Lawyer and Senior Vice-President of IMANI-Africa, Lawyer Kofi Bentil has argued that Martin Kpebu and his ‘ku me preko reloaded’ or ‘Nana Must Go’ demonstrators have the backing of the law to go on a peaceful demonstration demanding for the resignation of President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Kofi Bentil observed that in article 61 of the constitution, a number of reasons are stipulated for the removal of a sitting President. He claimed the current economic situation in the country is one such legal ground for removing a President.
“I think the ‘Nana Must Go’ demonstrators will fall squarely in Article 61(1)(b)(ii) which reads the President must be removed from office if he is found to have acted in a way endemical to the economy or security of the State.”
Kofi Bentil, Vice President IMANI -Africa
His interpretation of the above constitutional provision was that, the President can be removed “if the President has done anything or fails to do anything that has created a problem or an adverse situation in the economy of the country.”
According to Kofi Bentil, the current economic situation in the country is either due to the actions or omissions of the President and so whether commentators agree with the convener of the ‘ku me preko reloaded’ demonstration or not, “Martin is sound in law.”
The IMANI-Africa Vice President noted that, the constitution vests all power in the executive President and according to the constitution, all his appointees act on his behalf. Therefore, the President is legally the one responsible for all the actions and inactions of his appointees.
“If you read the constitution, you will see that the persons who are acting for the President in terms of his executive power, act on his behalf. In other words, he takes responsibility for their action so whoever has acted in a way that has brought us to this present position, the President takes responsibility for that.”
Kofi Bentil, Vice President IMANI -Africa
Kofi Bentil observed that in the situation at hand, President Akufo-Addo has “expressly taken the responsibility” for the actions of his Ministers. And since the actions of his Ministers are wrecking the Ghanaian economy, the ‘Ku me preko Reloaded’ demonstrators were well within their rights to demand that the President resigns.
“Indeed when people ask for certain members of his cabinet to be reshuffled, he said no. When they ask for certain members of his cabinet to be removed, he said no. When they asked whether he was happy with their performance, he said yes. When he was asked on why he will not change them, he said they had performed excellently.
“What it means is that the President agrees with everything that is being done in his name and he has taken responsibility for what is going on. To that extent, if we have a situation where this economy is melting down the way it is, then we can say the President has acted or omitted to act and that has caused something that is endemical to the economy of this country.
“There are people in Ghana who do not know what the future hold even a week from now. People’s salary mean nothing right now and they don’t know how they are going to make it from here today. So you have a situation where really the economy is in real trouble. Whatever reasons are being given, the constitution has provided that where the person in charge fails to give us a good enough economy, it is grounds to ask him to leave.”
Kofi Bentil, Vice President IMANI -Africa
‘The Ku Me Preko Reloaded’ Demonstration
Martin Kpebu, an astute Lawyer and human rights activist, who has been a major critic of President Akufo-Addo’s government in recent times, decided to organize a demonstration demanding that President Akufo-Addo resigns for a fresh government to be formed.
The ‘ku me preko reloaded’ demonstration was on the theme ‘Nana Must Go.’ To wit, President Akufo-Addo must resign.
The demonstration which he called ‘the ku me preko reloaded’ demonstration was patterned after the historic ‘ku me preko’ demonstration led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 1995.
In 1995, Akufo-Addo led some thousands of Ghanaians to demonstrate against Value Added Tax (VAT) introduced by Rawlings’ government. Other notable people who joined forces with Akufo-Addo to organize the demonstration were Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, Victor Newman and a host of others.
‘Ku me preko’ brought together people from all walks of life. It has since been tagged as the biggest demonstration ever to be organized in Ghana’s democratic history. In terms of number of demonstrators, casualties and the response from government, ‘ku me preko’ has been unmatched.
Speaking at the launch of ‘the ku me preko reloaded’ demonstration yesterday, November 05, 2022, convener of the demonstration, Lawyer Martin Kpebu gave reasons why President Akufo-Addo was not fit to continue as President of Ghana.
“We are dying, citizens are dying, citizens are starving all because of bad governance by President Akufo-Addo. It never happened that you will have a President in office and anytime the country borrows, the President’s family becomes richer. Ghana does not belong to President Akufo-Addo’s family. We can’t borrow all the time and have Databank becoming richer, the country becomes poorer and Databank becomes richer. This without more is sufficient for President Akufo-Addo to resign.”
Martin Kpebu, Convener Ku me preko reloaded
He also gave the legal grounds on which he is leading the charge to call for President Akufo-Addo’s resignation.
“[The demonstration is in accordance with] article 35 of our constitution which asks for probity and accountability, etc. which are also repeated in the preamble of the constitution. [Moreover], citizens have a duty as stated in article 41 to ask the President to resign.”
Martin Kpebu, Convener Ku me preko reloaded
Even though the numbers who turned out at the ‘Obra spot’ for the demonstration today cannot be compared to the numbers that joined Akufo-Addo for the ‘ku me preko’ demonstration twenty-seven (27)years ago, Lawyer Martin Kpebu and his team have indeed sounded a very big note of caution to President Akufo-Addo and his government.
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