Ghana’s second Independence moment: Why citizens must engage in constitutional reform

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana is the longest-lasting constitutional order since independence. For the 34 years during which the Constitution has been in force, it has fostered a rigid two-party political competition that has accommodated ethno-regional and religious cleavages, enabling a stable system of regular elections, largely peaceful turnover of governments, and peaceful coexistence. Unfortunately, it has not been enough to engender inclusive and sustained welfare benefits for the majority of Ghanaians, particularly the millions of unemployed youth, who feel despondent in the face of an uncertain future.

Worse still, all signs indicate even further decline without a significant change of course. The ongoing process to reform the 1992 Constitution offers a pathway to recalibrate incentives, institutions and the general power arrangement to facilitate a sharper focus on political and socio-economic transformation that will enable life-changing and meaningful development. This is especially true if the process is undertaken with the seriousness, sincerity and credibility that is a prerequisite for a transformation project on a national scale.

A credible and successful constitutional reform can only succeed if citizens seize this moment as an opportunity to free themselves from the oppression of highly polarized and transactional partisan politics that paralyzes leadership, processes and institutions for only one objective: the perpetuation of power for personal and group material gain, even to the detriment of the survival of the democratic order itself. Citizens must see this project as their second independence moment. Citizens are tired of the indignity of servitude to hyper partisan politics and processes A couple of weeks ago, heavy rainfall in Accra caused widespread chaos and loss of property and life across many communities.

Emmanuel Ameyaw, writing in the Daily Graphic on May 29, 2026, on the perennial flooding in Accra, captures the dysfunctional system we have created and the causes of our problem. “Dark clouds gather, heavy rain falls for a few hours, roads disappear under water, homes and shops are submerged, traffic grinds to a halt, and lives are lost. Politicians issue condolences, city authorities promise action, and then, somehow, we move on, until the next flood.

But Accra’s flooding problem is no longer a natural disaster.