Chairperson NCCE, Madam Kathleen Addy speaking at the dialogue
The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Madam Kathleen Addy says unanimous clamour by sections of society for reforms in the 1992 Constitution will be an exercise in futility if the state fails to address the challenges that resulted in the grounding of proposals initiated by the government towards a review.
Madam Addy said this when she took her turn to share the views of the NCCE on “reviewing the 1992 constitution” at the Rt. Hon. Prof. Mike Oquaye Centre for Constitutional Studies at the IEA Constitutional review seminar in Accra.
According to her, though the Commission does not hold a hard position on what should be amended in the constitution, attempts made in the past by both Prof. Atta Mills and President Akufo-Addo in 2010 and 2020 respectively towards amending some provisions of the constitution failed hence the need to critically examine what might have accounted for them before pushing for another reform.
She said “As we work towards undertaking these reforms, we must not lose sight of failed attempts to achieve the same objectives in the past. In 2010, President John Atta Mills set up a constitutional review Commission that undertook a comprehensive review of the constitution.
“Then in 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo initiated the process for a limited but extremely important amendment that would have partially cured the much loathed concentration of power in the Presidency by reducing the number of appointments the President gets to make. Why did these noble attempts at constitutional reform fail? We must identify the challenges that led to the failure so as to avoid similar pitfalls once again,” she added.
In her view, the constitution could be amended to meet the aspirations of the citizens in line with the wisdom with it’s wisdom that all powers of government sprang from the sovereign will of the people.
She said the NCCE as a state Institution have also received a number of proposals from individuals for constitutional reforms.
This, she said, include holding the national elections at an earlier date to enable elected President adequate time to form government, MMDA’s to be made to mobilize their own funds  for local development instead of relying on the central government for a Common Fund among others.
The dialogue was chaired by the Dean of Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Prof. Vladimir Antwi-Danso.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah