The Dean of the Law School, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Ernest Kofi Abotsi has attributed the imbalance in power and influence between the Executive and Legislature to a gradual but voluntary weakening of the latter's position.

“The only body that has become very powerful, under the 4th Republic is the Executive. And all the other organs have gradually and in a very creeping way, weakened themselves. I am not saying the Executive has weakened them, they have actually happily weakened themselves and now we have a towering Executive and a very weak set of other institutions and that is why our current arrangement is extremely skewed and imbalanced and highly problematic,” Professor Ernest Kofi Abotsi explained.

According to him, the legislative body which ought to hold the Executive arm of government accountable, has become a medium for many Parliamentarians who aspire to have higher public service positions, especially in the Executive.

The situation, in his view, has only “reinforced” the power of the Executive, making the other arms of government gradually lose their essence.

“Members of Parliament always see the Executive as a graduated stage. So if you are a Member of Parliament you are literally looking at the Executive as a place to aspire to be and so you have to be of good behaviour and try and catch the eye of the Executive.

“But this tells you that we have a structure of government which is built on the tendencies, to patronise the Executive. And so Parliamentarians and all other bodies that are supposed to play intermediary, accountability, responsibility, and oversight role are all looking at the Executive and trying to raise their hands and literally saying, 'I am here, appoint me there.' 'I am here, look at me and give me something,'" he told host Winston Amoah.

Contributing to the topic; “How Ghana would have been if we implemented the white paper of the Constitution Review Commission of 2012” on Joy FM's Super Morning Show Monday, the legal practitioner described as dysfunctional, the Executive appointing Members of Parliament to various Ministerial positions.

He intimated that the move enables the political parties, especially those in the majority to defend the Executive instead of holding it accountable.

“Parliament is constantly and internally fragmented and that internal fragmentation results from political parties always trying to protect their own, who are in government as opposed to seeing itself as Members of Parliament and therefore an independent arm of government.

“That dysfunction has resulted in the rather negative relationship such that Parliament is constantly in bed with the sitting governments,” he noted.

In view of this, Prof Abotsi suggested that the Constitution must be reviewed for the President to only appoint all his Ministers and other public service officials outside Parliament.

According to him, this will make the legislature fully independent, hence, execute its duties as expected.

“Parliament has become a transit point in the fact that many MPs go there to get the Ministerial position, and subsequently Presidential position. Because of that Parliament has lost its essence for many people.

"And a way of restoring that is to make Parliament an end in itself. So, I will recommend that the President can only appoint from outside Parliament. Hence, if you want to be a Minister you can’t be in Parliament. So, if you go into Parliament you have to stay there with the full focus of legislative duties,” he stated.

Ghana started a process to review the 1992 Constitution In 2010.

By June 2012, government issued a white paper on the Commission’s report. In the white paper, government accepted the recommendation that the President be given the free will to appoint Ministers and not more than half from Parliament.

It’s, however, been nine years and none of the aforementioned have been implemented despite calls for a new constitution.