Obrempong writes: From 1992 to 2020; All there is to govern in this document?

The constitution is responsible for EVERYTHING that’s happening in this country, good or bad, in every facet of our lives. Do you agree? Are we developed, developing, prospecting to be developed, stalled, retrogressing; in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, cleverly use of citizens brain power, etc or something?

Well, for me, after careful observation and review of some literature from the past, I conclude that the 1992 constitution was engineered MAINLY to install normalcy due to the “occasional” governmental overthrows that had hit the country for some 20 years after independence( between 1960-1980s).

The 1992 constitution’s main target, if you ask me, was to prescribe a basic framework that will ensure governmental normalcy (and cure, once and for all, the incessant overthrows), something that the framers of the constitution felt it was responsible for the human and infrastructural deficit after independence. So we needed to chart a new path, if we were to ever start to build Ghana to what we want it.

The first on the “Road to Development”, was to normalize! It was presumed (I guess) that once the normalization is achieved, development will follow. Reason the constitution didnt/failed to draw up a National Development Plan/Strategy as its “Part 2” after its articles, as we have them today.

So the master coup stopper, if you ask me, has for 100% achieved its objective. Hasn’t it? For nearly 30 years, normalcy has been restored. 20 years of coups have taken us 30 years to seek normalcy. Successes have been achieved largely because the Ghanaian has proven since 1992 that they want life without disruptions.

Question then is: Isn’t it time for the Part 2 of the constitution that will consolidate the gains made from the normalization one? This 1992 constitution doesn’t (in my view) have infrastructural and the “exploitation” of the Ghanaian brain power and tech at its heart, for the development we so desire anytime Independence Day is celebrated keeps hitting our genuine conscience.
The present constitution dwells so much on who rules, and how they “ideally” must rule, and makes it criminal for persons who seek to disrupt the normalization, in either big or small forms. (Even here, we’ve graduated to permitting the big thieves with pen to go free, once they are part of the ruling architecture dictated by the constitution, whilst we pursue the small petty thieves. Its understandable, really!)
In effect, the constitution did not envisage what happens post normalization, let alone craft how life there should be! All the “petty infrastructure” we see are byproducts of the normalization dream of the coup stopper.

To be clear, do you anticipate that the ruling class; beneficiaries of the normalization constitution, will wake up and propose a new constitution that will somewhat reduce the fortunes they make from a system they’ve benefited for nearly 3 decades? Not really! Refer to the White Papers and how they were handled!

Its will come only when we begin to dialogue, only when the youth sees the constitution for what it is, and appeal, by engaging the ruling classes of Ghana (NPP/NDC) to see the constitution for what it is and begin to build on its gains.

The youth’s demand to consolidate the gains made from the 1992 constitution should be a new constitution that is tech driven, for trade and industrialization, education, health, crime prevention and fighting etc. A paper that comprehends how advanced the human mind has developed, in the area of swindling systems for self gains.

We get this, and we will be able to reduce the NPP/NDC syndrome to things. In fact, the over politicization of development in Ghana now is the FINAL PRODUCT of the normalization responsibilities of the 1992 constitution. It’s done with it work. The earlier we park it, and thank it for its work, the better. Else, many of us will die harbouring our dreams of a developed Ghana, land of limitless opportunities and security in our minds eye and bellies.
This isn’t something our brainpower cannot do today!

Source: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo