Wa, May 21, GNA - Mr. Abdul-Shakur Saeed, an Assistant State Attorney in the Upper West region, has appealed to the government to empower the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) to carry out its constitutional mandate effectively by increasing its budget. He said the NCCE appeared to be the poorest organization in the country, to the extent that some regions did not even have a working vehicle to enable the staff perform their duties. "A constitutional body like the NCCE should not be allowed to be in such a situation. If we do not empower the NCCE our society will continue to grope in the dark".

Mr. Saeed said this when he spoke on "poverty - a threat to constitutionalism and multi party democracy in Ghana" in a lecture to mark constitution week celebration. He said poverty was a destabilizing factor in many parts of the country because a person who was well cushioned to enjoy life would not give himself up for recruitment to fight for a cause that did not directly affect him.

"Where there are unemployed youth the potential for violent conflicts exist".

Mr. Saeed condemned the 'winner takes all" mentality in the country's political system and called for the institution of measures to eradicate it, saying unless it was abandoned, the nation would one day regret for it. "My opponent must fast for eight years because I am in power is not good for the nation", he said. Touching on corruption, he said it was very difficult to prove corruption beyond reasonable doubt in court under the Criminal Offences Act. This, he said, was the reason behind the resort to the use of the "Law of causing financial loss to the State" to prosecute public figures who have been accused of corrupt practices. 21 May 10