The three most powerful in Ghana – the President of the Republic, the Vice-President and the Speaker of Parliament – are all currently out of the country.
President John Dramani Mahama is out of the jurisdiction to attend to other obligations under the African Union; Vice President Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman is also out of the country seeking medical attention; while the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is also out of the country for an unknown reason.
This has led to a section of the public, mostly proponents of the opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), saying that the country is in a constitutional crisis because the seat of government is vacant, with the leadership of the party threatening to start impeachment proceedings against President Mahama.
They accuse the government of violating the 1992 Constitution of Ghana because nobody is heading the country per the provision of the constitution, which is unacceptable.
They argue that with the President, Vice President and the Speaker of Parliament being out of the country, the Chief Justice, per the provision of the constitution, should be the Acting President, but this is not the case because of the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
But is their argument legally sound? What do the laws of the country say about the issue at hand?
Does the Speaker of Parliament or the Chief Justice become Acting President when both the president and the vice president are out of the country?
Article 60:
Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution touches on the role of “the Vice President” and the “succession to the presidency.”
Here are the exact words of Article 60 on the matter at hand:
“(8) Whenever the President is absent from Ghana or is for any other reason unable to perform the functions of his office, the Vice President shall perform the functions of the President until the President returns or is able to perform his functions.
“(9) The Vice President shall, before commencing to perform the functions of the President under clause (6) of this article, take and subscribe the oath set out in the Second Schedule to this Constitution in relation to the office of President.
“(10) The Vice President shall, upon assuming office as President under clause (6) of this article, nominate a person to the office of Vice-President subject to approval by Parliament,” parts of the article read.
From the sections of Article 60 listed above, it is very clear what should be done when the President is out of the country or is incapacitated from performing his duties.
The provision of the article, which is, perhaps, causing the headache at hand, is Article 60(11).
This article states that “Where the President and the Vice President are both unable to perform the functions of the President, the Speaker of Parliament shall perform those functions until the President or the Vice President is able to perform those functions or a new President assumes office, as the case may be.”
The challenge of this provision is whether the phrase “unable to perform the functions” includes the Vice President and the President being out of the country.
Article 60(8) states that when the President is “absent from Ghana or is for any other reason unable to perform the functions of his office,” the Vice President should be the Acting President.
The question now is whether the president and vice president’s absence from the country means that they are unable to perform their duties, which brings in the question of the Speaker of Parliament acting as Acting President.
Despite the confusion highlighted above, one clarity on the “succession to the presidency” is the role of the Chief Justice. Nowhere in Article 60 is it stated that the Chief Justice should be the Acting President in the absence of the President, the Vice-President or the Speaker.
In fact, the only hint of the role of the Chief Justice is the Acting President taking the oath of the Office of the President, which is the preserve of the head of the country’s legislature, per the Second Schedule to the 1992 Constitution.
The constitution does not address a situation where the President, the Vice President and the Speaker of Parliament are all out of the country, which has opened the provisions of Article 60 to several interpretations.
Or maybe it was clear in the minds of the framers of the 1992 Constitution, the distinction between the President and/or the Vice President being out of the country and them being unable to perform their functions.
Here is what legal experts have said on the matter:
The Member of Parliament for Suame, John Darko, who is the legal counsel for the Minority Caucus of Parliament, has said that the current situation violates the provisions of Article 60.
He argues that the President, the Vice President and the Speaker of Parliament not being in the country creates a vacuum at the seat of government, blaming President John Dramani Mahama for what is happening.
Speaking in an interview with JoyNews on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, the Minority’s Legal Counsel, John Darko – Member of Parliament for Suame – called on Ghanaians to condemn the president’s actions.
He emphasised that the Minority is prepared to invoke constitutional provisions to remove President Mahama from office if necessary.
“The problem is that at the time the President was leaving, the Speaker of Parliament had already left. So, when the President chose to travel, he knew – or at the very least ought to have known – that his departure would create a vacuum and constitute a breach of the Constitution. But Emperor Mr President decided, ‘I am the President and I can do whatever I like – damn the consequences,’ and left the country.
“Is that why we voted for the President – to violate our Constitution? We will keep bringing this up, and at the appropriate time, if we must invoke the impeachment provisions, we will do so. We will not sit idly by while the Constitution entrusted to us is violated without consequences,” he said.
Prof Asare:
Renowned US-based Ghanaian lawyer and scholar, Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare, has argued that the laws on presidential succession are very clear and do not mean that the absence of the president and his vice means the Speaker should be the Acting President.
“Crucially, unlike Article 60(8), Article 60(11) drops any reference to ‘absence from Ghana.’ That omission is intentional and telling. The framers clearly distinguished between ‘absence from Ghana’ and ‘inability to perform’. The former is routine and expected. The latter is serious—death, resignation, illness, or incapacitation,” he explained.
He added, “There is no clause that says if the President and Vice-President go to Togo, the Speaker gets to play President. There is no ‘Kotoka clause’ in the Constitution. That fiction was manufactured by judicial misinterpretation; not democratic mandate.”
BAI/AE
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