“THE PRESIDENT WOULD NOT DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY,NOT EVEN A REGIONAL EMERGENCY” – DR.ISHMAEL NORMAN

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr Ishmael Norman, has said there are several technicalities involved in the declaration of a state of emergency in Ghana and added that the President is not going to declare a state of emergency, not even a regional state of emergency over the flood disaster that was caused by the spillage of the Akosombo Dam.

Dr Norman said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Wednesday, October 18 when asked if he supports the callings on the president to declare a state of emergency due to the level of destruction caused by the Akosombo Dam spillage “Of course but the president won’t do it. Going by his history, during Covid he didn’t use the Emergency Powers Act of 1994 Act 471, and Article  31 of the 1992 Constitution.

“The reason why he wouldn’t declare a state of emergency, even a regional state of emergency is because it entails a lot. You remember that used Executive Instrument 61 when it started and then 10 (12) of 2020 to declare a health emergency, not even a state of emergency but the health emergency meaning other considerations were not important even though the Covid situation was a massive disruption to activities everywhere.

“In this situation with spillage and flooding he is not going to declare a state of emergency, not even a regional state of emergency, he will come out with an executive instrument that will allow him to perform without reporting to  Parliament because the modalities for the state of emergency are very technical, and our president doesn’t like to control by the laws too much.”

He added “If you declare a state of emergency it allows the government to allocate a lot of resources to confront and tackle the emergency, so if the government is dedicated to solving this problem then the wisest thing to do will be a declaration of a regional state of emergency because it has not become a national issue yet.

“The spillage and flooding subsequent, have not become overwhelming that the country cannot handle or the region can’t handle it, this is an isolated case, maybe 9 districts or even 12 affected, but that is still not overwhelming but in order to declare a regional state of emergency the president will have to go to parliament, report to the parliament of what has happened and follow the modalities as listed under Article 31.”

HISTORY

Several calls have been made to the president to declare a state of emergency in the areas affected by the flood from the Akosombo Dam spillage.

For instance, former President John Dramani Mahama said it was clear that the scope and scale of the flooding of communities along the Volta River was bigger than “our crippled economy can bear.” and went on to reccommend to Government to declare a State of Emergency in the affected areas and request relief assistance from our bilateral and multilateral partners immediately. he wrote on Facebook.

Former Health Minister Alex Segbefia also asked the president to declare a state of emergency in the areas.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) also backed calls for a state of emergency to be declared.

GNAT said the state of emergency would ensure public safety and maintenance of law and order.

Some communities including Mepe and Battor all in the North Tongu Constituency have been severely hit by the flood as the Volta River Authority (VRA) also states that the Spillage of water from the Akosombo dam is expected to continue until the excess inflows in the lake reduces.