Professor Stephen Adei, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), has shot down a school of thought suggesting a possible extension of tenure by President-elect John Dramani Mahama.
John Mahama, who the constitution mandates to serve two terms of office, like any other person, served his first term between 2013 and 2016, and won the December 2024 election, after losing his reelection attempts in 2016 and 2020.
There is a school of thought that suggests he might alter the constitution to allow him seek a another term after serving his second term since his two terms weren’t in succession.
But according to the administrator, that provision is entrenched and would require a referendum which he doubts Ghanaians would comply. He says the government should rather consider amending the general issues it can use its majority to, and leave out the core ones that could potentially truncate the integrity of the constitution.
Prof. Adei, speaking on Hot Issues on TV3 Sunday, December 22, 2024, advised that the Prof. Fiadjoe Commission report which he described as one of the best reports Ghana has had from a commission, could be revisited and tweaked to meet the constitutional amendments Ghanaians are calling for.
He said those basics could be addressed by the incoming government since they are not entrenched and wouldn’t require a referendum, adding that the core provisions should be protected such as the President seeking another term of office.
The former Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) said it is something he knows the President-elect wouldn’t dare venture.
“I think that Prof. Fiadjoe’s Commission report was one of the best that has been done in Ghana. For the first time it was non-partisan, there was NPP, NDC, they had a good report and I think that we had something to work on.
“Let’s take it, tweak it and quickly, the ones that don’t require referendum, which is not entrenched, they should immediately use their two-thirds majority to quickly tackle those obvious ones that the two-thirds majority can do and then leave the entrenched ones.
“Somebody actually asked me, ‘the President can extend his [tenure] with this majority’, I said no. That is an entrenched one, he cannot decide to go beyond four years unless he does a referendum and how he will get Ghanaians to give you more than four years is another matter so I didn’t want to speculate on that one and I don’t think that he would dare to do so,” he explained.
Constitutional review report re-examination:
Prof. Stephen Adei calls on the NDC to use their two-thirds majority in Parliament to push for necessary changes in Ghana’s Constitution.#HotIssues #3NewsGH pic.twitter.com/uyfiSZGffq
— #3NewsGH (@3NewsGH) December 22, 2024
