News:
January 29, 2019
The Vice Chairman of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Alexander Kodwo Kom Abban has said multiple taking of oath of the President by the Speaker Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye is making mockery of the whole process.
He said this in an interview after the swearing in of the Speaker on Saturday as the acting President in the absence of the Vice President who is in the United Kingdom receiving medical attention.
According to Mr. Kodwo Kom Abban the constitutional review committee has done a lot of work, but the current development of either the Speaker or the Chief Justice taking the Presidential oath more than once should be looked at.
The President himself took the Presidential oath only once, the whole process of the Speaker taking the oath more than once is becoming “boring” and that is the chorus around and I agree with it, he said.
Rule of law does not mean rule by law, but if what we do is acceptable with the generality of the people then it is part of the rule of law.
In addition we are stack to this whole process because of the interpretation given by the Supreme Court, in the Atta Mensah case that went before the Supreme Court so we would have to keep with it, he lamented.
He however disagreed with the argument made by the South Dayi legislator that the President could have delegated high government officials to attend Masekela’s funeral and the Foreign Minister for the AU summit.
Again the respect given to Presidents would not be accorded Ghana if we sent a delegation, at the same time among his colleagues heads of states we might not know if he is needed personally to give a speech and further there is the need for a discussion to go on.
He said the focus should not the absence of the Vice President, but rather in case we have such a situation of absence of the two gentlemen how do we deal with it.
We should interpret law purposely, because this is leading to wastage in time and resources. I am sure MPs would start agitating if they called us on a Saturday to work “do you have some allowances for us”?.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com