NGP organizes workshop on Constitution

Kumasi, Dec 10, GNA - A day's workshop to solicit public opinion on the impact of the 1992 Constitution on the larger society in order to create a consensus on which future constitutional development would be based has been held in Kumasi.

The workshop is the eighth in the series organized by the National Governance Programme (NGP) in collaboration with other stakeholder advisory committees.

It also aims at concretising and directing ideas already expressed by experts and civil society into a formal policy dialogue process. Mrs Leonora Kyeremateng, the National Co-ordinator of NGP who addressed the workshop, said civil society organizations, the academia and experts have expressed diverse opinions about the constitution since it came into operation 13 years ago. ''Very little of these recommendations found their way into formal institutions for shaping national direction.'' She said though her outfit was not advocating change at all cost, it believes that knowledge about the workings of the document should enable the nation to position itself about choices to make in an informed manner.

Mrs Kyeremateng commended the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) for creating awareness about the constitution and called its inclusion in the school curriculum. Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Yendi, advised Ghanaians to be proactive towards work to ensure the improvement of their own lifestyles and eschew the habit of always blaming others for their predicaments. He said some people wasted working hours on lotto and loafing around without doing anything productive only to blame the government for non-performance.

The MP said Ghanaians would be better qualified to criticise others only when they were not guilty of doing the same things.