Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, a distinguished fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs and former Speaker of Parliament, has called for a fundamental overhaul of Ghana’s legal mechanism for validating natural resource agreements, advocating for the elimination of parliamentary ratification in favor of a mandatory prior approval framework.
The distinguished statesman highlighted that replacing ex post facto parliamentary ratification with a mandatory prior parliamentary approval system represents a critical legal safeguards for natural resource governance.
In an interview with The Vaultz News, Prof Oquaye emphasized that the existing practice of approving mineral, oil, and gas concessions long after state actors and foreign investors have already executed commercial contracts exposes the nation to severe legal vulnerability and protracted international litigation.
By shifting Parliament’s role from a post-execution rubber-stamping body to a front-end vetting authority, the state can establish absolute legal certainty before any resource agreement becomes binding on the republic.
” Ratification is necessarily an ex post facto approach. You cannot ratify something that has not taken place. You ratify things that have taken place already. In fact, usually, in order to correct or accommodate some anomaly, maybe there’s a procedure laid down. That is how you must do the thing to arrive as a certain conclusion. But somehow it was not followed.”
Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye
Re-evaluating Constitutional Practice and Democratic Reforms
Addressing broader governance and institutional reform, Prof Oquaye maintained that transforming Ghana from an electoral democracy into a developmental state depends far more on constitutional adherence than on structural amendments.
Drawing on his extensive background in constitutional law, he argued that the recommendations of the 2015 Constitution Review Commission are not the primary catalyst required for national progress.
Instead, he stressed that public officials and institutions must remain faithful to existing constitutional tenets and societal values, ensuring that established checks and balances are rigorously respected.
The former Speaker illustrated this governance philosophy by pointing to the constitutional mechanism governing ministerial appointments under Article 78 of the 1992 Constitution.
Article 78 mandates that the majority of ministers of state must be appointed from among members of Parliament, but crucially requires that nominees receive prior parliamentary approval before assuming executive office.
Supreme Court jurisprudence has repeatedly affirmed that unvetted nominees cannot legally exercise ministerial authority.
Prof Oquaye argued that this same stringent principle of prior authorization—rather than post-facto ratification must be strictly applied to the governance of Ghana’s sovereign mineral wealth.
Furthermore, Prof Oquaye contextualized institutional design by examining Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution, which outlines the complex procedural framework for the removal of the Chief Justice and other superior court justices.
He observed that while the pure separation of powers remains an unpracticed theoretical ideal in modern democracies, the Ghanaian procedure for judicial removal is exceptionally unique on the global stage due to its specific structural design.
Comparing Ghana’s mechanism to global standards where parliamentary participation is standard practice for judicial accountability, he noted that such institutional nuances demonstrate that constitutional effectiveness relies on how faithfully existing processes are executed rather than constant legislative revision.
The Flaws of Ex Post Facto Ratification in Mining
In the extractive sector, reliance on retrospective ratification under Article 268 of the 1992 Constitution has historically generated friction between host communities, state regulatory bodies, and multinational investor consortia.
Ratification inherently serves as an ex post facto mechanism designed to validate acts or contracts that have already occurred, often to remedy procedural anomalies after commercial commitments are finalized.
When sovereign mining concessions or petroleum agreements are signed prior to legislative scrutiny, foreign entities frequently commence capital-intensive operations under the assumption of state consent, only for disputes to emerge when parliamentary ratification is delayed, contested, or denied.
Eliminating retrospective ratification in favor of an upfront prior approval model directly aligns investor expectations with constitutional compliance from the outset of negotiations.
Under a prior approval structure, international mining houses and energy developers would recognize that no contractually binding rights exist until Parliament conducts public vetting and grants formal authorization.
This structural shift effectively eliminates the legal ambiguity that has historically triggered costly investor-state arbitrations and prolonged courtroom disputes over contract validity.
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