NCCE endorses Constitution Day, but group says it’s meaningless

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is urging Ghanaians to ensure that provisions in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana are made part and parcel of their daily lives as it endorses the marking of 7th January as Constitution Day by the state.

The Constitution Day is to commemorate the commencement of the 4th Republic, which maiden edition is being commemorated  on the theme “Constitutionalism in Ghana’s Fourth Republic: Towards Functional Performance”.

As this year marks the 27 years since the coming into being of the 4th Republican constitution, the NCCE urged all well-meaning citizens of Ghana to participate actively in the celebration to contribute to consolidating Ghana’s democracy.

“As we celebrate the first Constitution Day holiday, the NCCE calls all citizens to make the study and application of provisions of the constitution part of our daily lives. It is then that we can be seen to be upholding constitutionalism in Ghana.” The NCCE said this in a statement signed by the Chairman of the Commission Mrs. Josephine Nkrumah on Monday.

The Commission remarked that as an institution mandated to promote constitutional democracy, it has since 2001 engaged Ghanaians through its Annual Constitution Week (28th April to 4th May) to commemorate the acceptance of the 1992 Constitution through a

referendum and Ghana’s return to constitutional rule.

The Annual Constitution Week provides the platform where the NCCE reminds Ghanaians that having opted for constitutional democracy as the preferred choice of government; the 1992 Constitution binds Ghanaians together as a people and guarantees their rights, freedoms and aspirations.

“The NCCE further urges all Ghanaians to reflect on how far we have come in our democratic journey, assess our challenges and live up to our rights and responsibilities as citizens of Ghana; and strengthen our resolve to protect our national stability, peace, unity, cohesion and our constitutional order.”

Meanwhile, the Revisionist Resistance Movement (RRM) has argued that setting aside 7th January as Constitution Day is “without merit and at best meaningless, a distortion of history and  pollution to the fertile minds of our youth”.

It’s Convener Bernard Mornah, who is also the National Chairman of an Nkrumaist party, People’s National Convention, said substituting the July 1 Republic Day holiday with the Constitution Day “smacks of dishonesty, it is disingenuous,  disservice to the good people of Ghana and bastardizes our self worth as a people”.

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