President John Evans Atta Mills
No sooner had the Ablakwa bombshell brouhaha settled down than the aberration about the rushed and numberless Constitutional Instrument (CI) resonate across the political plane.
It was laid before Parliament, regardless of the glaring procedural deficiencies even as the Minority in Parliament pointed out the anomaly.
Added to the foregone is the existence of a suit opposing it in court; sufficient evidence about the disrespect and disdain those at the helm have for the rule of law and constitutional procedure.
Under such circumstances, citizens have every justification to be apprehensive of their contracts with those they elected to run the state on their behalf.
We wonder whether there would ever be a week without such breaches of the Constitution under a government which ironically touts itself as one with a profound reverence for the rule of law. The Mills administration is yet to convince most Ghanaians about its sincerity for political and economic morality.
There is such a jumble about governance that the charge by Nana Akufo Addo that the country is suffering a leadership paralysis stands out boldly even as the days elapse.
With elections approaching, we find it worrying that the constitutional breach aforementioned would be committed by the Majority Leader of Parliament and his team.
The procedural processes regarding the creation of constituencies as required by the laws of the land have been ignored with impunity by those who should know better.
We have followed the contentions put forth by the Minority in Parliament and are unable to suppress our frustration about such developments in our body politic, as we pretend to be growing in our practice of democracy and especially respect for the rule of law.
It was a tendentious move to beat the 21-day timing for the CI to become operational, regardless of the procedural shortcomings. That is our worry and we are apprehensive of the effect of such an aberration on the future of democracy and the quality of governance.
Governance is about religious adherence to procedures; and where these are ignored by those at the helm, using their numerical advantage in the legislature as the Speaker looks elsewhere, impunity reigns.
Signs of the aberration were detected earlier when the Minority sounded the alarm bell and called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to be cautious as it embarked on the constitution-creation path.
Such controversial times offer important impetus to Ghanaians to begin asking whether the EC can maintain its record of efficiency and impartiality, the two factors which can determine the quality of the outcome of the 2012 polls. Their inability to conduct themselves in a convincing manner will rob them of the old slate.
Impunity of incumbency will not serve the interest of our nation at this time of her development, especially as we look forward to elections devoid of contentions.
The willy-nilly craze to create constituencies, the procedural breaches notwithstanding, will puncture a gaping hole in the strides we have made so far in the line of democracy. Let us watch such aberrations and effect the necessary corrections, where necessary, before it is too late. We are watching.
