The Honorable Member for Assin Central Constituency and aspiring flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party, Honorable Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has expressed his dissatisfaction with constitutional powers that allow the appointment of Members of Parliament as ministers.
According to the Assin Central Member of Parliament, this weakens parliament and its role as a check on the executive.
“No member of parliament should be a minister. It weakens parliament. In our constitution, about 70 percent of the ministers appointed by the president come from parliament. I totally disagree. We have to change it.”
Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong
Honorable Kennedy Agyapong argues that the appointment of Members of Parliament as ministers makes it difficult to scrutinize the executive because members of the house are also members of the executive.
He indicated that when he becomes president, he intends to hold a referendum on the constitution to ask the people of Ghana to decide on that article in the 1992 constitution. The Assin Central Member of Parliament proposed a system where all ministers are not members of the executive to also ensure leaner governments.
However, he believes that to make the referendum and the new system he proposes possible, parliamentarians will have to be paid and treated well. “If we can do this, we have to pay parliament very well”, he added.
He bemoaned the working conditions of parliamentarians compared to chief executives of state-owned institutions and called for better treatment of his colleagues in parliament. He cited the example of parliamentarians footing the bills of their cars while chief executives ride theirs on the government’s purse. “They buy cars and pay off their salaries over time, unlike chief executives who government buy the cars for free”, he said.
According to him, this makes parliamentarians eye ministerial roles, hence weakening parliament’s crucial role in scrutinizing executive powers.
Winner Takes All Politics In Ghana
One major downside of Ghana’s well-praised democracy is its Winner Takes All canker. While many have commended the sustained democracy, there have been countless calls for an amendment of parts of the 1992 constitution due to this canker.
The Winner Takes All Politics is a system of politics where the winner of an election takes over state institutions so wholesomely that it becomes almost impossible for checks on authorities to be allowed. This situation stifles accountability and transparency and promotes corruption and loyalty to the ruling party or sometimes just a ruling party’s caucus.
In democracies, the legislature or parliament is one prime institution for countervailing executive powers within a state. Therefore, parliaments are expected to act as a check on the executive.
However, the story of the Ghanaian democracy has been a bit different over the years. The legislature for varying reasons, often than not have been seen to kotowing to the pressures of the executive in times when Ghanaians needed them to check the executive.
This has been due to many reasons, one of which is the fact that the constitution allows for the majority of ministers of the government to come from parliament.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides that “Ministers of State shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament, except that majority of Ministers of State shall be appointed from members of Parliament.”
This, in essence, has been the bane of parliament’s ability to check the executive.
Many Ghanaians have cited this particular feature of the constitution in their call for amendments to the 1992 constitution.
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