Council Of State List: ‘Your Office Got It Wrong For Not Notifying Me first’ – Bagbin To Akufo-Addo

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Council Of State List: ‘Your Office Got It Wrong For Not Notifying Me first’ – Bagbin To Akufo-AddoGhana’s Speaker of  8th Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, has chastised the Office of the President for failing to communicate three particular names on his recently-released list of Council of State nominees to his office first, as part of the constitutional requirement to consult Parliament on such, before publication in the media of those nominees.

On Monday, 1 February 2021, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, pursuant to Article 89 (2) of the Constitution, appointed eleven people to form the Council of State.

They include Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Juabenhene; Archbishop Justice Ofei Akrofi, Mr Sam Okudzeto, Mr Stanley Blankson, Prof. Ato Essuman, Alhaji Aminu Amadu, Dr Margaret Amoakohene, Mrs Georgina Kusi, Mrs Alberta Cudjoe, Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton VI, and Alhaji Sule Yiremiah.

A statement issued by the Ag. Director of Communication at the Office of the President, Mr Eugene Arhin, to that effect, said: “The President, subject to consultation with Parliament, has also appointed, in accordance with Article 89(2)(a)(i)(ii) and (iii), Georgina Theodora Wood, a former Chief Justice, Lt. Gen. J.B. Danquah, a former Chief of Defence Staff of the Armed Forces, and Nana Owusu Nsiah, a former Inspector-General of Police, to the Council”.

“The President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahohoo Yaw Gyebi II, is ex-officio a member of the Council, in furtherance of Article 89(2)(b)”, the statement added.

It said the “composition of the Council will be complete with the election, due to be held on 12th February 2021, of the regional representatives, in accordance with Article 89(2)(c)”.

However, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu expressed qualms about the President’s failure to first notify the Speaker and also “consult” Parliament on the appointments specified in by Article 89(2)(a)(i)(ii) and (iii) of the 1992 Constitution, of a former Chief Justice, former Chief of Defence Staff and former Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

“They must respect the institution of Parliament and your good self [Speaker] so that we are not reading from one Eugene Arhin, we are hearing it formally from Mr Speaker as official correspondence from the President of the Republic because the Council of State has a role to counsel him; we should know those who are counselling him so that we can assess whether they will be giving him good or bad advice”, Mr Iddrisu complained on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, 2 February 2021.