President John Evans Atta Mills on Monday opened a five-day National Constitution Review Conference in Accra, with a call on Ghanaians to re-engineer and reshape the 1992 Constitution to give more leverage to the nation’s constitutional governance agenda.
“Having operated with the constitution for 19 years, there is a meeting of minds to the effect that we need to hem in some loose ends, fill in the lacuna, tighten the screws, while dropping some things we consider to be overburdening, hence this all important five-day Constitution Review Conference,” President Mills said at the opening ceremony.
It was attended by dignitaries including Former President Jerry Rawlings, Ministers of State, Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum, Flagbearer of the Convention People Party, and other personalities across the political divide.
The five-day conference on the theme, ”The Constitution: Our Identity”, aims among other things, to begin to build a national consensus around the issues tabled.
President Mills observed that as Ghana’s democracy continued to soar to higher heights and catch the attention of the world, the citizens could not fail to give weight to the 1992 constitution.
Ghana’s current constitution has operated for 19 years, and has been the pivot around which the nation’s nascent Fourth Republic continued to revolve.
The review of the nation’s Constitution was in redemption of a manifesto pledge by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) prior to the 2008 general elections.
President Mills inaugurated the nine-member Commission in January last year, headed by Prof Albert Kodzo Fiadjoe, an Emeritus Professor of Law, with the mandate to ascertain from the people of Ghana, their views on the operation of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution, and in particular the strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution.
The Commission was also to articulate the concerns of the people of Ghana on amendments that may be required for a comprehensive review of the legal document and make recommendations to Government for consideration and provide a draft Bill for possible amendments to the 1992 Constitution.
About 85,000 submissions have been received from across the country, the Diaspora Community, and via mobile telephony since the Commission’s establishment.
President Mills paid tribute to the sons and daughters who through hard work gave the nation the 1992 Constitution, and further thanked Ghanaians for embracing the review process and participating fully up to this point, and expressed the anticipation that all would continue to support the work of the Commission to the end.
“The forward march and growth of our democracy hinges very much on our collective ability to give renewed meaning to our Constitution because the Constitution is our identity,” President Mills said.
President Mills observed that Ghana might not reach the pinnacle of constitutional democracy, but the exercise would allow the citizens to give more meaning and energy to Ghana’s constitution for the nation to drive its democracy along the path of building a Better Ghana.
He expressed thanks to the Commission for the work so far done, and having found it worthwhile to organise the conference which, he said, would move the review exercise to higher heights.
President Mills thanked the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union Delegation in Ghana, the Danish International Development Agency, the British High Commission and the United Nations Children’s Fund for their support to the review process.
Prof Fiadjoe explained that the conference’s deliberations would be along 12 themes, adding that there had been wide consultations on the review process, including the Diaspora Community in Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
However, those in Burkina Faso, and troubled countries of Libya and La Cote d’Ivoire had been suspended, with those in Europe soon to come off.
Prof Fiadjoe assured Ghanaians that the Commission was determined to conduct a credible review exercise for the advancement of constitutionalism and good governance in Ghana, appealed to Ghanaians to make the necessary sacrifices in time and money to realise the objective.
Among the high profile personalities who have made inputs in the review exercise are former Presidents Jerry Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufour, as well as former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, and current Vice President John Dramani Mahama.
Others are Presidential Flagbearers in the 2008 general elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention and Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum of the Convention People’s Party.
Also present at the ceremony were Speaker of Parliament Joyce Banford-Addo, her predecessor Mr Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes, and Chief Justice Georgina Wood, as well as some Supreme Court Judges.