Political pundit Kweku Baako Jr has accused the Chief Justice and Speaker of Parliament of dabbling in “constitutional lawlessness.”
The New Crusading Guide Editor-in-Chief told Joy FM’s Newsfile programme Saturday that the arbitrary decision taken by the two
constitutional figures against swearing the Speaker in as acting president in the stead of the President and the Vice President – who are both out of the country – was not right. “They must offer an explanation and apology because they had no business” doing what they did, Baako told Samson Lardi Ayenini on the programme.
As far as he is concerned, the Speaker “usurped authority without any constitutional basis.”
Edward Doe Adjaho, within this week, acted in the President’s stead twice, without freshly
subscribing to the oath of the presidency. He argued that his September 19, 2013 subscription to the same oath administered by
Chief Justice Georgina Wood, when both the President and the Vice President were out of the country, still held sway, thus unnecessary
for him to be sworn in afresh. That
interpretation was reportedly reached after consultations between the Chief Justice and
Speaker. President Mahama travelled to Burkina Faso Wednesday while his vice Kwesi Amissah-Arthur was also in India on an official visit. He returned home shortly and then took off to
Nigeria Friday. Mahama is also billed to travel to the Vatican
Sunday. All these travels come on the heels of an earlier two-week sojourn to the UK and Denmark.
According Article 60 (11) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution: “Where the President and the Vice-President are both unable to perform the
functions of the President, the Speaker of Parliament shall perform those functions until
the President or the Vice-President is able to perform those functions or a new President assumes office, as the case may be.” Also Article 60(12) of the Constitution states
that: “The Speaker shall, before commencing to perform the functions of the President under
clause (11) of this article, take and subscribe the oath set out in relation to the office of the
President.” Some Lawyers, including Kwame Akuffo, have
argued that the Speaker committed treason when he held himself as acting president
without taking the presidential oath of office, and must be impeached.
