Since President J. A. Kufuor, about eight years ago, proposed the extension of the presidential mandate limit, it is now getting some attention, and sooner than later it will become a national discourse, with a final opinion on whether to extend the presidential mandate to five, six or seven years.
When President Kufuor came out with this suggestion, he was on his way out, and, therefore, could not have benefited from it, if it were implemented. Ghanaians had the chance of reviewing the presidential term limit when the constitution was put under review, however, people thought it was unnecessary, and so the idea went comatose.
One of his persistent campaign messages to the good people of Ghana is the call by President John Mahama that the mandatory four year-term was not enough to execute presidential agenda to the fullest in national development.
Then comes the clarion call from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that all the people of Ghana should remember what the good old wise ex-President Kufuor said, and grant the younger and current President another term. After all, “What a suppose tall child stretches his neck to see, while standing on his toes, an elder sees clearly while sitting (down), so says a local proverb in this land.” (Death of the Elders in the Land by Laide Oluwatoyin Salako)
So, it is that after ignoring President Kufuor with such impudence, we, as a nation, are now faced with the issue of whether it is necessary and important to national development, to extend the mandatory presidential term limit.
Before we even consider debating this issue, we must note the following two points:
1). Our Constitution will need a total review, which, in itself, should take at least a year of thorough review of article by article by a broad-based committee of experts, representing all sectors of nationhood, with more from the legal, economic, business, industrial, religious, food production and youth sectors. Each and every representative should have paper on what his or her sector would want to put across, then another year of debating and drafting the new proposals.
The debate must involve the general public, who should know what is going into the new constitution. And their inputs must be considered, and where necessary, added to the final draft. In the third year, which I will suggest should be the election year, we vote for the president, the parliamentarians and a new constitution. Adding the referendum on a new constitution to the general election will guarantee maximum participation.
From January to December, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and Information Services department (ISD) should be going round educating the people on each of the articles. With political campaigns going on, we should be guaranteed the cacophony of noises, but with something about a new constitution, we can turn bad music into melodic streams.
If the extension proposed by the NDC is just to add a year or two to the current term, then we could possibly have a problem or two. Assuming the Vice President takes over, due to the incapacitation of the President, and before he even nominates his vice, he also goes the same way as the immediate past president, the current constitution mandates that the Speaker of Parliament takes over for three months, within which a general election is mandated to be held. When that happens, and if a new party takes over governance, how long should it serve for? Surely, the new government will be justified to argue that its term of office should be the same as the mandated term.
2). We need to fully implement national development agenda that will be binding on all political parties, and evidence of which must show in their manifestos. The way political parties make promises that can outnumber the number of weeks of a full constitutional term limit for the president is quite alarming. Obviously, with a forty-footer container load of promises, the current term limit will certainly not be enough to get their implementation through. And also, when a ruling party wants to be reelected, it will not do the honest thing of going through its list of promises to find out which ones had been left undone and use them in the new manifesto, but it will add on more promises and explaining away why some promises could not be implemented and needed to come on board again.
Some manifesto promises are respectfully ridiculous, and with China now flying into space, it will not be long for a political party to put in its manifesto, space flights from Ghana.
The national developmental agenda must be made by a bi-partisan based committee, and open to the various sectors in nation building, and accepted across board.
Is the current term adequate? If half of the first year in government is used to appoint people into public offices, and the last half of the fourth year is used to seek re-election for the president, or to market a new candidate, then, in effect, there is only three years available for the president, cabinet and government to work. And how come this escaped the framers of the national constitution?
In Africa, about 34 nations have a five-year term mandate, with the majority adopting maximum two terms, two opting for three terms, and five going unlimited. It seems two countries have opted for a six-year term mandate – that is Ethiopia and Liberia – while three have a seven-year mandate, with two going unlimited, Cameroon and Gabon, with Equatorial Guinea opting for a maximum two-term mandate.
South Sudan has a strange arrangement of no term limit, and it seems all three nations with a four-year mandate have some difficulties in governance – Ghana, Nigeria and Egypt.
So if the majority of Africa opted for a five-year mandate, what made us go for a four-year mandate? If we intend following the USA, we should have known that their constitution has gone on for fifty-seven straight general elections, and counting, with a more unified sense of purpose, which runs through all the political parties. This is sense of purpose which unites that nation and makes no difference if the president is given a three-year mandate.
In our case, we are building our nation with all the intolerance, back-biting, suspicions, spreading of untruths, and regarding each other as an enemy, while we are not physically at war. Only a well-framed constitution and national development policy can enable us to work together in harmony. Our presidential mandate should exceed the four year term, and I will propose a review of our constitution, so that we have a stronger law to manage this country.
Let us welcome the 5th Republic during constitutional rule.
Guess what? This is only my opinion.
Hon. Daniel Dugan.
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