A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Ransford Gyampo, has joined calls for the Council of State to be scrapped.
He argues that the Council of State is not necessary because its advisory role is not binding.
Speaking on Joy FM‘s Super Morning Show on Monday, June 13, he stressed that “the Council of State as it is currently constituted is not fit for purpose.”
He stated that “one of the things that makes the Executive very influential and powerful is because it controls resources and it is able to recruit and attract all manner of technical advisors that it needs.”
He, therefore, believes that there is no need to keep the Council of State as an advisory body to the President.
The call comes in the wake of the decision by a former member of the Council, Togbe Afede XIV to return an ex-gratia worth more than ¢360,000.00.
According to the former President of the National House of Chiefs, he returned the money to the state because he “was very uncomfortable” with the payment and deemed it “inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work.”
He also added that he has already received a monthly salary and was entitled to other privileges.
This gesture has since been greeted with mixed reactions from the public domain. While some have lauded him for this, he has also come under criticism for returning the money.
The gesture has also triggered a conversation about the need for the Council of State to either be scrapped or restructured.
Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, on Saturday, June 11, said the Council of State needs to be restructured because it currently does not serve the purpose for which it was created in the Constitution.
During an interaction with the host of Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini, he said the number of presidential appointments to the Council affects its credibility and independence.
Mr Kpebu noted that the role of the Council has largely been redundant as it merely contributes to the duplicity seen in several governments over the years.
Joining the discourse, Prof Gyampo stated that the Council is needless.
“The President has a lot of advisors so once he has access to expertise elsewhere I think we do not need the Council of State. It must be scrapped [and] to the effect that it is ineffective and is not serving any purpose, I think it must be scrapped. Otherwise, it is just a needless avenue for some older men and women to continue to milk the nation dry even though they may have worked and earned a lot of pensions,” he added.
source: My Joy Online
