Center for Democratic Development (CDD) fellow and Governance Analyst, Dr. John Osae Kwapong, has indicated that the letter from the Presidency to the Clerk of Parliament instructing Parliament not to transmit the anti-LGBTQ+ bill was an Executive overreach.
He clarified that the Executive and the Legislative arms of government are co-equals stating that Parliament cannot instruct the President on what to do and vice-versa. He argued that the instrument of Separation of Powers ensures that the various arms of government have their prearranged rules and responsibilities that they are limited to.
Furthermore, Dr. Kwapong noted that it is bad governance practice for the Executive and the Legislative to have an adversarial relationship with each other, indicating that unwarranted politicking is bad for the cooperation between these two arms of government.
“At some point, the consequence is the relationship that ends up developing between those two arms of government. The Executive and the Legislative arms need some amount of cooperation to address whatever key issues that the country faces. I hope it will be resolved in such a way that it does not leave a chilling effect on how the executive works with the legislature”
Dr. John Osae Kwapong
He indicated that the involvement of the Judiciary by the Presidency and the Parliament in the ongoing impasse between the two arms of government is distressing. He advised that the Presidency and Parliament should find other administrative and diplomatic means of resolving their issues without involving the Judiciary.
Moreover, the Governance Analyst indicated that involving the Judiciary adds a layer of complexity to the law-making process of the country, arguing that the involvement of the Judiciary now may set a precedence that dictates that, any law to be passed in Parliament must be decided on by the Judiciary beforehand.
However, he clarified that the Judiciary has the mandate to be involved in issues where either the Presidency (Executive) or Parliament has overstepped their constitutional boundaries to bring sanity to the operations of both. “But how far are you going to draw the Judiciary into the battles of the executive and the legislature and what are the implications?” he remarked.
Governance Consequences
Dr. John Osae Kwapong indicated that the consequence of having the Legislature and the Executive in a tussle is that, the process of governance will come to a halt which is detrimental to the administration of the country.
He further indicated that inconsistency in the actions of leadership breeds distrust in the general public concerning the intentions of leaders.
He emphasized that the President’s conflicting stance on the interlocutory injunction process against the E-levy and the anti-LGBTQ+ bills leaves Ghanaians wondering if, indeed, the President is exhibiting candor in his argument for human rights or using it as a cover-up for something different.
“The President is in some kind of dilemma. He has to find a way to reconcile some of these external challenges we may face because we are part of an international community and that international community has signaled displeasure even at the fact that Parliament has passed the bill”.
Dr. John Osae Kwapong
Dr. Kwapong also posited that the President’s stance on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill leaves a gap for uncertainty and speculation to perpetuate. He opined that leaving such a gap is detrimental to the governance process of the country and makes the government vulnerable to many factors.
Moreover, he indicated that the tussle between the Legislature and the Executive is a threat to the country’s democracy. He noted that should this continue, the country is likely to bear the brunt of bad governance especially if these differences are not solved amicably.
He further noted that partisan edges in Ghana’s politics are sharpening increasingly which is concerning as it does not bode well for good governance practices. He advised that the government and parliament must find a way to prevent these partisan edges from affecting the cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature.
Conclusively, while one school of thought considers the current scrimmage between the two arms of government as a mere ‘flex of muscles’ or power play, the other posits that the enmity between the two is likely to diminish the gains of democracy the country has accrued over the last thirty years, which is rather worrying.
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