Since the inception of the Economic Fighters League, we have consistently championed the need for a new constitution for the Republic of Ghana. This is because we have long been convinced that inasmuch as the problems of the country are varied and multi-faceted, the single most important piece of the puzzle, the one thing that if it is made right will have profound positive cascading effects across every other national life, is the 1992 Constitution.
The roots of our exclusionary governance, corruption-ridden power elite, the unjust justice system, the unbalanced power scale, the powerlessness of the people, the inequitable share of the wealth of the nation etc are all in the 1992 Sakawa Constitution. Most Ghanaians recognize this. Among these are those who do not necessarily believe we need an entirely new constitution. But even among those who have now been convinced of the need to do a new constitution, there are many who are not very clear of the process for the change. We often hear question like; who will change the constitution? Are we expecting the same NDC/NPP people who benefit from it to change the constitution? To these we must offer answers while remaining open for ideas and dialogue.
The first thing to note is that change is a question of power. In every human exchange, it is the interplay of power and the imbalance of it that shift a decision to one side or the other depending on whose interest that decision favors. Power in itself is in two broad forms – elected power which is wielded by such people as MPs, Ministers, President etc and non-elected power. Part of non-elected power is popular power wielded by the masses when well organized.
Over the years we have mobilized non-elected popular power around various issues. In 2019, we were able to stop the building of the needless new parliamentary chamber and saved the nation $200 million through the #DropThatChamber direct action, which galvanized popular power. Through our work with others on #FixTheCountry, the new constitution has become a subject of more activism and more people are now talking about the 1992 constitution than before. More people are now bold to refer to the 1992 constitution as a “Sakawa” Constitution because that is what it is. But questions linger as to how we will change it.
The path to the #NewConstitution has two branches that will converge into one and lead to the same destination. One of these does not replace the other and they are not mutually exclusive. They are rather complementary.
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- The use of popular power to change the constitution is by mobilizing and organizing in such a way that at some point, millions of people are so convinced of not only the need but the urgency to change the constitution that they are ready to participate in mass action across the country that will force the system to cave in to the demands of the people. This has been at the heart of our mobilization and organizational work.
- However, we have recently added a new layer to the strategy, i.e to build a coalition of individuals and organizations to contest elections and win. With this, we are covering the entire spectrum of options available to change the constitution. It becomes a coordinated attack/strategy which the system has no means of escaping from. If the mass action route does not bring the desired results, we must not be left wanting. We must have something else to do to advance the cause – a plan B of some sort. Thus, our MPs when they take their seats in 2025, their first and primary duty will be to coordinate the #NewConstitutionNow agenda from the inside. Their first action will be a Private Members Bill to call for a New Constitution. This bill will then be supported by millions of Memoranda filed by the people mobilized, coordinated and organized from the outside. These MPs will be directly answerable to the people in their orientation and action.
Some will ask, why not just use the MPs who are already there? Because there is a great danger in expecting the people who benefit from the system to change it. We have seen how they have performed even when we have given them 137/137 – totally detached from the needs of the people and hardly respond to the people whether through emails, phone calls (do we even have their numbers?). Whatever they do in a constitutional change result in a different document but the same content that only serves the interest of the few, and we would be back to zero. The only safeguard against that is to have a countervailing power to serve the people’s interest. And this is why a coordinated strategy is necessary to build that power.
In this coordinated fashion, the system will not only give in to the new constitution demand but the people will have adequate and optimum weight of power – i.e a combination of both elected power and non-elected popular power – to ensure that their interests are upheld and that the process is not hijacked by a small corrupt elite. This is the path to the New Constitution.
Behold the rebirth of Ghana!
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April 26, 2022
June 28, 2021
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