[ 2014-07-21 ]

Mahama Is Ghana's Leadership Problem
Constitutional law professor, H. Kwasi Prempeh,
says President John Mahama personifies Ghana's
leadership problem. He therefore doubts if the
President's recent dribsy-drabsy ministerial
reshuffles, are the solution to the West African
country's crises.

'A cabinet/ministerial reshuffle appears to be the
only option open to a government in a presidential
system to try to change course and arrest its
declining political fortunes in the period between
elections. But when the leadership problem lies
squarely with the person at the helm himself, as
it does in Mahama's Ghana, ministerial reshuffle
is mere window dressing,' the Seton Law Professor
said in a comment on Facebook.

Prempeh, who specialises in constitutional law,
comparative constitutional design, and problems of
constitutionalism in post-authoritarian societies,
said were Ghana practising a Westminster-style of
government, the plethora of economic crises would
have sparked dissension and debate within the
governing party that will eventually lead to a
purge of the current leader for a new one.

'If ours was a Westminster-style parliamentary
system of government, the deepening crisis and
paralysis of leadership and attendant poor
governance in Ghana today might occasion a robust
debate and power struggle within the ruling party
and cabinet.'

He said such a struggle will result 'in a
challenge to the leadership of John Mahama and his
possible ouster as head of government by a rival
insider.'

The former Director of Legal Policy and Governance
at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development
argued that the 'ability of a majority party in
the Westminster tradition to effect an orderly
leadership change in the period between elections,
and thereby reset the button when faced with a
crisis of confidence and popular disaffection, is
one advantage of the parliamentary system over the
presidential.'

'In the latter, where the mandate of the president
or head of government derives directly from the
people rather than the party, the president enjoys
a constitutionally fixed term of office. Thus,
there is, in the presidential system, no prospect
of an orderly, internal leadership change or
challenge midstream (save by impeachment),
regardless of the evident ineffectiveness and
deepening unpopularity of a government.
(Impeachment is, of course, a very limited,
procedurally constrained option that is not
designed or intended as a remedy for poor or
failed leadership).

'This should give you some idea why African
leaders who inherited parliamentary systems at
independence, beginning with Ghana's, quickly
jettisoned them for a presidential-style
government: by so doing, they masterfully nipped
in the bud all possibility of a challenge or
change to their rule and tenure emanating from
within their party, cabinet, or parliament,'
Prempeh said.

'We would be witnessing a great deal of political
drama, both in parliament (e.g., Question Time)
and within the ruling party and cabinet, as well
as the prospect of an internal change of the
guard, had we chosen a different system of
government from what we have now at this moment of
crisis and decay. As things stand now, we,
including those voters feeling buyer's remorse,
are all stuck with, and must continue to suffer
the pain arising from the rule of, a grossly inept
president for another two and a half years,' he
observed.

Source - starrfmonline

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