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Ajoa Yeboah-Afari
Ajoa Yeboah-Afari

An unfinished business, and a theme to ponder

It is interesting that to mark the 25th anniversary of the birth of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the National Commission for Civic Education has given this year’s Constitutional Week the significant theme, ‘ Restoring the Ghanaian identity:  Our values, our passion’.

I agree that, as is implied, it’s time to take a good look at ourselves, time to go back to basics.

However, the Week, aimed at educating people about the national Constitution, also prompts the question: what has happened to the implementation of the recommendations from the review of the Constitution?

Doubtless some people have forgotten that there was an exercise by a Constitution Review Commission (CRC) to evaluate how the Constitution had performed in practice and whether any amendments were needed. The CRC, chaired by Emeritus Professor Albert K. Fiadjoe, was established by President John Evans Atta Mills in January, 2010.

Following the completion of the work of the CRC, a Constitution Review Implementation Committee (CRIC), headed by Professor E.V. O. Dankwa, was inaugurated in October, 2012. That was under the watch of President John Mahama, after the death of President Mills in July, 2012. Evidently the task of the CRIC was to act on the Government’s White Paper on the report of the CRC.

But did the CRIC finish its assignment? Or is the media to blame for not doing a follow-up to update the public?

Anyhow, a week ago, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education, Josephine Nkrumah, reportedly touched on the matter when she launched this year’s Constitution Week. She used the opportunity of the occasion to urge the Government to advance the work done by the CRC.

She noted that after its nationwide consultations, the CRC had presented a report to the Government regarding amendments to certain provisions of the Constitution, adding:  “Unfortunately, the work did not progress beyond the recommendations of the Constitution Review and Implementation Committee.”

Ms Nkrumah deserves commendation for reminding the nation about the serious unfinished business of the CRC–CRIC.

So, echoing the NCCE’s concern, I ask: what happened with the recommendations? Or has the CRIC finished its work unknown to us?

Anyway, as indicated, I find the theme for the 2017 Constitution Week very thought-provoking. Media reports also list as part of the activities, “programmes like Citizenship Week, engagement with security agencies, e-Constitution, quiz competitions in second cycle schools and piloting of a national dialogue on the theme”. 

Unfortunately, there was no indication about the timetable for the events. That has set me wondering whether the NCCE has enough time to achieve all on its tall list, even if what it has announced is a year-long programme that will last till the 2018 Constitution Week.

Furthermore, although the theme sounds very inspiring, one wonders whether the triple-pronged topic will be easily understood by all, especially the youth a principal target of the NCCE.

I don’t envy anybody given the task of translating this theme into a Ghanaian language, or explaining it! I would have thought that it would have been better for the NCCE to choose a simpler, ‘people-friendly’ subject or stick to the main theme, ‘Restoring the Ghanaian identity’.

Even then, before coming to the thorny subject of “our values”, I think that in our present circumstances, defining the Ghanaian identity alone would give anybody assigned that task a monumental headache, no matter how brilliant they may be.

Do we know our identity? And that’s just the definition, for starters!

After that, they would have to determine just when and why ‘it’ went missing, before trying to come to an agreement as to how to restore it.   

Obviously today’s world is a ‘mix and match’ one. Every country copies from other cultures, people and places.

However, the fear is that we’re being swamped by other cultures; that things Ghanaian, are not appreciated, especially by our youth. In the rush to be seen as modern, blind copying is the order of the day.

Undeniably, there is cause for worry. And one doesn’t have to look far. Take the vanishing traditional courtesies – which among some of our ethnic groups include greetings and their appropriate responses for every time of the day, and even relevant to the relationship between greeter and greeted. 

Another example is that these days, increasingly, a basic custom unfortunately disappearing from our lives, is the practice of saying ‘thank you’ the day after a gift or assistance.

Of course everyone says ‘thank you’ on the spot to a helper or benefactor, but I believe the customary teaching in many parts of Ghana which we seem to have thrown away, is that you express your appreciation again the day after, usually in the morning, to underscore your gratitude.

Again, how many of the present generation can read and write in their mother tongue? How many know how to narrate an amanneє on arrival at a place when asked the reason for the visit?

Even with Ghanaian food, traditional cuisine may be losing out to the ‘take-away’ invasion. Youngsters know chips and French fries, but ‘koliko’ (fried cocoyam) would certainly be Greek to them!

Yet, even our 10-year olds have no problem understanding the highly sophisticated language of the cartoons they watch on TV. They can sort out the intricacies of a mobile phone, or the latest ICT gadget applications, whereas some people understand ‘application’ only as a noun meaning a letter seeking employment.  

We seem to have advanced a lot in some respects, notably academically, and are able to rub shoulders with any group in the world. But in other things we seem to have lost a lot that we need to retain.

It’s time to go back to basics! The problem is, how many at present know ‘the basics’ of Ghanaian culture to teach those who need to be taught?

So I wonder which Ghanaian “identity” or “values” the NCCE intends to restore. Equally importantly, what, or which, “passion”?

Nevertheless, the quarter century mark of the implementation of the national Constitution is a good point to ask ourselves certain questions or, rather, to seek answers to some issues which have been pending for years.

 

I just wish the NCCE had put its theme in simpler language so that other concerned people could understand it better and join the crusade. 

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