By Dominic Yooku deGraft Aidoo Email Dominic: [email protected] “The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it”. (Napoleon Bonaparte – Emperor of the French 1804 – 1815) I have studied the political manifestos of some of the political parties in Ghana. I must admit, the promises they are […]
The post A LOOK AT YOUR MANIFESTOS appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
By Dominic Yooku deGraft Aidoo
Email Dominic: [email protected]
“The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it”. (Napoleon Bonaparte – Emperor of the French 1804 – 1815)
I have studied the political manifestos of some of the political parties in Ghana. I must admit, the promises they are making to the electorate can be described as lofty. I sometimes wonder how some of these promises will/can be fulfilled. My concern is not misplaced. Ghana is heavily in debt and not able to balance its books. It also heavily depends on budget support from other donor countries. Anyway, this is not the object of my article today. In my opinion the manifestos I have read, if complete, should have addressed the following inequality issues. As always I write from my perspective.
According to Chapter 8, Article 62 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana (extract);
A person shall not be qualified for election as the President of Ghana unless:
(a) he/she is a citizen of Ghana by birth
(b) he/she has attained the age of forty years……
In truth, this might constitute age discrimination. What is the reason for blatant discrimination against the age bracket 18-39. Fortunately, the two forerunners both have an impressive resume and both have enough experience to be the President of the Republic of Ghana. However, I have come across younger folks far more experienced to hold the high office of the President of the Republic of Ghana and yet disqualified on the basis of not meeting the minimum age threshold. The question I ask is simple; Is Ghana’s constitutional provision (in this regard) in tandem with applicable International Laws on discrimination. The barrier to contest for the Presidency must be carefully rethought-through. This should not be an arbitrary imposition based on age. Every Ghanaian should be given the opportunity without inhibition to contribute their quota to the national development on attainment of the national threshold of adulthood.
I spent a significant part of my early years in Ghana. Clearly there is a subtle sub-culture of discrimination. It seems to me that a Ghanaian British has a better opportunity to participate in national politics in the United Kingdom than in Ghana. In Ghana Dual Citizens are barred from occupying certain Public Offices. Why do we so blatantly discriminate against our own on matters which borders on triviality. The argument of “ loyalty to Ghana” is weak. The reason is simple loyalty is not entirely based on citizenship. There are Ghanaians born,bred and living in Ghana who have mortgaged and continue to mortgage the country and plunder its resources. So where lies the loyalty. Do we not read of the political corruption on a daily basis in Ghana. The other argument of “secrecy of office” does not hold water. It is weak. Most government departments in Ghana still use unsecured servers (For example; yahoo, hotmail and gmail, etc) for sending emails. We freely communicate sensitive information via these portals without a blink. Apart from this, Ghana’s telecommunication infrastructure is owned by a foreign company. Where and on what basis are we discriminating? The real tragedy though is the manner in which we discriminate. Ghana seem to cherry pick on how it discriminates. In sports we run after the likes of Mario Ballotelli ( An Italian citizen), Danny Welbeck (British citizen) and Kevin- Prince Boateng (German Citizen ) to play for the national football team but the same people are barred from contesting for Parliament should they wish to do so. There lies the hypocrisy! Ghana cannot allow people to hold dual nationality only to turn back and restrict their citizenship rights. The two tier citizenship as currently practised in Ghana is not right. Either you are a citizen or you are not. The arrangement to restrict the rights to hold certain offices by virtue of having a dual nationality is weak. We must level the playing field for all who want to and are willing to selflessly work for the development of Ghana to do so. Just like the British system, we need to have a system where every Ghanaian is allowed to contribute to the development of the nation. We need to rethink this through again. Sadly, this is not a manifesto promise of many of the political parties.
Most of the political parties conveniently meandered around the issues of the abuse of state resources in the election year in their manifesto. The two biggest political parties in Ghana have had the opportunity to govern Ghana in the fourth Republic. They have accused each other of abusing national resources during the election year and yet they conveniently avoided the issue completely in their manifesto. It is true to say that almost all the governments of the fourth republic have used state resources to their selfish benefit during the election period. There must be a clear and political will to stop this. No party should have an undue advantage over another in the General Election by virtue of being the ruling party. It is for this reason that I am advocating for a change of the status quo to end this unfairness as is done in other countries. The United Kingdom for example has a pre-election arrangement called Purdah. This is the pre-election period between when an election is announced and the declaration of the election results. The time period prevents central and local government from engaging in new government initiatives which could be seen to be advantageous to any candidates or parties in the forthcoming election. Why can’t Ghana have their own Purdah system in place to ensure that no one party has an undue advantage in the General Election.
My pernultimate point to discuss is the selfish attitude of some of the politicians. They sign “bogus” International Treaties to protect their selfish interests and leave the ordinary citizen to fend for themselves. What a pity! Some of the international treaties Ghana is a signatory to are good others are bogus and must be set aside at the earliest opportunity. Not too long ago in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014 at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Africa Union, The Leaders of Africa adopted article 46A of the Protocol with Amendments to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights.
The amendment reads:
“No charges shall be commenced or continued before the Court against any serving African Union Head of State or Government, or anybody acting or entitled to act in such capacity, or other senior state officials based on their functions, during their tenure of office.”
The effect of these amendments render African leaders immune from prosecution for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity even after they have left office. We cannot continue to sign up to International Laws that protects the interests of a few at the peril of the masses. This adoption 46A of the Protocol with Amendments to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights as it currently stands means that should any violence or illegal activity during the 7th December,2016 General Election the entire cabinet is immune from prosecution irrespective of whether they are culpable or not. Clearly what Ghana needs is a deterrent for those contemplating violence etc rather than protection and shielding when crime is committed. Very painfully, none of this is captured in any of the manifesto pledges. Is this an oversight?
Finally, I will continue my campaign for changes to be made to the way certain appointments are made for Public Office eg Electoral Commission’s (EC) Chairperson. I personally disagree with the constitutional provision allowing a contestant to an election to have the preserve to appoint the referee (EC Chairperson), The appointment by the President, based on the recommendation of the Council of State, the majority of whom he appointed in my opinion is flawed. A participant in a competition cannot have the preserve to appoint the referee (EC Chairperson) who oversees the game. Such a provision makes it very difficult for the EC Chairperson to be truly independent. The current provision makes it difficult for EC Chair person to be independent, and “SEEN” to be independent. We must therefore, at the earliest opportunity, review the constitutional provisions governing the appointment of the EC Chairperson. If we are going to continue to allow the President to appoint the EC chairperson then perhaps it may makes sense to have an arrangement similar to India. India is the world’s biggest democracy. The President of India appoints the Chief Election Commissioner as well as other election commissioners. The time-period of Chief Election Commissioner is six years. The tenure of the President is five years.
I perceive that the founding fathers of Ghana will agree with me when I say that little things are sometimes the most important things in life. Yet we ignore them most of the time for lofty and grandiose promises most of which might not be fulfilled.
God Bless Ghana!
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