Majority & Minority must unite to defuse Executive dominance

By Ebenezer Hanson


An ex-Minister in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has submitted until the Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament forge together in unity and assert itself as independent entity, they will invariably be dominated by the Executive in the scheme of things.

Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, former Local and Rural Development Minister, argues that Parliament has what it takes to wean itself from the Executive influence and yet it has failed to employ the arsenals at its disposal.

“So far as the Majority and Minority will not come together as one to look at issues, the Executive will continue to dominate. It the Parliamentarians that pass the budgets for the Executive; they give approval for all the perks that the members of the executive enjoy. Why can’t they assert themselves? ” he reasoned.

Mr. Ahwoi, currently a Senior Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), was reviewing the book, Executive-Parliament Interface in the Legislative Process (1993-2006): A Synergy of Powers? at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) in Accra last Wednesday.

He disagrees with the recommendations of the book that the Fourth Republican Constitution of 1992 be amended to preclude the President from appointing Ministers from Parliament. He says the book overlooked the fact that Article 78(1) which enjoins the President to appoint Ministers of State from Parliament is rooted in history.

The article provides that Ministers of State shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament, except that the majority of Ministers of State shall be appointed from among members of Parliament.

Mr. Ahwoi recalled that during the Busia-led Progress Party regime of 1969-1972, the then constitution based on the Parliamentary System of government prescribed that all Ministers must come from Parliament. Accordingly, nobody from the Volta Region was appointed a Minister of State because the party did not win any seat for the region. “The effect of that arrangement was that a whole region was cut off from the governance of the country.”


Similarly, he related how the budget of People’s National Party led by Dr. Hilla Limann was defeated in Parliament in 1981 because Ministers were not in House to inform the debate. The then Third Republican constitution was modeled on the Presidential System of government which sets out clearly an arrangement of clear separation of powers between the Executive and Legislature.

Mr. Ahwoi said the fusion of the Executive and Legislature under the 1992 Constitution was therefore a compromise between the two extreme systems of governance-the Parliamentary and Presidential Systems.


Also reviewing the book, Prof. Mike Oquaye, a former Minister in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration observed that Parliament is polarized because almost every issue in the country has been politicized. “We are all non-accommodating,” he admitted, adding “we must move away from this stance and work towards consensus building”.

To him the current hybrid system of governance is the appropriate and better in that it enables Ministers to provide vital information and data to Parliament which inform and enrich debate and decision making in the House.

In his view the Executive-Parliament Interface in the Legislative Process (1993-2006): A Synergy of Powers? is a well-researched book “whether one agrees with the views or not expressed therein”.

To ensure the sustainability of our nascent democracy, Prof. Oquaye suggested that all stakeholders must respect Supreme Court decisions on electoral matters and Supreme Court must do well to dispose off electoral matter brought before it within two weeks.

The author of the 87-page book, Prof. Kwame A. Ninsin, revealed that the writing of the book stemmed from refutations made by MPs on a conclusion he had made at lecture by Parliament that the institution is subservient to the Executive. “The Parliamentarians claimed the assertion was only a perception in order words it was a rumour”. He said due to this rebuttal the IDEG decided to research into the issue to generate empirical evidence as to buttress the claim.

According to him, the research revealed that was a growing trend in Executive relative to Parliament and the “House instead of asserting itself as a united body representing the people is increasingly abdicating its national duty.” He blames this phenomenon on the hybrid system of government and consequently called for an amendment of the Constitution to separate the Parliament from the Executive.

The Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies, Prof. J. R. Atsu Ayee, who chaired the event and launched the book as well, agreed with Prof. Ninsin that it was time the constitution was amended to ensure a clear separation of powers. He also called for a similar research to be conducted on the relationship between the Executive and the Judiciary.