber existed, members engaged under Article 87 of the constitution 1992 for the purpose of national development planning commission and are members of the second chamber parliament who do not wholly retire after any general election, are enough pillar to bond successive governments of the necessities to continue to follow a programme in the political party methodical manners, to execute programmes commenced by a previous government so expressed under Article 35.7 of the constitution 1992.

A second chamber parliament tailored to much the United States senatorial electoral system per the United States constitution Article 1 section 3 is the panacea of national development goals we so cherish today as there would be at all times some members of a second thought agenda who endorsed a programme of national character and are destined to continue their process as members of the house of second thought to see events fold and unfold without the executive power cajoling to reverse their mandate knowingly that to secure two thirds of the membership of the house to reverse the decision shall be time and financial wasting.

If we maintain the British system again, we would cherish the continual presence of people who endorsed and passed into law a programme that was destined to take place of national character.

We are however stricken by a situation where parliament ends its term of office with the elected Executive President and the Council of State, that is all the major political stake holders shirk their responsibilities with laxity at about the same time. A vacuum indefinite until the elected President consults and appoints those he shall appoint for the purposes of engineering his mandate. This is the imprudent posture of our constitution that requires the entire nation to rush to rectify this anomaly and invent a Second Chamber Parliament that shall serve as an extended parliament with countervailing authority to the presidency and the Parliament of Ghana which he is munificently embedded into it.

“Article 1 SECTION. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year;” the United States Constitution.

If we truly want to practice democracy, we must not relent to learn from those who have been in practice of the same vocation all their lives, among them the Great 8 nations of the world. United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan, Jamaica, India, Germany, Russia, Malaysia and on and on…

It is evident that of all the 50 states that sums up United States of America, except Nebraska, have dual chamber parliaments. The United States as a state also is made up of Two Chamber Parliament. France and almost all the western European countries have dual chamber parliament serving

Financial discipline requires self determination to do and it is much associated with the few of societies. Those in the helms of affairs of a nation must endure, assimilate, and in cooperate this discipline to guide the nation against bankruptcy and failure.

For the sake of financial discipline, prudence and economic sustainability, Safe Democracy Ghana reiterates that, a Second Chamber Parliament to be made up of representatives from within and without Trade Union Congress and Ghana labour union, selected independent constitutional bodies and representatives each from membership of the Ghana Peace Council and 10 members from the National House of Chiefs of Ghana and ten females Queen mothers from the Regional Houses of Ghana is enough grounds to have people to represent the state of Ghana to serve as the countervailing authority either than political party affiliate to buttress development in peace for the children of Ghana yet unborn.

Munir Saani

Executive Secretary

Safe Democracy Ghana