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29.04.2023 Feature Article

Open Letter To The Citizens On The Constitutional Intention On The Vice President

Open Letter To The Citizens On The Constitutional Intention On The Vice President
29.04.2023 LISTEN

Fellow Citizen, the documenting of national issues and educating the public on authentic facts on national issues for national development as the fixing the Ghana Agenda continued unabated since these facts beside for the ongoing national development will also be very beneficial to future generations for them to appreciate what happened/relevant issues in the political (governmental) life of the Country in the past. So as a seasoned senior citizen, I deemed it as a national and godly duty to bring to the appreciation of the citizenry of Ghana on some of the constitutional intentions of some Constitutional issues on the front burner which are among other public concerns may call for the amendments of the 1992 Constitution and for that reason the citizenry will be called upon to exercise their franchise in referenda to amend entrenched clauses as catalogued at Article 290 of the 1992 Constitution.

Folks, It must be noted that entrenchment guarantees constitutionalism, since an entrenched clause is politically difficult to amend, consequently, a binding effect on future incarnation (generations).This is necessary based on both the history of the Country and the rich experiences of the framers of the Constitution. Hence, the amendment of the entrenched clause was made to demand or to ensure critical thinking on constitutional issues. Unfortunately, the debates on the national/Constitutional issues are based on mainly flimsy emotions of the populace thus lacked substance or not very fruitful may be due to lack of proper research for the constitutional intentions and or not much related to the history of the Country. Hence, this submission is an attempt to help fill the gap.

Fellow Citizen, some persons have been saying that due to the allegation by some persons with legal mind that most of the framers of the 1992 Constitution in 1992 were veranda boys and girls or Middle School Leavers and it was made to satisfy the then Chairman of the PNDC (Flt Lt JJ Rawlings) the debates on Constitutional issues should be left to people with legal mind and astute academicians in political science, economy and related subjects to lead in the debate and come out with the best option.

The assertion that some of the framers of the Constitution were mostly middle school leavers demo that despite the affected person present day paper qualifications, they lacked the understanding that a Constitution is just a document with the supreme laws of the Nation that tells how a government is structured, that is with rules that determine the powers and duties of the three arms of Government namely the Judiciary, the Executive and Parliament, the terms of representation and guarantees certain rights. These are documented in higher laws, which are harder to change that is they cannot be unilaterally changed by ordinary Act of Parliament but give room for the amendment of the Constitution when necessary. The 1992 Constitution like any other constitution globally is exactly that.

So, the woefully failed to understand that the 1992 Constitution is actually based on our past history hence was based on the democratic principles set up by the previous Constitution of 1957, 1969 and 1979 and some issues in the era of PNDC like Decentralization and Local Government. A check of the 1979 Constitution by them will have silenced them because it will have revealed that the 1992 Constitution differs slightly from the 1979 Constitution by the Ombudsman which metamorphosed into CHRAJ, Local Government and Administration changed to Decentralization and Local Government(District or Local Councils or Local Authority became District Assemblies) . Also in the 1992 Constitution, it is permissible for the President to nominate members of Parliament as Ministers. , Lastly, the exclusion of the Vice President from the membership of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the deletion of National Service in the 1992 Constitution otherwise both have the same provisions including the indemnity clause to protect members of previous military regimes of NLC, NRC, SMC and AFRC.

The only aspect that was done by Parliament in 1996 and not the framers to please the then President Rawlings was the amendment of some provisions of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1996 (Act 257) on the Police Council (Article 201), Armed Forces Council (Article 211) and Prison Service (Article 206) in 1996 to strip off the Vice President as the Chairman of these Governing Councils granted by the framers of the Constitution to the Vice President. This was done by a seemingly one party rule in 1996, one party rule because of no opposition party in Parliament because the NPP boycotted the 1992 election, so no Minority Party in Parliament.

