Constitutional reform or lost legacy? CPCR presses president to deliver
A coalition representing nearly 80 citizen, professional, and academic organizations has delivered an urgent message to the President: the window for meaningful constitutional reform is open, it will not stay open indefinitely, and the country has already squandered two previous opportunities to walk through it.
The Citizens Platform on Constitutional Reform stepped forward at a press conference in Accra on March 16 to call for the immediate establishment of a Constitutional Review Implementation Committee, a body they argue is essential to converting the work already done by the Constitution Review Committee into actual, lasting change rather than another chapter of well-intentioned effort that goes nowhere.
The Platform’s Chairperson, Professor Akosua Darkwah, was unsparing in her framing of what is at stake, drawing a direct line from the failed reform efforts of 2011–2012 and 2019 to the risk of repeating history if the government fails to act decisively now.
“The implementation committee must not become another deliberative body that reopens debates already settled by the Constitution Review Committee,” Prof. Darkwah said. “Rather, it should focus on translating the CRC’s recommendations into action, coordinating the reform process and building consensus among stakeholders to ensure progress.”
The proposed Constitutional Review Implementation Committee, as the CPCR envisions it, would bring together broad representation from civil society, academia, professional bodies, and political actors, a composition designed to ensure the process carries legitimacy and commands the kind of cross-sectoral buy-in that previous attempts conspicuously lacked.
But structural design alone will not be enough. The coalition is equally insistent on transparency, calling on the government to publish the full report of the Constitution Review Committee without delay, so that citizens can engage independently with its findings rather than having their participation filtered through a government position paper that may or may not accurately represent what the committee actually recommended.
“Citizens must have the opportunity to independently examine the committee’s proposals and engage constructively with the reform process,” Prof. Darkwah emphasized, a point the Platform underscored with a pointed caution: the government’s proposed position paper should not be used as a mechanism for sitting on the CRC report.
The shadow of the Fiadjoe Commission hangs over this conversation. The White Paper issued in the wake of that commission’s 2011 report, the CPCR noted, contributed directly to the stagnation of reforms and the erosion of public enthusiasm for a process that had generated genuine momentum. That is a precedent the coalition is determined to avoid repeating.
Time, the Platform warned, is a factor that is being underestimated. The procedures required to amend constitutional provisions are complex and lengthy. The political calendar is tightening, with the 2026–2027 election cycle already beginning to cast its shadow over the legislative and policy space. Every month without a clear roadmap and an operational implementation committee is a month the reform agenda cannot recover.
For the sitting president, the CPCR framed the moment in terms of legacy as well as urgency, noting that completing the current reform process would mark a historic achievement that no previous administration has managed to deliver.
The coalition’s message is not adversarial. It is a call to leadership, asking the President to take ownership of a process that civil society, academia, and professional organizations have been monitoring closely and are ready to support. What they need now is a clear signal that the government intends to do more than acknowledge the CRC’s work. They need action.
Ghana has been here before and turned back. The CPCR is asking that this time, it does not.
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