A vice president of policy think tank IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, has appealed to President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to use the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary majority to scrap the Council of State.
According to him, the continuous existence of the council is taking an unnecessary toll on the finances of the country and, therefore, must be abolished.
The Council of State is a small body of prominent citizens which advises the president on national issues. It was established by Articles 89 to 92 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which said: "There shall be a Council of State to counsel the President in the performance of his functions.”
It is supposed to include a former Chief Justice of Ghana, a former Chief of Defence Staff and a former Inspector General of Police and the President of the National House of Chiefs. Each region of Ghana also has an elected representative. The President of Ghana also appoints 11 members. Members stay in office until the term of office of the president ends.
However, Mr Bentil is of the view that this establishment serves no purpose but rather drains the economy.
He wrote on his Facebook page: “Dear Nana, please use your parliamentary majority to amend the constitution and abolish the Council of State. ...We won't miss it! It’s an expensive and unprofitable albatross on our finances! If you do this, we will thank you!”
Source: classfmonline.com
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Perfect point. COS has become a constitutional irrelevance. JOB FOR THE BOYS! Either it is totally scrapped or composition drastically reduced.
If there's a problem of functionality and efficiency, let's address that. But to scrap it is a bit far fetched. These institutions do exist in some Civilized nations and they do do well. In our society, everything is political, so the parties just feed the old members to undertake such noble responsibilities. A classical example is in Holland where the council plays crucial roll in the nation building especially where bigger Brains are needed in the national interest. Imani is gradually becoming a dictator in our recent politics. If they want us to take take them serious, I suggest they stay the course upon which they started.
These needless bodies COUNCIL OF STATE and PEACE COUNCIL should scrapped if it could be. My suggestion therefore is to vote for two people from each REGION TO make twenty with ONLY three appointees from the PRESIDENT to make it Twenty three to advise the President.
Let us scrap IMANI first since it is the most ***barred word*** organization in Ghana today. NGO which plays politics? Apoooooo!!!!!!
IMANI does not cease to maze me. Here was a fine NGO that decided to go and support JM. They lost all their credibility soon after and went into hibernation.now they resurface with something to make them relevant. The Constitutional Review Committee which consulted widely, has not recommended the scarpping of the Council of State. If Kofi Bentil is a good lawyer, he will know. Unfortunately, he is not a good lawyer just like Franklin Cudjoe. Some people should do better analysis instead of this attention seeking jab.
Either your analysis are ***barred word*** or you are playing mischief. There is no way on God's green earth the council of state can be equated to the parliament of the republic. they are not elected by the ppl and certainly do not make laws for anyone in this country. also the fact that they advise the president on appointments doesn't mean the appointments cannot be done without them. the supreme court ruled that the phrase "upon the advise of the council of state is not binding and the president can and in fact does ignore the advise so stop misleading ppl.
Please include the Peace Council.
For me ; the current Council of State controlled by the ruling party Jon Mahama is a DISGRACE AND ARE THE MOST ULESS BUNCH OF OF UNPRINCIPLED BANDITS !!!!!;to me the system of a second is rather important but for me it should be designed on the basis of elections ; several names should can be put forward ranging from the vulcaniser on the road side to the kokoko seller ranging to market women ; nurses ; teachers ; road sweepers ;watch men ; to people who have made it life ;to me there is no need to employ the advice of people who have made it life because most have forgotten when they were poor ; they ride in airconditioned cars and live a luxury life ; how do you expect such buffffons to fight for the ecxcept do deals for their own businesses when they are Council state members ; these people when nominated should be voted for by the community they live in because to me there are teachers ;nurses ; civil servants etc who are although not rich have a wealth of experience which can be deployed to help the nation ; the present Council of state members are just people who go there just rubber stamp what the President tells them ;how can you a Council of state member who lives in a fully aircoditioned house to tell you about the drains at Nima or how people sheet on beaches in Accra -IMPOSSIBLE !!!!!!! they use their positions to promote their own agenda ; in particular the use of Chiefs as state Council members should be curtailed because most of them are just uless and are polititical thiffs masqurading as Chiefs in society.
Replace it with legislature body of house of chiefs which the government operations should account to.
They could do nothing to stop mahama from his infamious montie 3 pardon !!!