Persons with the mindset that the 1992 Constitution was framed by veranda boys and girls or persons with no University degree in law failed to understand that the persons with Middle School Leaving Certificates/O’ and A levels or below University Degree Holders were better managers of the nation. Example, the late General Acheampong did a better job than the Dr Busia Regime and all the Regimes in the Fourth Republic though with a Certificate in Commerce background he understood the importance of production in the economy of a Country especially the importance of the Agric Sector as engine for economy growth, for food security, as import substitution measure and the catalyst for both the industrial and service sectors in a developing economy.

Consequently, the late General Acheampong transformed and modernized the Agric Sector by among others, with the establishment of a lot of irrigation infrastructures almost nationwide, road infrastructure (including feeder roads), mechanization of farming hence he established Farmers Service Company with tractors, power tillers, Combined Harvesters for hiring to farmers etc to support the Operation Feed Yourself, and to ensure huge production of raw material for Operations Feed Your Industries.

In his policy of gaining the Commanding Heights of the economy by Ghanaians (local content or participation in the high level economy activities) the late General Acheampong nationalized the Mining Sector and Ghana Italian Petroleum Company as GHAIP (now TOR) which was 100% owned by ENI was nationalized with 100% ownership by the State by the late General Acheampong in 1977. The economy was managed without the General borrowing even a dollar but he was able to put up a lot of infrastructures including the SSNIT Flats nationwide, other Estate houses (low cost houses) a lot of Irrigation systems. So the Middle School, ‘O’ and A level , Post Sec and Training College leavers who took part in the making of the Constitution of the nation were not very much corrupt and could be said to be more knowledgeable or with better common sense than the later generations ,who are nation looters by using the pen to steal .

Unfortunately, some of the latter day Constitutional experts either tainted with party politics colors or incompetent, hence they have been polluting the minds of the general public, hence the electorate who would one day be called upon to vote for or against the amendment of entrenched constitutional provisions as catalogued at Article 290 of the 1992 Constitution. Hence, as a Student of political science/Government as well as a champion of the 1992 Constitution, I deemed it very important to support you and the future generations with some of the facts especially the Constitutional intentions of the framers of the 1992 Constitution and some lessons or inspirations from the framers of the Constitution of USA and past Presidents of USA.

This task is going to be done in series depending on the contentious matter of public interest/in the public domain. Hence, I will start in this submission with the Office of the Vice President.

The Office of the Vice President is a provided at section (1) of Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution with two set of functions. Namely Functions to be assigned him by the President and secondly Functions assigned him under the Constitution as the Chairman of the governing Council of the Ghana Police, the Prison Service, and the Armed Forces but these positions were stripped off in the amendment of the Constitution in 1996, as a result of misunderstanding between the President and the VP in 1996. Fortunately, subsequent VPs were assigned as the Chairman for these three Councils.

section (2) of Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution says a candidate for the office of the Vice President shall be designated by the candidate for the Office of the President before the election, hence the Constitutional intention is that the VP to be also duly elected with the President as at Section 4 of Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution and Article 62 of the 1992 Constitution spells out the qualification of the VP and section( 8) of Article 60 also required the VP to act anytime the President unable to perform his function for the President travels out of Ghana until he can perform or return to post

Section (7) of Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution powers the VP to assume as President. The VP becomes the President with Executive power to be conferred on him when the President resigns, dies, or is removed from office at section 8 of Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution to perform as President for the unexpired term of the Office of the President.

Some local Constitutional experts who are either tainted with political colors or incompetent otherwise confuse think that the Vice President also shares executive power with the President or the Vice President is granted delegated executive powers like Ministers and DCEs by the Constitution. It must be emphasized and emphases is hereby made that unlike Subordinate Officers to the President like the Minister of States and DCEs who are wielded with delegated executive powers conferred on them at Section (3) of Article 58 of the 1992 Constitution, the Vice President who is also as a Subordinate Officer to the President, has zero executive powers. Hence the Constitutional intention is to make the VP of Ghana and in Some Countries including the USA as spare tires in the vehicle of Office of Government Machinery.

