Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has stated that, in the Executive arm of government’s quest to make, January 7 a national public holiday, the President must guarantee that the day stays in Ghana’s statute books to enable the Ghanaian citizen abide with.
According to Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzie-Simpson, there is a viable reason to celebrate the day, impelling the country to use the day for critical introspection of the constitutional progress in Ghana, adding that, the day should be honoured as just another public holiday but must be a favorable opportunity shortly after the last year and before the current year goes through for introspection
Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzie-Simpson uttered these words as the speaker of the maiden edition of Constitution Day Public lecture at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Accra
The New Patriotic Party(NPP) government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo submitted a bill to Parliament soliciting the amendment Public Holidays Act 2001 (Act 601), and instating 7th January Constitution Day as a public holiday, reiterating that, January 7, 1993, earmarked the the commemorating 1992 Constitution for the Fourth Republic, after its approbation at a Referendum held on April 28, 1992.
The Constitutional Day Public Lecture was tagged under the theme, “Constitutionalism in Ghana’s Fourth Republic; Towards Functional Performance” and the objective of acknowledging the country’s collective efforts at ensuring that the tenets of democracy, rule of law and and principles of constitutionalism are upheld.
Recounting the period of indeterminate length or years when Ghanaians were regulated by arbitrariness and oppression, he indicated that the Constitution day has become necessary for Ghanaians to continuously remind themselves of how far they have come as a nation and how they are continuously building on constitutional governance.
Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzie-Simpson urged his Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo ponder over it not only institutionalizing it, as he’s accomplished with the aid of Parliament but making it a significant holiday, suggesting that, constitutionalism goes beyond the existence of written constitutionalism.
By: Gerrard-Israel
