The Secretary to the Constitutional Review Committee, Dr Rainer Akumperigya, has revealed that all former presidents, together with other key stakeholders, have been consulted on whether Ghana’s four-year presidential term should be extended.
Speaking on Prime Insight on JoyPrime on Saturday, August 30, Dr Akumperigya explained that the committee has engaged experts, civil society groups, academics, and people with close knowledge of the constitution.
“We have experts, we have academia, we have people that have worked and cut their teeth in these areas, CSOs, people that have invested a lot of energy, we have had discussions with people that are by virtue of their close proximity to the constitution – former ministers,” he said.
According to him, the consultations also involved Ghana’s presidents, past and present.
“We have had discussions with every living president, President Kufuor, President Akufo-Addo, the sitting president himself was our stakeholder, and all of them proffered certain opinions on this subject matter,” Dr Akumperigya disclosed.
He explained that one of the recurring concerns raised had to do with the first and last years of a president’s term.
“The view that the majority expressed was that the first year, the president, having been elected and sworn into office, is putting his cabinet and government together. And that the last year, in our practice, is usually used in organising elections, so the governance of the country is distracted by the political activity and the heat of politics in the last year,” he said.
When asked if this meant there was a broad consensus among the former presidents and other eminent persons that the four-year term may not be enough, Dr Akumperigya confirmed that the matter was a major topic of discussion.
“Yes, it certainly came up, not all the ex-presidents, not all the presidents, but it certainly came up. I don’t want to mention names, but of course, the report will include all of that. It certainly came up among the presidents, among eminent persons, among even consultants who worked on the 1992 Constitution. So it is one area we are definitely looking at,” he said.
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