ARM to restore Ghana’s socio-economic hope


The Founder of the African Reform Movement (ARM), Dr Nii Amu Darko, has urged Ghanaians to choose the Movement for self-government in the general election to rescue and restore Ghana’s socio-economic and political hope.

He said the country is in a political and socio-economic comma and one needs not to be a rocket scientist to appreciate the fact that “the nation has a fundamental problem that calls for self-government now”.

Dr Amu Darko,  a medical doctor made the call in a keynote address at the ARM’s first National Leadership Conference at the International Trade Fair Centre in Accra.

He said the setback of the country is not personal; “not because of Presidents Rawlings, Kufuor or Mahama, neither the National Democratic Congress nor New Patriotic Party,” but structural flaws of the Constitution”.

“The role of the personalities and parties above are that they have not diagnosed the fundamental problems, and in many cases, have taken advantage of the flaws for political gain.”

Dr Amu Darko said the ARM, a new set of group into Ghana’s political scene, is poised to win the 2016 presidential election, to bring back self-government to correct the wrongs in the governance system.

“Sixty years ago this year, Ghanaians voted for Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention Peoples’ Party  with a clarion call for self-government, which was a good start, but before belong, the whole system got corrupted and the self-government became something different.

“Self-government should never mean; a president which is equal to the State, a one-person government or a one-party State,” Dr Amu Darko said.

He said the best constitutional arrangement to achieve self-government is a combination of federalism, proportional representation and government of national unity.

“Self-government means a constitution which gives power to, and not from the people, and is a system, which allows people at the sub-national levels to elect their own government and manage their affairs within their local realities and that our version is Economic Federalism which is the best,” Dr Amu Darko said.

He said the 1960 Constitution started and completed in 1964 with the one-party State Constitution and that unfortunately the country had not been able to extricate itself from it.

“The 1992 Constitution is a lite version of the 1964 Constitution and the main difference is that the former allows for multi-party elections and after that the victorious party governs like a one-party State.

Dr Amu Darko mentioned notable among the flaws as “No Vice-President in the 1960s.  Now there is a Vice-President, but he is as good as non-existent; the President can no longer sack Supreme Court judges but can still get a desired outcome by packing the Court with its handpicked judges; the President can appoint as many Ministers as he deems fit.

“The President can create as many regions and districts as he deems it; a President wins 50.1 per cent of votes and he gets 100 per cent of power.  The voice of 49.9 per cent of Ghanaians does not matter; the President appoints all regional ministers and district chief executives including regions and districts in which he polled absolute minority of votes.

“The President appoints the whole Electoral Commission, which then has constitutional power to determine the size of our Parliament.  An un-elected body and an appendage of the Executive decides how our people should be represented.

“A President then and now can say ’yentie obiaa’ and nothing happens; a President can receive a WhatsApp call from a foreign President and accept terror suspects with no recourse to Parliament and with no paper signed.  Yes, he is equal to the State.”

Dr Amu Darko said: “Nothing has changed in our country” and therefore urged Ghanaians with conscience and courage to stand up and say enough is enough.”

“We demand a fair State now! We demand self-government now! And anything short of a government of the people, by the people and for the people is slavery and we reject it,” he said.

“Thankfully, this year will be 60 years since the 1956 elections which birthed the present system.  60 years is the retirement age in Ghana, so let us retire this failed system.  This year elections will not be between party A and B or C, it will be between systems of government – the old dysfunctional system and the new system of hope represented by ARM.  It will be hope vs hopeless.”


SOURCE:GNA