Constitution Day should not be holiday for students – Prof Agyeman-Duah

Former United Nations Senior Advisor Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah is not happy the Constitution Day is marked as a statutory public holiday.

He said the Day should rather be committed to sensitising students and Ghanaians, in general, on the essence of constitutional regimes the country has experienced.

Prof Agyeman-Duah made these suggestions on TV3‘s Midday Live on Friday, January 7 as Ghana marks 29 years since the advent of the 1992 Constitution.

He insisted that the current constitution, drafted under the Jerry John Rawlings-led Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), needs reforms of some sort as it was written in fear owing to the military dictatorship of Flight Lieutenant Rawlings.

“I think we need to begin to look at how we review it,” he stressed, adding that he is not so much concerned with how that review is done but “certain aspects of it must change”.

Prof Agyeman-Duah is of the strong opinion that the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) does not have the capabaility to be the sole institution to sensitise Ghanaians on the 1992 Constitution.

He furthered that teachers should have been roped in in the sensitisation drive especially on days like the Constitution Day.

He, therefore, chastised the move to break students and shut schools and close shops on Constitution Day.

“Constitution Day should be an occasion where there should be a national reflection on the Constitution,” Prof Agyeman-Duah suggested.

The Constitution Day was first celebrated in 2018 and it came to replace Republic Day, which until then was celebrated every July 1 as a statutory public holiday.

Source: 3news