March 26, 2024 2:34 pm

Constitution of Council of State useless, abolish it – Samson Lardy Anyenini

Lawyer and host of JoyNews’ Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini has described as “useless”, the composition of the Council of State. 

He says the body has no usefulness to the state but only drains its coffers.

Chapter 9 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution spells the formation of the Council and it’s functions amongst which is to proffer advice to the government on matters of interest as well as appointments of people to state offices.

However, the same constitution does not mandate the government to comply with the advice.

This and the Supreme Court’s ruling on Richard Sky vs AG according to Mr. Anyenini are part of the reasons that make the Council useless.

He was on the 2020 Presidential election petition, Vetting and Politics on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, Thursday, February 18, 2021, which was being monitored by Ghanas Online.

“…One of the problems is you need to constitute a Council of State before the appointments and all these are done, but then again, the Council of State, what’s the use? I’m not talking about the people who are there but the constitution of the office.
“Is there evidence of an advice they’ve given that has changed anything? They have to be accountable. Who are they accountable to?”

On the view that the Council can be established to become the second chamber of Parliament, he said “we have a Parliament that we continue to expand unnecessarily” and would not make any sense to create an extra layer.

Read also: ;There is a deliberate attempt to hijack Ghana’s democracy – Afia Pokuaa

Speaking on the performance of some nominees that had appeared before the Appointments Committee so far, Mr. Anyenini noted he did not understand what motivated the nomination of Mavis Hawa Koomson looking at her poor public conduct.

The GJA Journalist of the Year indicated there are people who are doers and not talkers and his stance has nothing to do with the nominee’s eloquence but public conduct. He noted her apology does not wash away the things she did.

He however lauded the brilliance and indebt knowledge exhibited by the Attorney General-designate, Godfred Yeboah Dame and Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Education Minister nominee amongst others.

Eloquence has been traded for value at vetting – Afia Pokuaa

His co-panelist on the show, Afia Pokuaa, who is a Programs Director and Anchor at Despite Media, shared equal sentiments about the constitution of the Council of State, saying those holding brief for them as representatives from the respective traditional councils shouldn’t forget the institution of the National House of Chiefs, that trickles down to the regional level.

Vim Lady’s problem with the Appointments Committee as she noted is the display of extreme partisanship and reduction of the exercise to eloquence match instead of testing competences of nominees.

“Vetting is not a good system to determine competences of appointees. They have reduced it to eloquence and they don’t ask them difficult questions. And the opposition members on the panel who ask the difficult questions are not even development driven but politically motivated to expose nominees,” she explained.

She cited the case of Otiko Afisa Djaba and Ama Benyiwa Doe, who were taken on by the Appointments Committee because their utterances did not favour the leadership of a certain caucus on the panel.

Additionally, Pokuaa opined because some of the Committee members would become deputy ministers to the nominees, they babysit them when they appear for screening and reiterated MPs who are nominated for ministerial roles recuse themselves if they’re also part of the panel as Prof. Gyimah Boadi suggested sometime ago.

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