Former Senior United Nations Governance Advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah says the advisory role of the Council of State is somewhat nebulous and redundant.
According to him, taking into consideration the fact that often Presidents have appointed special advisors to advise them on various issues, the role of the Council in that light becomes tenuous.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said, “What is the real mandate of the Council? In essence to provide advice to the President; and as the constitution requires, certain nominees of the President should go to the Council for ratification, so to speak. These are the two key functions.
“Take the advice, a President of this Republic can invite you Evans, anybody, out of the 33 million people we have for advice. So having a body constituted with a whole bureaucracy and secretariat maintained over years just to provide you advice, I’m kind of curious about that.”
He added that “Second, the President besides the Council of State also appoints special advisors that he thinks are necessary for him. So we have the senior advisor advising him on economic affairs, whatever advisory position that he wants to create, he does. So when you look at it then the role of this Council is in a way is nebulous. It’s redundant, so to speak.”