The President has no Power to Initiate Action for the Amendment of the Constitution

The Constitution of a Country is a living Supreme Law or document. Hence it is flexible or amendable, thus allows formal changes of any of the provisions to take care of modern issues which the Framers might not have anticipated. So, for Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the Framers dedicated the whole of Chapter 25 of the 1992 Constitution and provided in-depth details on the process for the amendment of the 1992 Constitution.

So, Article 289 (1) of the 1992 Constitution is in a very clear language, it granted to Parliament, as a constituent body, the sole or the exclusive power to initiate an action to amend, to vary, to review, to modify etc any provision of the Constitution by an Act of Parliament.

It must be noted that a Provision of the 1992 Constitution can only be amended by a Parliamentary initiative as stipulated clearly at Article 289 (1), Article 289 (2), Article 290, Article 291, and Article 292. Hence, it is only a Member of Parliament can initiate action in and outside Parliament and introduce a bill for the Amendment of any provision of the Constitution as according to the details provided by the affected provision.

Any act to the contrary is unconstitutional, since the process for the amendment of the Constitution so made will later on by unanimous decision by the Supreme Court be declared as Unconstitutional, when the said amendment of a provision is challenged at the Supreme Court.

Aside the mandatory requirement of the President to assent to a bill for the amendment of a provision of the Constitution, which has been duly passed by Parliament in accordance with the Article of the Constitution, the President of Ghana shall not arrogate to himself the power to initiate action to alter or to amend the Constitution.

Though, a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament can initiate an action for the amendment of a provision of the Constitution, the President cannot enlist, induce, and solicit Parliament to amend the Constitution. Hence, our very humble and highly respected Head of State and Head of National Executive and the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana, namely His Excellency President JD Mahama and the very seasoned/renowned Constitutional Expert (Scholar) lawyer with his cohorts or members of the Kwasi Prempeh’s Constitutional Review Committee must be educated as such and take immediate actions to halt the process and resign respectively.

Ghana’s intelligentsia Community (especially Scholars such as Political Scientists, respected Law Professors, seasoned lawyers, retired respected Supreme Court Judges, seasoned journalists, writers, Students of both Political Science and Law) must rise to the occasion to prevent our beloved President of Ghana and Professor Kwasi Prempeh with his accomplices from subverting the process for the amendment of the Constitution. An act which tantamount to the breach of the provisions at Chapter 25 from Article 289 (1) to Article 292.

Our beloved President, must note that Democracy which is Government or the Rule of the People, by the and for the People, is anchored in Ghana by the Constitution of the Fourth Republic and a President of Ghana takes the Presidential Oath of Office to Preserve, Uphold, Protect, Defend and Support the Constitution of Ghana at all times, so he or she cannot at the same time initiate an action to amend any provision of the Constitution not grounded in the Chapter 25 of the Constitution.

So, logically the President of Ghana, is prohibited by the Presidential Oath of Office to even talk of a need to amend the Constitution. So, a President of Ghana initiating an action to amend the Constitution is a total violation of the Presidential Oath of Office. Hence, our dear President Mahama must be smart and halt the process initiated by him, since, his action may be later on challenged at the Supreme Court and will unanimously be declared as Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Ghana for not keeping to the Oath of Office or for breaching Article 289 the process and Article 3 of the Constitution for not Supporting and Defending the Constitution respectively.

It must be made very clear that President Mills erred by arrogating to himself the power to initiate the action for the amendment of the 1992 Constitution, since nowhere in the Constitution or no provision of the Constitution that granted the President the Power to initiate action to amend any provision of the 1992 Constitution.

By the 1992 Constitution, the President of Ghana cannot arrogate to himself the power to review any report on the amendment of the Constitution nor enlist or motivate any agency for the amendment of the Constitution.

By Chapter 25 of the 1992 Constitution, the President of Ghana has only the mandatory role of assenting to a bill for the amendment of the Constitution thus without hesitation. So, President Mills grossly erred by using Article 278 (1) at Chapter 23 on Commission of Inquiry meant for fact finding mission, in his attempt to amend the 1992 Constitution and by using Article 278 (1), he had the lucrative window to review the report of Commission of Inquiry.

Let me reiterated that the framers of the Constitution in a very clear language, limited the process for the amendment of the Constitution to Chapter 25 and entitled it as Amendment of the Constitution and made Parliament as the sole authority at Article 289 to amend the Constitution. So, as stated President Mills erred when he cunningly circumvented the process for the amendment of the Constitution by using Chapter 23 especially Article 278 (1) for the Commission of Inquiry which is simply an investigatory body and nothing more and as such, it’s reported is permissible to be reviewed by the President by the issuance or publication of Government White Paper.

Since Ghanaians are timid (have no Intestinal/testicular fortitude) otherwise ignorant, hence Spectators, made President Mills to be so audacious and thus arrogated to himself with appellate Authority and as such, solely reviewed the Report of the Constitutional Review Commission . This was so, because President Mills had the mistaken belief that he could do so as granted at Chapter 23 to the President, as the Convener Authority as well as the power to review the report of a Commission of Inquiry which is simply an investigatory body for finding facts on matters of public interest. So President Mills as stated grossly erred in using an inferior provision at Chapter 23 for initiating the amendment of the Constitution.

President Mills should have taken cognizant of the fact that since a Commission of Inquiry (COI) may be composed of a sole Commissioner with the power to require the production of evidences, compel witnesses to attend to the sitting of the investigatory body for it to take evidences upon swearing of an Oath and apportion blame as at where and when necessary and also the COI grants the President the sole power to assume appellate authority exclusively reviewed the report of the Commission of Inquiry by publication of Government white paper, so the total acts applied by him violated the provisions in Chapter 25.

To conclude, the Process for the Amendment of the Constitution as stipulated in Chapter 25 must be initiated solely by Parliament as the legislative body or Constituent Body, to be followed by advice of the Council of State as an Advisory Body, then return to Parliament as the legislative body for subsequent constitutional requirements as for non-entrenched Provisions and for Entrenched Provision through the vehicle of Referendum and the end mandatory requirement of the President to assent to a bill for the amendment of the provision of the Constitution to become effective.