Kwame Jantuah, a private legal practitioner has described calls for the scrapping of the council of state as needless, adding that its work is still relevant.
Some prominent personalities including Prof Baffour Agyeman Duah have in the past few days called for the scrapping of the council of state, describing it as irrelevant.
The debate over the relevance of the council of state was ignited after the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV returned some GHC365,000 ex-gratia paid to him as a member of the advisory body.
“Do we need a council of state? For me, I think we do. If you have a president who finds it difficult to listen to the people, at least the council of state can speak into his ear,” Jantuah said on Asaase Radio’s current affairs show, The Forum on Saturday (11 June).
“I still don’t understand because all of us want the article 71 clause to be looked at but the objective of what he [Togbe Afede] said, what was he trying to achieve?” he asked the host Kwaku Agyeman-Budu.
Jantuah further questioned the decision of Togbe Afede XIV to refund his ex-gratia to the state.
“You don’t go in, do what you have to do, come back and say it’s bad. Why didn’t you oppose it when you were in there? That’s the challenge I have.
“The honourable chief from the word go, if when he was offered the position and realised it isn’t something he wants to do because of the kinds of payments and all that, why did he accept it?” Jantuah asked.
Scrap “irrelevant” council of state
Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, a former UN senior governance advisor has reiterated calls to scrap the council of state, describing it as “irrelevant” to Ghana’s progress.
Reacting to the development on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (7 June), Agyeman-Duah said: “How relevant is the council of state to the nation’s progress?”
“You assemble 30 people and pay them these much and all they are supposed to do is to review certain things and recommend to the President.
“And the recommendations in the form of advice could be taken or not taken by the President. You appoint some people, you go there and they say ‘yes, go ahead and appoint them’. Have you ever heard over the past 30 years, how many appointees by any President that the council of state has had the courage to say ‘no Mr President this guy has a bad record, we don’t want him’?”
“Have you heard any? Tell me one, and if that is the case and it is going to be a routine approval then why do you send so much money to retain 30 people and pay them that much, does it make sense to you?” Agyeman-Duah said.
Unfair
Agyeman-Duah said the payment of ex-gratia to members of the council of state was unfair to the ordinary public servant.
“The fact still remains that if you serve your nation for four years and you are given such a lump sum, and if you compare that to the other kinds of awards that people are given, people who have served for 30 years, 25 years and they go away and they go to SSNIT and every month they are given GHC 1,000 or less that’s what is happening.
“That’s the fairness in the country, we are breeding a system where the elite continue to exploit the country… by the constitution of the country no ordinary person goes there, they are mostly people who are accomplished,” Agyeman-Duah said.
Listen to Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah
Fred Dzakpata
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