A former presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Brigitte Dzogbenuku believes that the 1992 Constitution in its current state cannot sustain Ghana’s democracy in the near future.
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, she explained that the 1992 Constitution is a “winner takes all” constitution, where winning political parties are left in charge of the country, adding that this threatens the country’s stability.
Madam Dzogbenuku stated that “In fact, the current constitution in our view, has created a situation where the winning political parties have treated the republic as a colony to be conquered and its resources taken for the welfare of a few privileged members of the party in power; making subjects of the citizenry and depriving most Ghanaians the dividends of a well-constituted democratic state.”
“The stability of the country is threatened by the sheer greed, elite capture and an intensely exclusionary political system where citizenship is no longer enough requirement to have access to state resources and to partake in the sharing of the national cake,” she added.
The former PPP presidential candidate noted that it is unfortunate that a citizen must necessarily require membership of the party in power to benefit from the welfare state.
“This winner-takes-all 1992 Constitution cannot sustain our democracy beyond the near future and therefore there is the urgent need to implement the following fundamental constitutional amendments.”
Among other things, she proposed five amendments which she believes are critical to help the nation going forward.
Madam Dzogbenuku called for the separation of MPs from ministers, explaining that members of parliament should not be appointed as ministers.
She added that in case an MP is appointed Minister, they have to resign from parliament.
She also proposed that the Attorney-General be independent of the government and removed from the Ministry of Justice.
She said that it is evident from past experiences that the fight against corruption left in the hands of the government and its appointees is fruitless.
“This is the only way to realistically fight corruption. So we are calling for a truly Independent Attorney General that is an Independent Public Prosecutor, whose budget will be sanctioned by parliament without any ministerial interference,” she told the host Samson Lardy Anyenini.
Madam Dzogbenuku also called for a new Assets Declaration regime where the completed forms by all public officials are published and can be accessed by any interested citizen for verification.
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