A former United Nations Governance Advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has advocated restructure of the power relations between the Executive and the citizenry for reshuffling of the president's ministerial appointees to yield results.
"Without amending the 1992 Constitution to restructure relations between the Executive and citizens, calls on the president to reshuffle his ministerial appointees will yield little results as long as reforms are not put in place," he stated.
Prof. Agyeman-Duah contended that considering unprecedented chorus from the public concerning the need for the president to immediately reshuffle his ministers, it was only right that he heeded to the calls and let political efficacy prevail.
According to him, in democracy when a lot of people raise their voices for concern political efficacy should prevail however, reshuffling by itself would not make any difference besides having competent people to rule.
Prof. Agyeman-Duah noted that in the current situation the government should also be looking at how it cuts down expenditures however, the 1992 Constitution permitted the president to create ministries at will even though it stipulated19, but beyond that he could extend it to120.
"It brings into focus the real need for reforms that will restructure the power relations between Executives and the citizenry and extensive powers bestowed on the president by the Constitution have made him unresponsive to the demands of the people which has created an imperial presidency, thus making it difficult for Ghanaians to channel their needs to his ears.
"From the governance perspective, I have a challenge with the way we have structured our governance and the way somehow we have even created an imperial presidency for ourselves and our Constitution gives too much power for a good president to need but for a bad president to have so if you have a president who is not willing to be responsive, there is nothing much we can do about that," Prof. Agyeman-Duah pointed out..
He alluded to the fact that in terms of reshuffling, it would not make any difference, but in the present crisis there was the need to expand concept of reshuffling to the size of governance because of economic difficulties.
