Who Is A Politician, and Do We Have To Follow The Crowd?
Who are most qualified to draft a constitution? A constitution is the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the governed. Basically, this is what a constitution is.
So, when the PNDC decided to assemble people to draft the 1992 Constitution who did it have in mind as qualified enough to do this job? In 1981, when Rawlings illegally gate crashed into the political scene, he made the ordinary Ghanaian, especially the lower class, to believe that they were more learned than the academic elite. It ushered in an era, where the semi-illiterate could assemble people and boast that they were academically better and more intelligent than that economist, banker, doctor, lecturer, etc. that were around, but because of lack of funds, they dropped out of school. They go on to propound some weird policies and the masses believed in all these trashes.
The PNDC looked on and encouraged these things that succeeded in eroding common sense and replacing it with absolute infantile mindedness. And even though we were told time and time again, that the PNDC was a government which allowed the people to decide what was good for them, it turned out that no one in Ghana could just get up and decide which way to go. Of course, there were curfew hours which sharply halted freedom of movement.
So, come 1991, when the need came for a constitution to be drafted, Rawlings cleverly packed the Consultative Assembly with the very brand of people who surrendered their minds and thoughts to him and were more than ready to write a constitution that would suit Rawlings and Rawlings alone.
The 1992 Constitution was not in the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians. Ghanaians had the opportunity to insist that the drafting committee should be a Constituent Assembly, which was to create a constitution and not Consultative one, which was only to recommend one; Ghanaians had the opportunity to insist that the right calibre of people composed the assembly; Ghanaians had the opportunity to reject clauses smuggled into the draft; Ghanaians had the opportunity to study the draft thoroughly and Ghanaians had the opportunity to reject the entire draft. All these opportunities came up but Ghanaians did not do what was right and proper.
Now, almost thirty years on, there have been a growing feeling against politicians for allowing some articles in the Constitution to remain, instead of amending them.
Those leading that anti-Constitution movement are mostly people who just want to be heard and known in this country. Sadly, however, some top-class intellectuals and highly placed academicians could come out with asinine comments like “Article 71 is a danger to our democracy.”
The attack is on the politician, but if Ghanaians could analyse facts very well, then they would know that the attack is on each and every individual. Politics in summary means the management of peoples and goods. And since this is a field where one does not have to undertake a course in, it means that anyone can be a politician and that include those making the ugly noises.
By this, then, the very people who are inciting passions and calling on demonstrations and attacks on political office holders for the way the Constitution is allegedly favouring them, would do worse if they take over from the politicians.
My geography master in secondary school, used to advise us with this adage, “do not follow the crowd because the crowd does not think.” I witness a real-life example of this. One fine afternoon, my father, his friend and I were driving out of the University of Ghana, Legon and met a crowd of demonstrators. That was in the revolutionary era of the PNDC’s“we no go sit down” days. What was that all about? Thrice my father and his friend asked some of the people at the back, about what was going on. Their answers were all the same “I do not know; people are demonstrating so I joined.”
With dishonesty, people who should know better and rather come out with peaceful means to amend or change our Constitution, are rather calling for bloodshed. Read this: “The only way this our constitution will be amended by the same politicians that it benefits is when, all Labour unions, (NAT, NAGRAT, TEWU, CLOSSAG, CCTU, UTAG, Nurses, Doctors, Pharmacists, etc) COLABORATE with CSOs (Civil Society organisations) to embark on a serious STRIKE and Demonstrations.If nothing like above happens, no politician in GOVERNMENT or POWER will willingly amend the Constitution to benefits all citizens to enable development and eradicate the unfairness among the salaries of public sector workers including politicians.”
Where were people like this one, when Ghanaians were asked to vote on the draft Constitution? Calling on people to take over the streets is like going back to the days gone by, when the same “we no go sit down” people demonstrated against anything for no reasons.
The crust of the matter of the Constitution is all about wages and salaries, and here too one of these infantile minded people is suggesting equal pay for same level of education irrespective of where that person is working. Is the person aware that cost of education counts and it is different in the various training of students? A student studying banking and finance may purchase a single book for GH¢1,300.00 for his first-degree course, while a psychology student would spend GH¢500.00 on a book. At the end of this, one is suggesting all should receive equal pay? They do not consider the type of job and risks that may be involved. To them a pilot with a first degree must be paid the same salary as an SHS teacher also with a first degree. If such absurdity is implemented in Ghana, there will be a serious brain drain and the country will be the loser.
Let us take a look at professional soccer teams abroad. Members of the first team squad are never paid the same. While some are receiving say £250,000.00 a week, some other first team players get £5,000.00. That should be an issue to consider before making such loose statements.
It is the quality in a person that should determine how much he or she should be paid. In the UK for example, in some work places, an HND certificate holder from a polytechnic, can receive more pay than a first-degree holder a university. Now in Ghana, when the polytechnic graduates were crying for more pay and recognition, all we did was to scrap out the name polytechnic and rename it university. There was no change in course content, just the name of the institutions. How sad the way some of those who have wisdom in Ghana can think.
So, what can be done to our Constitution? Firstly, it is very important to note that when there is some service to render, there is the need to call on the experts. It will be unthinkable to ask people who are not caterers to handle the cooking for a big function. When the need arises for addressing health issues, we call on health officials. When there is the need to start a food production project, it is proper to call on agriculturists and aquaculture experts.
So, when there is the need to draft a constitution, there is the need to put the right people there. Out of the 258-member Consultative Assembly which drafted the 1992 Constitution, only 32 were legal experts. And when one of them thought Rawlings’ private army must disband with the coming-in of the Constitution, the uproar against that was deafening. The thirty-two men and women who can foresee problems due to their experiences in the practice of law, were certainly no match to praise singers who saw Rawlings as the Second Jesus.
For the best ways of getting a good constitution, Ghana needs to have a Constituent Assembly made up of members elected by people they should represent. If the assembly is made up of at least a third of the members being legal practitioners, all the better. The traditional leadership must be represented with well-educated chiefs and queen mothers.The educationists, medical practitioners, students, pensioners, security personnel, food producers and other recognisable groups must be fully represented; and by people who are well educated and can come out with meaningful arguments.
We should not tolerate this “all can join”kind of Parliamentary system we have in Ghana, where it is alleged that some of our MPs are slightly challenged and cannot read and understand documents and bills given to them. We should not entertain this kind of thing when amending or changing our Constitution.
Should the 1992 Constitution be changed or amended? In my view, majority of those who drafted this current constitution had no business been in the assembly, in the first place. They only ended up producing a paper which had lots of holes in it. So, in my opinion, it must be changed completely, the only thing it must be remembered for is that it lasted the longest in the history of this country. We simply say, “Thank you” and retire it.
Before we do, we must first take up the issues one by one and debate them, nationally. Then at the end when the draft is presented, we also need to have another debate in town hall meetings. And after that we go into a referendum to agree or reject it. When it is accepted, we then quietly retire the 1992 Constitution and put in place the fifth republican constitution on January 7, when a president and House of Parliament are inaugurated into office.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
