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Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Nii Ayikoi Otoo has described the current 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana as a good set of laws.
He is not in favour of regular amendments of the Constitution after citing the American constitution which has been in existence for over two hundred years but has not seen too many changes.
Mr Ayikoi Otoo wants Ghana’s Constitution to be allowed to grow with conventions well established.
Speaking on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday January 7,a day to mark three decades of the Fourth Republican dispensation, the former High Commissioner to Canada said “we should look at this constitution as a little different from the others that we have had before, in the sense that, it appears in a very unique way it has drafted things.
“Parliament shall have no power to enact a law establishing a one party state; any activity of a person or group of persons who suppress or seek to suppress the lawful political activity of any other person or persons generally is unlawful…
“All citizens of Ghana shall have the duty at all times to defend this constitution and in particular, to resist any person or group of persons seeking to commit any of the acts referred to in Clause 3 of this Article and, to do all in their power to restore this constitution after it has been suspended, overthrown or abrogated…
“That said, the important thing is that your economy, your economy is important to people, your governance, if it is a bad governance, it is something that can lead to a problem, it is not necessarily the Constitution itself which guarantees for example, fundamental human rights as against what we saw in 1960 where somebody will tell you they are unenforced, these ones, they are forcible, you can go to court and get them enforced. The constitution sets up the broad parameters of governance and allocates duties to them, all within law or constitutionalism.”
He added “It is a good constitution, there have been a few talks about amendments. As far as I am concerned, you allow it to grow, it has its own sprit which should animate whatever interpretation we want, let us grow our own conventions. The American Constitution has been there for over 200 years but how many amendments do we have?
“So those who are calling for abrogation of the Constitution, sometimes I ask them, are they looking for power, for example, from Parliament to enact a law establishing a one party state? Something that it says in this constitution should never happen or that they no longer want freedom and protection of fundamental human rights.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana