By Yussif Ibrahim
Kumasi, Sept. 30, GNA – Madam Clara Osei-Boateng, a Governance Adviser at the British High Commission, has called for a framework to ensure that Ghana’s ongoing constitutional reform process continues irrespective of changes in government.
She said constitutional reforms were a national undertaking and should not be interrupted or restarted whenever there was a change in political administration.
Madam Osei-Boateng made the call at a two-day media engagement on the constitutional reform process in Kumasi, organised by the Citizens’ Platform on Constitutional Reforms (CPCR).
The engagement brought together media practitioners from the Ashanti, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Western North and Central regions to deepen their understanding of the reform process and strengthen their capacity to facilitate informed public participation.
She said there was a concern that failure to establish an appropriate framework for continuity could result in the reform process losing momentum whenever there was a change of government.
Madam Osei-Boateng therefore urged stakeholders to critically examine how the process could be sustained to ensure that constitutional reforms were pursued in the long-term national interest.
She said the question should not simply be whether the country should move the reform process forward, but whether the proposed reforms would adequately address the fundamental governance challenges confronting Ghana.
“We should ensure that the Constitution is reformed in a way that addresses most of the fundamental governance challenges we have in this country,” she said.
Madam Osei-Boateng expressed concern that public discussions had sometimes concentrated on a few headline proposals, while overlooking other substantive recommendations contained in the Constitutional Review Committee’s report.
She urged journalists to go beyond the headlines and study the committee’s report, the Government’s Position Paper and the Civil Society Organisations’ Position Paper to provide citizens with a balanced understanding of the issues.
She said the media had a critical role in breaking down the technical issues surrounding constitutional reforms and presenting them in a manner that ordinary citizens could understand.
Madam Osei-Boateng said the constitutional review process was fundamentally about citizens and therefore, citizens needed to be adequately informed and provided with opportunities to influence the outcome.
She said informed media coverage could also help create public pressure on political leaders to pursue reforms that responded to citizens’ concerns.
The Citizens’ Platform on Constitutional Reforms, convened by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), STAR-Ghana Foundation and Democracy Hub, organised the engagement with funding support from the British High Commission.
GNA
Edited by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Yussif Ibrahim
Reporter’s email address: [email protected]