Defects of 1992 Constitution not to blame for ills in governance structure – Nana S.K.B. Asante
“If people assume power for the sake of acquiring power without any thoughts of the developmental use of power, is it due to the constitution?”
The Paramount Chief of the Asokore Asante and International arbitrator, Nana Dr. Susubiribi Krobea Asante has taken a swipe at the many advocates of the overhaul of the 1992 Constitution.
Many have actually blamed the 1992 Constitution for the many challenges and ills in our governance structure like massive corruption, favoritism, nepotism in the public sector, etc thus having called for its complete overhaul.
However Speaking at the Forum for current legal issues by the Faculty of Law of the KNUST on the Topic: THE 1992 CONSTITUTION, LAW, AND DEVELOPMENT: AGENDA FOR REFORM, Nana Dr. Asante, who was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution, noted emphatically that “The Constitution has been criticized for 30 years as far back as 1991 when the Constituent Assembly was set up and doing its work with all sorts of vilification and whatnot.”
He adds that; “There has been no alternative. The whole Constitutional Review Commission was set up. They produced their laws after two years but nothing has been done. Nobody has produced an alternative which has won the support of the two major parties.”
Nana S.K.B. Asante, therefore, asked “why the Constitution hasn’t been amended after all the years of sustained feet?
He thus stated that the above may be because the Constitution has some virtues which should have been realized.
Moreover, the legal luminary noted that if one sits and considers the things they are not happy about the ills of the governance structure, must he or she necessarily blame them on the Constitution?
“If you sit down and consider the things you are not happy about the evils that bedevil our system of governance. I do not think that the effects in the Constitution are primarily responsible for those. Far from which if there is corruption, that has been attributable to lapses or defects in the constitution, As there is no technological progress. Is it due to the Constitution?”
“If people assume power for the sake of acquiring power without any thoughts of the developmental use of power, is it due to the constitution?”
