Kufuor Calls For Constitutional Review

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has called for a constitutional review to extend the present four-year mandate of heads of government of the country to a period ranging between five and eight years.

The former president made the proposal in his keynote address at the 22^nd annual International Conference (2016) of the International Society for African Philosophy and Studies (ISAPS) held at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra.

The conference was under the theme, “Democracy, Justice and Development in Africa: 50 Years After Independence.”

According to him, the current four-year mandate is inadequate to help any government consolidate gains made in the interest of the nation and the people.

“If the drafters of our constitution had focused on our traditional systems, things would have been different today,” he remarked.

Giving some examples during his tenure as president of the country which according to him gives him great worry, the former president mentioned the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) deal with KAISER – a United States company – and another with Barclays, both of which he noted, had been abandoned by the succeeding regime.

The former president called for what he termed, “custom-made” type of constitution which has a greater representation of  African mix and which at the same time, places individual needs and respect for all as its focus, if the country has to make any meaningful progress.

Taking the functions of the Council of State into account, ex-President Kufuor also recommended the introduction of a second Chamber, comprising a fair representation of a                    cross-section of various recognized groups in the country.

He explained that the introduction of the second Chamber would go a long way to helping the country achieve the best for itself when it comes to debating issues, adding that it was a panacea to cure the monopoly of the “winner takes all” syndrome.

The former president was however, quick to mention that much as the “winner takes all” has its weaknesses, he believes that good leadership quality spells out the degree of its success.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, said the history of the founding of the university is deeply joined to the growth of the country and Africa.

Prof. Oduro Owusu, who took office a couple of weeks ago, was happy that the vision and mission of the university to become relevant to national and global development through cutting edge research was on course.

The President of ISAPS (Africa), Prof. Joseph Agbakoba, said the association was established in 1991 by African scholars in the USA.

He said at the time, the idea was to bring African scholars who were interested in studying about Africa together.

According to him, it is still worrying that after fifty years Africa has still not found its identity but plagued with myriad challenges.

By Solomon Ofori