This is technically the 2nd part of The Trouble with Ghana. It also sets out how the split executive system between the President and the Prime Minister will work. Your comments for further distillation of the concept will be appreciated. GOVERNING THE NEW GHANA – from a Santa State to a Corporate State I promised to expand on the Santa State in the article ‘’The Trouble with Ghana’’. I had then written this article already as some of you know. Few readers contacted me with queries about the difference between a failed and a Santa State. So for the sake of those friends and others like them who may be confused about the two states, I have edited the original text to take care of their concerns. Please be aware that the Santa State is my own creation, it does not exist in any political science or economics textbook. Who knows, at the end of the day, we may write a new political science textbook. I will describe the Santa State and its manifestation in the state machinery, the country and the nation. State – has a central government but there is an inverse relationship between the power in state institutions and that in the leader. The power of the leader increases at the expense of that of the institutions of state. This may be by design or by coercion. The end result is personification of all political authority in one leader. He becomes Santa Claus who gives sweets (jobs) and chocolates (contracts) to loyal sycophants around him. The leader behaves as if the state is his person property. The leader can call himself a ‘’Showboy”, he can go into a shoe factory and order free shoes for all school children, he can even decide to give free pads to all adolescent girls. Even the leader of the opposition can promise free education without knowing where the money will come from. The logic is that once he becomes President, he owns everything and can do whatever he likes. Country – there is no territorial problem. Moving around the country is usually unhindered and there is semblance of peace in the land. Nation – wherever Santa Claus is, there is Christmas. That is the national mood. The usual refrain is ‘’biɛ ashwɛɔ yɛ’’ to wit, this is the place for fun. Another one is ‘’abaa gbo’’ that is, life is short. Everything is trivialized. Everybody lives a life of miracles and divine breakthroughs. Spiritualists become economists influencing economic policy and divinely modulating monetary policy. When a Ghanaian says ‘’Ghana ŋɔɔ ’’, that is Ghana is sweet, he or she is saying euphemistically a Santa State is sweet. A failed state usually does not have the luxury of a central government. It is usually plagued by internal conflict with territorial annexation by armed groups and the people are split accordingly. In a typical failed state, the state machinery, the country and the nation are all broken. A failed state is primarily a political description. Economic decline and meltdown is a secondary consequence. Somalia comes to mind, Syria is another, Libya and Iraq are minutes away. Let us keep a close eye on Ukraine. Asuma Banda has joined the call for a change. According to Asuma and those rooting for the change, the President has too much power and he is not properly accountable. But where does the President get his power from? Asuma’s call though well intentioned is flawed. Our political history tells us that we had a parliamentary system Asuma is advocating at independence, but that did not curb the powers of the Prime Minister. The problem is not the title of the leader. The problem is the design of the constitution. Nkrumah as Prime Minister of Ghana, managed to introduce the obnoxious Preventative Detention Act in 1958 and repealed the regional assembly law which called for some form of devolution of power to the regions; a watered down version of federalism demanded by the opposition. Busia as Prime Minister in the Westminster-style 2nd republic defiantly shouted no court could tell him what to do, when his government lost a case in court. In other words, he was the Imperial Lord and was above the law in the land. So while superficially it may appear that the President has more powers, in practice, a Prime Minister with overwhelming majority in parliament does not have less power. In a democracy, the basic problem is poor constitutional design When you have a unitary state where every position from ministers to Speaker of Parliament to Chief Justice to Chairman of Council of State to Chief of Army to the last District Chief Executive is appointed by one person, that person regardless of his or her title, becomes equal to the State. That person then becomes Santa Claus and the state, a Santa State. Mobutu easily comes to mind with his famous ‘’l’etat c’est moi – I am the state’’. I have written a lot about the federal state and the roles of the different levels of government. What I have not articulated well is how the government (and by this I mean principally the executive arm) will organize itself and function in a practical and profitable way. We agree that by definition, Ghana is a Santa State. We also agree that by definition, a Santa State is primarily a political problem occasioned by poor constitutional design. We also agree that economic stupor and decline are secondary effects. The practical way is to correct the political malady; redesign the constitution in such a way that two critical objectives are achieved at the same time. The elected President must have enough authority to govern effectively but at the same time, must be constrained by the power of an awakened citizenry. The effect is that the state understands the needs of the nation and the two are in sync. That is my principle of augmentation of power and constraint against abuse. This should be done simultaneously with internal re-organization of the government to maximize economic gains. That is the profitable way. The profitable way is hinged on the Corporate Ghana model which envisages governing the State like a company, with its structures and functions paralleling those of a corporate body. This is another major cultural shift we need to make in addition to federalism to save the Santa State. As a matter of fact, the corporate model may even work in a unitary system. The only issue is that the basic philosophy of federalism which is sharing of power and responsibility makes it a more natural habitat for corporatism than the unitary model which gave birth to the Santa State in the first place. Below is just a quick reminder of the composition of the National Executive or Cabinet; The President The Prime Minster 5 Senior Ministers 20 other ministers In the corporate world, duties and responsibilities are well streamlined and reasonably tied to power to carry them out for maximum profits to shareholders. There are three parallel structures all interested in the success of the business: The Board – for formulation, monitoring and evaluation of policies The Management team – for day to day management and implementation’s of the Boards policies. Shareholders and their representatives. The President, the Prime Minister and the Senior Ministers will function like Board of Directors, with the President as the Chairman or Chairperson of the Board. The President may co-opt any relevant person like Governor of Bank of Ghana to a Board meeting. The Prime Minister is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and together with the rest of the ministers form the day to day management team or the cabinet. He or she reports to the Board’s Chair, the President. At the beginning of every year, the Board will meet and decide the Agenda. The President (Board Chairman) then presents it to the Cabinet, the management team for their comments. Then finally the President presents the Agenda for the year to Parliament which is the representatives of shareholders. The Board will represent the National Executive at the quarterly Council of State (CoS). The Board itself will meet every 3 months just before the CoS meets or at the instance of the President. A quorum of 4 members is required for decisions to be binding. The President will meet cabinet mid-year for evaluation and monitoring of progress on the year’s Agenda. The Prime Minster and CEO will chair the rest of cabinet meetings in the year. Cabinet will meet once in a month but the President or Prime Minister may call for an emergency meeting any time. A quorum of 50% with at least a minister from each super ministry will be required for a binding decision. Cabinet or the management team will attend Parliament once a month. The Speaker (spokesperson for the shareholders) may invite any member of the cabinet any time for questioning when necessary. The President like any Board Chairman is the Chief Hiring and Firing Officer. He reserves the right the hire and fire any member of the Executive. The President in turn will be accountable to the shareholders and their representatives that is the people and Parliament. These are some of the structural and functional changes we need to make for transition from a Santa State to a Corporate State, and to moderate the power of Father Christmas. This is not the time for cosmetic imitation of other systems which are struggling themselves. The world can also learn from us. Tswa omanye aba.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 07:49:01 +0000
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