The operations of the leadership of NAGRAT have become extremely concerning. The cartel of leaders that has been formed from the supposed constitution is so manifest that no critically minded member should gloss over.
The nature and quality of leadership has a direct bearing on the conditions of service and welfare of members. However, this reality appears to be lost on members. Members are not bothered about the nature of the NAGRAT constitution nor the quality of leaders who are elected but ironically expect to enjoy better conditions of service.
On the Bolgatanga Zone whatsApp platform, the zonal chairman has posted the amended constitution that was adopted four (4) years ago at the national delegates’ conference. And typical of NAGRAT members, nobody has commented on it and most likely majority have not even opened the document. But a careful reading of the constitution raises a number of questions:
1. Who were the proponents of the amendments, elected officers or ordinary members?
2. What were the nature of the amendments, bottom-up or top-down?
3. Did the ordinary members participate in this process, if yes, how?
4. Who were the participants at the national conference that adopted this new constitution?
It is very obvious that the major objective of the new constitution is to insulate elected officers against competitive elections and alienate majority of NAGRAT members from the democratic process. Leadership opened up the union to attract more membership. The membership of NAGRAT now covers all public pre-tertiary and PRIVATE pre-tertiary institutions including non-formal education institutions. This means more revenue will be generated from dues as the membership increases.
However, the majority of members will not be able to contest for leadership positions in the association. This has been carefully reinforced by introducing circuit representatives at the circuit level. The introduction of the circuit level constructively debars the school representatives from contesting zonal elections.
It is interesting to note that the zonal council is made of four (4) zonal officers and the circuit representatives plus national and regional officers from the zone and the immediate past zonal chairman if still in active service. By implication, only zonal officers and circuit representative qualify to contest zonal elections. Not only are ordinary members debarred from contesting but even school representatives are also debarred from contesting zonal elections. Is this not intriguing?
Is it not rather ridiculous that all the school representatives who are not members of the zonal council, will be members of the zonal delegates’ conference to elect the zonal officers? In effect, the school representatives will choose our leaders among the zonal officers (whether effective or ineffective) and circuit representatives. The leaders have carefully designed the electoral system in the form of a PYRAMID.
I guess you are not doubting what you are hearing? Do you know that the circuit representatives cannot contest for any regional level positions? The regional council is made up of the regional officers, zonal officers, national officers from the region and the immediate past regional chairman if still in active service. The circuit representatives are not members of the regional council and are therefore ineligible to contest the regional level elections. However, the membership of the regional delegates’ conference is made up of the regional council and five (5) elected members from each zone.
One does not know how the five (5) members from each zone will be elected. One can logically deduce that the zonal officers will select the five (5) members from the school representatives and circuit representatives. It is worth noting that the national officers will take part in the election of the regional officers of their home region. Also, the regional officers are qualified to contest for national offices but interestingly the zonal officers are estopped from contesting for national offices. Article 6(iii) of the constitution states that “A member seeking election to an Office shall be a member of the RESPECTIVE council at the time of filing nomination”. Do not mistake this for a scene from a Cantata series.
The most bizarre part of this cartel is that an officer who loses an election is not qualified for re-election even if the officer served for only one term. That officer must go back to the school level and start climbing the ladder. So, officers who do not find favor with the system are muzzled out through the elections. That is the level of absurdity of the NAGRAT constitution. And this has played out well because all such officers have remained quiet about this injustice. Whatever the reasons for which these former officers are unable to speak out, no one can tell.
While NAGRAT is departing significantly from the reasons for which it was birthed from GNAT, GNAT is focused on democratizing. For instance, Bolgatanga GNAT will be holding its District Conference on 28th May, 2025 to elect its officers.
Members interested in contesting the positions have been asked to complete and submit their nomination forms. No member is barred from contesting for any office. Conversely, in NAGRAT, our leaders are busy enacting laws that will rather entrench their positions. In NAGRAT, only circuit representatives are eligible for zonal elections; only zonal officers are eligible for regional elections and only regional officers are eligible for national elections.
How does one elective office become the requirement for contesting another elective office? This is not only absurd but it is also not consistent with Article 42 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana. By the logic of NAGRAT leaders, paradoxically, only unit committee members can contest assembly elections; only assembly members can contest parliamentary elections and only members of parliament are qualified to stand for presidential elections.
Members should be able to hold our elected officers accountable and that is only possible with a fair and just constitution, a constitution that is in tandem with the dictates of constitutionalism. A constitution that protects elected officers from competitive elections cannot serve the greater good of members. Members must be keen on the amendment of the constitution and demand for one that serves the interest of all members and not a select few.
All members should have a fair and equal chance of contesting for leadership positions.
The NAGRAT constitution is not fit for purpose.
#SaveNagratNow
#AmendtheNAGRATConstitutionNOW
Concerned Members
0246521789/0209424100/0248824845
