Failure of constitutional review processes can be attributed to current political structure – EFL

The founder and leader of the Economic Fighters League (EFL), Ernesto Yeboah, has reiterated the need to adopt a constituent assembly system to ensure a successful constitutional review.

The failure of constitutional review processes can be attributed to the current political structure, he said.

He claimed that the current system gives only a few powerful people the authority to decide what should be done.

“The reason why they are excited about the constitutional review process is that it takes away the power from Ghanaians to just a few of them to decide what should go into our constitution or what should not, and so it would be recalled that when Akufo-Addo realised Ghanaians would vote against the proposal to make the District Assembly election partisan, he failed to pursue that agenda again. He has never revisited that issue.”

He referenced the debate surrounding the ex-gratia and stated that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has asked for the ex-gratia to be extended to all Ghanaian workers or scrapped entirely.

Ernesto Yeboah said the parliamentarians will never agree to have the ex-gratia scrapped.

The constituent assembly, also known as a constitutional convention, congress, or assembly, is a body comprising representatives from all societal sectors, responsible for drafting or revising a constitution.

“The constituent assembly is a body of groups in which, for example, journalists will elect representatives to be there, and when it was time to debate or enact laws about journalism, they would be asked to contribute what they believe is the best and what laws can help achieve this.

“Teachers will do the same, and professionals will do the same. At that forum, ask yourself what that forum will say during the debate on whether to scrap the ex-gratia or maintain it. Definitely, they will vote to have the ex-gratia scrapped if it is not extended to all workers.

“Do you think this will excite Bagbin, Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Osei-Kyei-Mensah Bonsu and the others? These people are beneficiaries of the blatant, illegal stealing of the state. This is poor thievery.

“These challenges can be addressed if we have a new constituency and an alternative outside the duopoly of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“The two political parties have not made this a political issue. They are not interested in making this an electoral issue. The idea of having a new constitution should have taken centre stage in our elections.”

He said the two parties have low expectations of the people and have no interest in changing anything to make the country better.