NDC In Copy-Cat Move, Wants Constitutional Change As #FixTheCountry Calls For New Constitution

After more than 10 years sleeping on the job, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is urging President Akufo-Addo to initiate processes to implement the amendments of the 1992 Constitution recommended by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) initiated by late ex-President John Evans Atta Mills in his first term in office.

“We would urge His Excellency the President to accept the interpretation of the Apex Court (Supreme Court) as the correct interpretation of the Constitution and the law and proceed to urgently activate the processes for the early implementation of the constitutional reforms as set out by the constitutional reform committee on 20th December 2011″, Nana Ato Dadzie, Chairman of NDC Electoral Reform Committee said at a press conference on Tuesday, August 24, 2021.

According to the biggest opposition party, it hopes the government initiates the necessary steps to operationalize the flagship reform recommendations and proposals, as well as the recommendations of the Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC).

The NDC’s sudden reality check comes as a curious move as the party has mostly been silent about it since 2011 when the final report of the CRC was submitted late Atta Mills.

When Atta Mills died mid-2012, his successor John Dramani Mahama would assume office and ignore the CRC report throughout his administration from 2012 to 2016. President Akufo Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would win power in 2016 and also ignore the report completely to date.

The NDC’s sudden interest in the amendment of the constitution has been pointed out by critics as a copy-cat move to mimic the main objectives of the rapidly expanding Ghanaian youth movement, #FixTheCountry.

The top priority of the group is for the complete overhaul of the 1992 constitution which the young people finger as the source of the loopholes that the country’s political elites are using to exploit the masses and perpetrate unconscionable corruption.

Some of the young people are already suspecting that the NDC’s call is a calculated scheme to diminish the extreme measures they [the #FixTheCountry Movement] is proposing for the complete changing of the 1992 constitution.

Founder of the Atta-Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho, has reiterated the need for Ghana to reconsider the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Commission set up by late Prof. Atta-Mills. Mr. Anyidoho said one of the issues raised by the #FixTheCountry demonstrators was for the constitution of Ghana to be reviewed because it has contributed to the challenges of the nation. 

The former director of communications at the presidency under Prof. Atta-Mills is demanding answers as to why the recommendations and white paper issued by the late Atta-Mills was not implemented after he passed on. “As an integral component of his avowed pledge to build a Better Ghana, visionary Leader and Unifier President Atta-Mills, set-up a Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), to seek the views of Ghanaians for appropriate amendments to be made to the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana. 

“A report was submitted and a Government White Paper was issued before the death of President Atta-Mills. What happened to the White Paper after the death of President Atta-Mills?” Asks Koku Ayindoho, Founder of the Atta-Mills Institute, and the former Director of Communications under the Atta Mills administration.

The CRC was set up by a Constitutional Instrument 2010 (C.I.) 64 as a Commission of Inquiry to conduct a consultative review of the Constitution by the late President John Evans Atta Mills. 

The CRC spent some US$ 6 million and some two years to put together an extensive 1000-page document containing over 300 recommendations for changes in the 1992 constitution. But both the NDC and the NPP have shown absolutely no interest in implementing the recommendations.

Critics think the lack of political will to implement the amendments is because the loopholes in the constitution are being exploited by both parties to exploit the citizens and also to perpetrate corruption.