Zacheaus Somorin
10 November 2009
Lagos — Former president of Ghana, Mr. John Kufuor, has said that immunity clause in any constitution is militarist and protective of dictatorship and corruption. He said this at the Akintola Williams Annual Lecture held yesterday in Lagos.
The former president, who ruled Ghana for two consecutive terms,historically clarified that immunity clause in the Ghanaian constitution only existed during the military dictatorship in the country and on getting to power, he had to repeal the section which was then tagged "criminal libel law".
He contended that for Africa to sustain its economic growth, basic principles of democracy must be strictly complied with in accordance with the constitution in which the freedom of speech is fundamental.
Kufuor, however, said leadership crisis in Africa has been the bane of true democracy, hence, leadership recruitment must be based on free and fair election.
"Democracy and accountability is only possible only if the people are ready to expose the wrong doings in the polity, politicians everywhere tend to be suspected everywhere" he said.
While contending the argument that presidential system of government is too expensive, the Ghanaian former president posited that he does"not believe that the system is inherently bad, but the African cultural system which encourages give and take."
Also speaking on the occasion, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, opined that it is not the whole 1999 constitution that is problematic, but some sections of the constitution.
He averred that the present structure of the country is wrong and toovolatile to control hence, the 36 component units should be reduced to six regions while the 36 states would now be referred to asdevelopment units.
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Talk is cheap!
Kufour had all the opportunities in the world to fix the Ghana's constitution, but he did not. He was only interested in proping up his political party.
The presidential system in most African countries is so bad. It concentrates all power with the president and renders their parliaments bogus and makes the votes of the people useless. The head of state should be accountable to parliament 90% of the time and the MP/Senetors accountable to the people all the time. That is real checks and balances.