THE COUNCIL OF STATE NEEDS TRUE POWER AND PROMINENCE

David Azuliya

December 07, 2013

Long before the advent of colonial rule, a traditional system of government was in operation in different parts of present day Ghana across different ethnic groups with underlying commonalities.

What took central place under this system of government was the structure of organization and representation: this was skewed towards the most elderly and respectable persons of society with regards to the power to make decisions.

This allowed for a formal recognition not just of the men who wore gray-colored hair; but of the honor, dignity and wisdom with which they have so lived their lives.

It rewarded the dignity of the aged and associated attributes of ageing with monumental wisdom much averred by all and magnified the authority of the elderly before the very eyes of the younger generation who ought to admire and aspire to similar standards.

The traditional system was to a greater extent influential in making cultural values sacrosanct and adorable as proper etiquettes for regulating moral, religious and social lifestyles.

This system with its values and principles therein, built a strong and unshakable perceptual culture in the people at the time with strictly guarded definition of morality.

With a system so tightly regulating the passions and behavioral attitudes of the people with utmost efficiency, a very suitable and stable environment existed for the pursuit of the economic, social and political aspirations of the people.

However, recent African obsession with western styles of governance and democracy has cast a huge snare on the African traditional system of governance and ridiculed it in the very eyes of the grandchildren of the rightful authors of the traditional system.

As a result, African nations including Ghana are strongly divided many times within their own countries along political and ethnic lines in the name of competitive democratic contests for the sole right to manage national resources.

In any case, even as modern democracy has become the adopted king of the African palace in the name of ensuring orderliness in the face of fair representation in decision making and transitions from one government to the other, the paradox of it creating chronic fatal conflicts and drawing iron curtains between previously friendly and united communities cannot be overlooked.

Nonetheless, there is still one important remnant of the traditional system of government in Ghana in the Council of State as created in Articles 89 to 92 of the 1992 4th republican constitution.

According to the constitution, this body of prominent citizens is to counsel the President, Ministers of state, Parliament and other institutions established under the constitution. This body is analogous to the council of elders in the traditional system of government and serves to preserve traditional authority and values.

 
It ought to be noted strongly that the twenty-five members of the Council of State comprising former officials of state including Inspector General of Police, Chief of the Defense Staff of the Armed Forces, Chief Justice; President of the National House of Chiefs; elected representatives of the ten administrative regions; as well as eleven other appointed members by the President are all part of the infamous Article 71 office holders who draw substantial sums from the nation’s consolidated fund every four years.

This points to the important status assumed by the Council of State in the structure of the nation’s decision making. The additional fact of the Council of State representing the authority of the traditional system of government and the cultural values of the nation spells out the clear important role the Council of State ought to play in the life of the Ghanaian nation.

However, if the important role and status of the Council of State ought to be strengthened to ensure that it does not remain a mere rubber stamp, there should be a second look at the core functions of the Council of State vis-à-vis two clear limitations that currently stand on its way.

First, the President, Ministers of state, Parliament and other institutions of state can choose whether or not to refer a bill(in the case of the President) or any matter to the council of state for advice.
Second, the President, Ministers of state, Parliament and other institutions are not bound to accept the advice of the Council of State.

In the wake of these two clear limitations staring the Council of State in the face, the huge financial muscle attached to the Council will be a serious waste if it has not the power to hold any of the organs of government in check; and worse of all if its painstaking consideration of national issues and subsequent advice can be sidelined by the institutions it is so mandated to counsel.

In the wake of these limitations that hold back the Council of State as a truly prominent and powerful body, the Constitution Review Commission’s report as well as the subsequent Government’s Whitepaper on the report both fail to grant enough power and prominence to this very important body.

Therefore, three important propositions are of essence to ensure that the Council of State remains an important state body.

First, the constitutional provision creating the Council of State ought to be reviewed to empower it to a reasonable extent of being capable of seeing its counsel taken seriously by its beneficiary institutions. This can be done by either binding decisions of the Council of State on the organs of government or requiring them to answer to the Council as to their inability to accept the Council’s advice.

Also, the Council should be in a position to launch into any activity of the state in its effort to provide much needed advice without waiting to be called upon.

Second, if the prominence of the traditional set-up of the Council of State as well as its sanctity as a national body is to continue to exist, the membership of the Council of State ought to be broadened to include truly prominent senior citizens and trimmed of the large-scale political appointments that characterize it. It is good that the Constitution Review Commission recognized this need by recommending the downsizing of appointed members from eleven to five. This will create space for very important institutions of state to be represented on the Council.

It is, however, disappointing that the Government’s Whitepaper stated government’s inability to accept that recommendation.

Finally, to ensure that the Council of State continues to preserve the nation’s identity and interest and generally reflect the face of the nation, its tenure of office should be made to outlive successive governments but not collapsing to ground zero following the elapse of the presidential tenure. This will ensure that the Council maintains consistency with national interests in the performance of its core mandate.

As the country places urgency on the need for resourcing all state institutions to boost their capacity of attaining national goals, it is important that not only financial and human resources be given prominence; but also, the resource of a binding and biting authority.

A review of the powers and relationship of the Council of State vis-à-vis the other state institutions is particularly crucial given the current state of political polarization such that only institutions as the Council of State can do the magic of providing national focus to the nation’s development agenda. What is needed is of such institutionsto command the prominence, nationalism and authority to imprint their acts of nationhood on the nation’s development.

Fortunately, at this time that the work of the Constitution Review Commission is yet to be implemented, it is important that significant power be distributed in a manner to reach the players who can hold the various segments of the country in the middle to prevent it from falling apart.

With a powerful and nail biting Council of State for that matter, the traditional values of the country which remain the nation’s only true identity among many nations on the face of the earth can be safely guarded. And as well, the actions and inactions of the various organs and institutions of government can truly be checked to assure the nation of the promise of its founding fathers.

God bless Ghana.