A seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jr., has advocated for a reevaluation of the autonomy of constitutional institutions within the nation.
Speaking during a public forum on Thursday, hosted by Arise Ghana, the Pan Africanist emphasized that constitutional bodies, including the Electoral Commission, Bank of Ghana, and National Commission for Civic Education, should operate in alignment with the desires of the Ghanaian populace.
For this reason, he noted that “their independence does not matter. Their independence does not give them powers above those that express in the sovereignty of Ghana.”
In everything we do, he continued, the will of the people matters, not the interests of some elites.
“We elect a government, the leader of that government then decides to appoint somebody to go to the BoG to serve the interest of the people of Ghana and all of a sudden, we are told that those who were elected and mandated by the people of Ghana cannot tell the Governor what to do? What nonsense is that?
“This absolute nonsense of the independence of the Bank of Ghana and his governor and so on must be thrown into the dustbin. It has no relevance to us,” he said angrily.
This statement coincides with the recent demand by the Minority for the resignation of Dr. Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), along with his two deputies, due to issues of insolvency and mismanagement within the bank.
Mr. Pratt suggests that the current situation at the central bank is merely an outward sign of a more fundamental underlying issue.
“So much has been said about the conditions in which all of us as Ghanaians find ourselves today and the conditions are dire. If we fail to do something now – today, this time all of us are going down so we need to see this as an emergency,” he said.
“The statistics have been thrown at us, we know that today, we need 128% of total national revenue to repay debt, to pay interest on debt and pay public sector workers. What else paints the picture of the situation in which we find ourselves today? We are in debt – broke. When we repay debt, service debt and pay public sector workers, we cannot buy a bottle of water – that is the state of the Ghanaian economy,” he posited.
The forum was on the theme; “The collapse of Bank of Ghana; a classical case of reckless leadership.”