Extend Tenure of Future of Future President (Page 3)

President J.A. Kufuor delivered a conciliatory State of the Nation Address to Parliament yesterday and made recommendations for constitutional reviews that would extend the tenure of future presidents and regulate the term of members of the Electoral Commission (EC).
In his last State of the Nation Address prior to the dissolution of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, the President recommended for the consideration of Parliament a system which would retain the independence of the EC but provide it with a specific tenure of office.
He also observed, obviously from his eight-year experience as President, that a four-year tenure for a president of a country such as Ghana, which he described as “a struggling developing nation with weak institutions”, might be too short and suggested a five-year renewable term.
On the EC, the President suggested that the renewal of the appointment of commissioners should be vested in an Electoral College and added that consideration might be given to a six-year, two-term arrangement overlapping the period of Parliament.
“The country has been fortunate with the current commission which, by and large, has conducted itself professionally. There is no doubt, however, that generally it is risky to have a referee who enjoys permanent tenure,” he observed.
Present at the ceremony, the last to be addressed by the President in his current capacity, were the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, and his wife, Ramatu; the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, and his wife, Betty; the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, and her husband, Edwin; the First Lady, Mrs Theresa Kufuor; the defeated presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South, as well as other MPs from both sides of the political divide.
The rest were members of the Council of State, Service Commanders, members of the Diplomatic Corps, religious leaders, traditional rulers, politicians, civil society groups and the general public.
At 10.15 a.m. when the President arrived in Parliament to give his address, MPs from both the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) sides who had been entangled in serious political wrangling a few days ago were seen crossing over to shake hands and hug one another in a friendly manner.
The President pointed out that the oft-cited success stories of countries like Malaysia and Singapore which had witnessed great transformation might be explained in terms of stability and longer tenure of the executive leadership.
“This is especially so for an incumbent who, though popular, may lack the requisite experience at the point of assuming office .... Perhaps, in the case of Ghana, a five-year term renewable once will create the needed space for making a better impact,” he stressed.
Looking at some of the challenges that faced an incumbent government under Ghana’s Constitution, President Kufuor observed that the adaptation of the doctrine of separation of powers between the Legislature and the Executive posed a vexed question, since the Constitution required majority of cabinet members to be appointed from within Parliament.
He said the current arrangement was perhaps meant to facilitate the co-operation between the two organs but, on the other hand, it was clear that the demands of the two functions required full-time attention, a situation which he observed could lead to under-performance by an MP who doubled as a minister.
“The combination of the position of a minister and a legislator in one person gives undue psychological advantage over an ordinary legislator... In short, both the Executive and the Legislature get weaker by combining full-time functions that must be kept separately,” he said.
The President drew attention to the fact that under the present circumstances, transforming the nation could not be effected under one presidency and said there should be a succession of presidents working towards the same goal over time to achieve strategic transformation of any kind.
He, therefore, brought out what he termed three strategic programmes which had already been initiated and stated that they must be developed to help Ghana to attain its vision of becoming a middle-income economy by 2015.
One of the programmes he named was the emerging petro-chemical sector, saying that the government had started an international forum with a view to learning from best practices around the world for managing the sector.
He also named the success in stabilising the macro-economy, which had led to a dramatic expansion in the financial sector, the provision of diversified products in the banking sector, among others, as well as the integrated aluminium industry which he said needed priority action.
In the social sector, President Kufuor appealed for the sustenance of the progress in the educational sector; the upgraded teacher training institutions, emphasising that science, mathematics and ICT should be resourced; support for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the pursuit of the expansion of the railway system for which US$90 million had been secured.
Touching on the incoming Parliament, which he noted was hung and virtually split through the middle, President Kufuor said, “This must present its own challenges,” and went further to state that there was no doubt that to carry any measure, there must be compromises, sensible accommodation and, in short, constructive consensus building.
The President took the opportunity to congratulate both the President-elect, Professor J.E.A. Mills of the NDC, and the presidential candidate of the NPP in the last election, Nana Akufo-Addo, on their individual efforts in the elections.
To Professor Mills, President Kufuor expressed the hope that he would bring the wealth of experience he garnered while in government and subsequently out of it to forge a sense of unity within the body politic, which was a sine qua non for nation-building.
To Nana Akufo-Addo, the President sent his congratulation on acquitting himself with valour and the greatest sense of dignity in what he described as one of the closest and most keenly contested elections ever in the nation’s political history.
“He, more than anyone else, should know that our tradition has been fashioned and tempered with perseverance, resilience and the resolve to stay the course,” President Kufuor said.