A constitutional rights and policy strategy adviser, Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor has raised concerns over Ghana’s current governance structure. He stressed the need for far-reaching constitutional reforms to improve the country’s governance system.
Speaking on Morning Starr, in a one-on-one interview with Naa Dedei Tettey on Thursday, September 19, 2024, Osagyefo Barker-Vormawor expressed his disappointment with how the 1992 constitution makes it virtually impossible for local development.
“I think we are retrogressing as a country. When you think about the fact that so many young people are now more unemployed than when Rawlings staged the coup in 1981. There are so many people at or below the poverty line today compared to 1981.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me that, if all development is local, our constitution prescribes that only 5% of our resources should be sent down to the districts for development while 95% is kept for Accra politicians to misuse,” he noted.
Osagyefo Oliver also centred his arguments on why there’s the need for sweeping changes to the 1992 constitution.
“It doesn’t take mere textual changes. And sometimes when we talk about constitutional reform, people say, let’s decouple the Minister of Justice from the Attorney General, but these are superficial and non-committal changes. We need to redefine and re-engage the basis of our society.”
The Constitutional Rights Advocate also shared his thoughts on how to approach the constitutional reforms needed to make the governance structure effective.
“Because we want to prevent the ‘catch and go’ approach, we need to open up the entirety of the document for a genuine constitutional conversation across the country. The Constitutional Commission tried to make changes to the constitution, and at that time, they recommended nearly 300 changes. That’s almost an entire rewrite of the document in a 1,000-page report so we can’t just engage in semantics or a piecemeal approach. I always challenge those who believe a piecemeal approach will work. Show us evidence of the piecemeal approach you have used.”
“For how many years have we had this conversation, from the beginning of the republic? People have always wanted to reform the constitution. But we haven’t even changed the word ‘the’ for those who support a piecemeal approach. If there are changes, people will believe the piecemeal approach is working. Let’s dismantle the conversation around a more holistic change, instead of changing full stops and commas,” Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor noted.
He further slammed the state of the National Cathedral project which has now been converted into a swimming pool.
“Why wouldn’t they engage in pet projects like the National Cathedral, which has turned into a swimming pool and a laughing stock? For me, the vast majority of resources ought to be committed to areas beyond Accra.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
