A Private Legal Practitioner, Bobby Banson has proposed that the President of the country is relieved of the responsibility of making appointments to the Council of State.

He is of the view that the regional representatives should be empowered to handle such appointments to insulate the Council of State from any political influence.

Mr Banson is one of the many Ghanaians who hold the view that the 1992 Constitution needs to be amended, if not abolished. He noted that some sections of the 1992 Constitution, do not facilitate governance.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Wednesday, the lawyer recommended that more power should be invested in the Council of State and their appointment should be devoid of any role by the President.

“We shouldn’t let him appoint anybody, let them be elected by the regional representatives without any political affiliations. Give a lot of power to the Council of State because under the 1992 Constitution, that is the only organ devoid of any political influence," he emphasised.

“As it stands now, 11-members of the Council of State are appointed by the President and then there are representatives appointed without any political affiliations from every region and then I think the former Chief Justice, the former IGP. We should not let the President appoint anybody.”

He questioned, for instance, why the Council of State cannot be given the responsibility to supervise the operations of some constitutional bodies.

“Why won’t they have the power to oversee the work of the Auditor-General, to oversee the work of the Electoral Commission, to oversee the work of the Public Services Commission, to oversee the work of CHRAJ, why should we let the Council of State be influenced by the President,” he quizzed.

Mr Banson proposed that the Council of State should have the power to appoint or remove the Auditor-General or the Chief Justice for that matter.

He said the Constitution indicates that there should be an Auditor-General who will be able to audit all government entities, “but that Auditor-General must be appointed and can be removed by the President.”

None of the past Auditors-General, he noted, have been bold enough to confront issues relating to members of the Presidency, possibly for fear of being evicted from office.

“Before Mr Domelovo, I dare say that no Auditor General had been bold to touch directly any member of the Presidency, but we all know Mr Domelovo attempted to do that, for lack of a better word and we know what happened, whether it was intentional or not," he said.

The Private Legal Practitioner also recalled that, “a lot of people were not happy with the way Madam Charlotte Osei was removed, but the final power vested in the president.

“So we sit down as citizens of this country and say okay, we wanted a constitution where we would have an Auditor-General who will be able to check whether the presidency is spending our monies right.

“But we said let the Auditor-General be appointed by the President and remove by him, are we seeing the benefit of the President being able to remove and appoint the Auditor-General?" he questioned.

Mr Banson is also of the view that “cabinet members should not be Parliamentarians. I have no problem if there are some Ministers who will be Parliamentarians but Cabinet Members should never be Parliamentarians.

“And so we cannot completely throw away the whole 1992 constitution but I think the nature of change that a lot of us have called for will result in the fundamental change of the structure,” he explained.