Political Risk Analyst and Economist, Dr Theo Acheampong has raised concern over the falling standards of Ghana’s democracy.

According to him, past and recent events create the impression that the Executive arm, specifically the Presidency, does not heed the counsel provided by members of Cabinet and other advisory bodies.

Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile on March 2, he explained that this impression is affirmed by the assertions President Akufo-Addo made while delivering the State of the Nation Address on February 27.

President Akufo-Addo has stressed that under the Constitution, the Executive power of the state is vested in the President of the Republic and that other bodies including Cabinet, and the Ministers of State all act in an advisory manner.

“There is no ambiguity about where the buck stops when it comes to responsibility for what happens in the government. It stops with the President, he or she has ultimate responsibility. It would be an unwise President that would pretend to have all the answers and refuse the advice of his officials, but the fact remains that the President holds the executive power.

"The Cabinet, and the Ministers of State all act in an advisory manner. Of course, a member of the government might take an idea, be it generated by the President or the official or a committee, and turn it into a huge success, and the honours would be claimed or shared where public perception falls. But, ultimately, the President is responsible, and, therefore, takes the credit or the blame for whatever happens in his or her government,” President Akufo-Addo explained.

Read also: The buck stops with me – Akufo-Addo on economic crisis

But Dr Acheampong says he interpreted this statement by the President to mean that all policy decisions in the country are those he [President Akufo-Addo] approves of.

 “I thought the President was being a little bit disingenuous here if I am being honest. In the sense that he was trying to sort of shield the Vice President in a way that yes, things have happened and so ultimate responsibility lies with him because of the nature of the Executive Presidency that we practice.

"But the point for me is if your people have advised, you got advisors, you got ministers, you got people who are experts and they have proposed a particular course of action and you decide to go against it. Then that in a way tells us how imperial the Presidency almost has become. To the extent that we must push and this is where I am looking forward to the manifesto proposals that are going to come.

"The extent to which we can curtail some of these powers to ensure that the government and governance work for each and every one of us.

“Because at the end of the day even for those of us as citizens and even in the civic space what that statement from the president means, you can talk, you can do advocacy, you can do whatever you want but I can decide to go with it or not depending on the particular interest that is at stake and we have seen this with Agyapa , we have seen it with SML and a whole range of other things where ordinarily if you look at the evidence it will tell you that we should not have gotten ourselves in some of these deals and some of these transactions,” he said.

In light of this, he said the manner in which democracy is practiced in this part of the world has his colleagues describing it as a NATO nation, to wit "No Action, Talk Only Nation."

He stressed that it was indeed time for some constitutional amendments to eliminate these imperial characteristics.

 “I will finish off with what a colleague of mine told me earlier this week. He says that we have become a NATO nation- No Action, Talk Only- and that fundamentally reflects this idea that you have got an imperial Presidency.

"An imperial sort of executive that sometimes does not listen to the best of advice because as the President says 'the President holds the Executive power and everybody under him, cabinet ministers, everybody just acts in an advisory manner' and that can not be good for the country,” he added.