So those Constitutional experts or the novices insulting Dr Bawumia and demanding that he should resign with the President for alleged mismanagement by President Nana Addo for the Speaker to act as President as dictated by the Constitution or VP Dr Bawumia should resign for the bad state of the economy or for not employing his economy competency in the Administration of President Nana Addo need to revise their notes on Political Science/Constitution and they will be informed he cannot make the Finance Minister who actually is a budget or borrow and spend or allocate Minister per the Constitutional intention for the establishment of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) at Article 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution , you may call it the Economy Management Team or Economy Planning Ministry in disguise for coming out with economy production plans among others .So the Economy wing of the hitherto Ministry Finance and Economy Planning was ceded to the NDPC

The Constitutional intention for the Office of the VP is to make the Vice President as the alter ego of the President (like a shadow President with no executive powers). Unfortunately, the political history of the Fourth Republic tells of the sidelining of the VPs. The sidelining of the VP is not and can never be a constitutional infraction. But Records will tell that one VP was beaten by a President at a meeting and the Constitution was amended in 1996 and stripped off his Constitutional function. Also one VP attempted to resign, furthermore views of VPs on the economy were/are not taken, one VP was ordered to return Accra with the Presidential jet (plane) and one VP was rushed in an early stage of a regime to UK by the Chief of Staff for medical treatment. It may be deduced that one VP was sidelined with the appointment of a Minister for Planning at the Office of the President one VP was sidelined with the appointment of a Principal Economy Adviser to the President and lastly one VP was sidelined with the appointment of a Senior Minister tantamount to a Prime Minister.

So, His Excellency VP Dr Bawumia like any cabinet Minister can only make his view at the sitting of the Cabinet. So, His Excellency VP Dr Bawumia and his unconstitutional or conventional Economy Management Team are just a Tea party. Thus, VP Dr Bawumia has no teeth to bite against any Minister of State or even a DCE. The Minister of Finance’s direct line Manager or reporting Line is direct to the President or the Senior Minister if appointed. In Ghana most Ministers especially Minister of Finance (Budget Minister) operate according to their whims and caprices. , His Excellency VP Dr Bawumia points on the Economy is not binding on the Finance Minister.

The position of the VP, has even been made very serious since no paper qualification as one of the requirements to be VP even for the President, hence Madam Akua Donkor can be the President or VP of Ghana. This is not so in the 1979 Constitution of Ghana by the Mensah Commission, which made the VP as the Chairman of NDPC, see this at Article 73 of the 1979 Constitution. Because of this situation, of no paper qualification also as requirement for post of the VP, it right to say that the Constitutional intention by the framers of the 1992 Constitution when the excluded or removed the Vice President as the a Chairman of the NDPC (Economy Planning Wing) is to allow any Citizen of Ghana by birth, not below 40 years, qualified to be Member of Parliament can be President or MP So any Ghanaian including any Ghanaian fool by the constitutional requirements can be a President but a Ghanaian without the necessary paper qualification cannot be a Teacher.

so the insult against the sitting VP against his economy competency must be stopped. This should be so when we are clear in our mind that the Minister for Finance by the allegation by the Minority Party was driven by greed for commissions on loans etc procured for the Country. A critical study of the matter may reveal that our Political Leaders both past and present or the Citizens share the blame with the Budget Minister or revenue generation including Borrowing and allocate Minister (Minister of Finance) that is the real Constitutional intention when the Ministry of Economy was ceded to the NDPC and which due to our gross negligence (buffoonery) especially NDC1 and the subsequent regimes we failed r refused to make the NDPC effective Economy planning unit or viable unit otherwise by a Referendum amend it and coupled it with the Ministry of Finance to make both as Ministry of Finance and Economy Planning.

So, for the failure to make Economy Planning to ensure effective production to ensure the Agric Sector which lacked behind the Service Sector and Industrial Sector since 1993, takes its lead as the engine for economy growth. Hence the competency of His Excellency President Nana Addo is questionable because the Buck Stop at the President. VP Dr Bawumia and other members of the Cabinet or the NPP Party in general, they only share any mess in the current Administration and though this could make the NDC or any potential Political Party as a better Alternative if well organized to win the 2024 Election but this does not rule out a competent candidate emerging out from the NPP to win the election, so 2024 election is going to be full of actions.

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