The Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Larry Bimi has condemned proposals to expunge the transitional provisions from the 1992 Constitution. The Daily Graphic last Friday reported that, “Ghana may be heading for a national referendum to amend some of the most entrenched clauses of the 1992 Constitution, the Constitution Review Commission (CRC), has hinted.” “With more than 6,000 proposals so far received by the body set up by the President to collate data and views for amendments to the Constitution, it said it was within reach of the threshold where a referendum might be required." The paper quoted the the Executive Secretary of the CRC, Dr Raymond Atuguba, as saying the “majority of the issues of public concern touched on the excessive powers of the President, the reduced powers of Parliament and chieftaincy, as well as other entrenched portions of the Constitution. “The transitional provisions sought to ensure a smooth transition from the government of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to a democratic dispensation under the Fourth Republic by providing for the continuation in office of certain officers and institutions. “However, Section 34 of the transitional provisions indemnifies all coup makers and their functionaries against any liability for acts and omissions committed during their administration.” And some of the proposals are that the transitional provisions should be amended. But Mr Bimi believes expunging the provisions from the constituency will make nonsense of the work of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on which millions of dollars were spent. He argued that transitional provisions have been part of many constitutional arrangements in the country’s history. Transitional provisions he argued are a legal requirement that “where you have events that occurred in 1966, 1972 and 1981, you need transitional provisions that will legitimise whatever illegality [that] occurred during that period. Now if we say we are going to remove the transitional provisions that were built into the 1992 Constitution, what we are saying is that everything that was done in this country from 31 December 1981 up to the day we went into constitutional dispensation again is illegal and therefore where do we stand? Can we reverse everything that occurred in this country from 1981 to 1992? We can’t? Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com./Ghana with additional files from Daily Graphic