11 November 2009
editorial
A deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, told a meeting of journalists in Accra yesterday, that although the issue about elections of District Chief Executives (DCEs) came up during consultation meetings on decentralisation reforms in eight regions, no concrete decision has been taken. As a result, a special panel has been set up to study the issue.
"The jury is out, and we are still consulting the people. We don't want to pre-empt what is going to happen," he said in response to a question as to whether the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government would support the idea that DCEs should be elected.
According to him, the fifteen political parties in the country, including the incumbent NDC and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), would fully participate in the discourse.
According to him, the government was aiming at multi-partisan consensus on the issue, so that the reforms would be generally accepted by all stakeholders and implemented, irrespective of the political tradition in power, so that the country would reflect on the changing national and international socio-economic, technological and political environment, and the implications for local level development.
The Chronicle has for sometime now been advocating for a national policy that must be pursued, irrespective of the political tradition in power.
We have been advocating for this, because of the way political parties and their successive governments keep changing policies and programmes initiated by their predecessors, to the disadvantage of the entire country.
A typical example, is the recent decision by the NDC government to reverse the Senior High School (SHC) duration from four years to three. Earlier, in 2001, the Kufuor government also decided to change the Vision 2020, initiated by the Rawlings government, to Vision 2015.
Surely, this is not a healthy development for the country, and we are therefore compelled to agree with the Ministry of Local Government's decision to engage all political parties in a discourse about the new reforms that are being initiated in the sector.
But, as we rightly pointed out in this very column sometime back, whatever decision that is taken at the end of the discourse, would not be legally binding on the political parties.
In fact, nobody can fault any section of stakeholders if they decide to ignore what had been agreed upon, after their political party assumes power. The Chronicle is, therefore, suggesting that the final decision and documentation made by the stakeholders should be defined within a legal framework, to make its implementation binding on every government.
Otherwise, the holding of workshops and seminars to develop policies and programmes would be in vain, since the same old story would be revisited, when a new government takes over from the NDC government.
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